Welcome to the forum loulou.

You are correct that releasing equity from a property by way of additional borrowing may have been easier six or more years ago. However I'm not sure many people envisaged that lending conditions could have changed quite so much as they have done so.

The issue is that your husband's trustee is obligated to deal with the equity that has been assessed in the property one way or another to help repay his creditors.

There might be the possibility of some kind of a deal to resolve this if someone could assist you with a lump sum. Is there anyone in your family (for example) that might be able and willing to offer a lump sum to try to resolve this?

Has your Trustee carried out a recent valuation of the property? It is certainly possible that the value of the property may have dropped since the date of signing the Trust Deed.

If you are unable to re-mortgage, or produce the required equity by some other means, then the option available to the trustee is to petition for sequestration and subsequently attempt to enforce the sale of the property.

I say that not to scare you but as a prelude to advising that as a result of the above and the costs that would be incurred by the trustee in such actions, it is entirely feasible that an arrangement can be reached.

First things first though, make sure you get a current redemption statement from your secured lenders including any early redemption penalties together with ensuring the Trustee is utilising a recent valuation. If he isn't it may well be worth the £100-£150 cost to have your own valuation carried out.

We had to send our annual mortgage statement to the trustee in January as they were looking to tie things up, so this is not unexpected. We probably could get together £8,000 over the next 3 months. The letter says that one option would be to pay as a lump or a significant deposit and monthly payments until the balance is paid. Upon receipt of the £15,000, the trustee will formally relinquish interest in our property. I'm thinking that there is no negotiation going to happen there and it's £15,000 or sequestration. Any advice as to what to reply back? When we've contacted them before they have been great and have said putting the house up for sale would be the last option!

Another example of how contingency plans should be set up but are not always viable I had to raise £ 23,000 and planned to remortgage or encash my endowment. I tried to remortgage before TD and was told no so sailed through 3 years of payments thinking my endowment was to cover it, apparently I was either misled, misinfored or simply badly advised, but no proof now that that couldn't be done. I sympathise and thankfully had great parents who were able to loan me the money to get out of the TD, but I still owe them money back 6 years 2 years after my 3 year TD finished. Yep harsh lessons learned and I can only reiterate my thanks to all who post and say again I wish I'd found you all sooner.

Don't assume that there will be no room for negotiation, loulou. Make an offer and you never know!

My husband going to contact an independent financial adviser today to see whether a loan is out of reach or not, although when we tried 3 years ago at the official end of the trust deed they wouldn't touch us, so I can't see that the situation will be any different now. Hopefully though the lump sum we offer might be enough, I can't see that they would turn that down and still go for sequestration, but maybe I'm really naive. This has been a huge learning curve, as WIKIKEE said I wish I had known about this website a long time ago.

Hi loulou and welcome,

As others have said don't assume that you can't propose an offer to your Trustee and negotiate.

Voice of Reason makes a good point regarding establishing the equity at today's date as this will provide you with a strong position to negotiate if the level of equity has reduced.

I think it's going to be extremely difficult to re-mortgage or obtain a secured loan whilst your still subject to the Trust Deed but there is no harm in running this by an IFA.

Establish what the current equity is and from this propose an offer to your Trustee.