Welcome to the trust deed forum LauraHigg.

Could you confirm whether the £500 sum was paid?

Thank You!

No I didn't pay it as I was told that I had untilt he end of the TD to pay it.

Hi again LauraHigg.

At this stage I'd suggest that you write formally to the trust deed company now handling your case confirming the information that was presented to you verbally, including the option for the £500 to be paid at any stage prior to the end of the trust deed.

Best to wait to see what the response says; please let us know.

How much was the property valued at last year?

How much was owed on the mortgage at the time?

It may well have been a smart move to organise getting your own valuation done. There cannot be many properties that have increased in value by £15000 over the past year.

Thanks for the advice I think I will write to the company because I don't seem to be getting anywhere on the phone.

The house was valued at £59k last year and now they've valued it at £70k. My redemption figure last month was £55k but the girl that had taken over my case told me that there was no redemption figure back in March last year so I'm not quite sure how they worked out the equity at that point. I assume they just went on the fact that I'd only just recently bought the house so they knew my mortgage couldn't have come down any.

I will let you know how the valuation goes tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Sorry it was actually valued at £57k last year. £59k was what I paid for it in 2006.

I just read on another post

"3 - If there is no equity, and the client complies with the terms of the trust deed, that will be the end of it. There will be no further valuation later (and they wont asked for £500 for this as a few other companies seem to still)."

Is that only certain companies that will deal in that way?

Hi.

Some companies charge £500 for what is sometimes called "protecting the equity" or similar (where there is no equity at the start). Some companies do this without the £500 fee.

We always advise people to get all of this in writing before signing anything so that the sorts of problems and misunderstandings that sadly are happening for you can be avoided.

laura what company are you with? we are in the same situation almost. we are thinking of handing our keys over and renting. because of our companys bad management we are in this sitauation. its awful something has to be done. good luck hope you can get something sorted

Hi Annmarie it's Invocas in Glasgow I'm with. I just don't want to have to start over again. I thought the point of signing a trust deed was to help us out of debt not get us into even more debt! They keep saying a 3rd party can pay off the equity. Don't you think if I had a 3rd party with that kind of money they would've just paid my debt off in the first place?

I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow with my 2nd survey.

Hope everything works out ok for you too Annemarie!

so true! we are more stressed now than we have ever been. we are with wilson andrews in glasgow. we are supposed to be paying off the equity for another 33 months no way. othese companys are playing with familys lifes here, there are not bothered at all what they are doing.

Hi annmarie.

That's a strong statement and, as you have named the company concerned, I'm going to add some balancing information based upon the contents of your previous threads.

This isn't in any way to dispute your story or your very considerable frustrations. It's just so that other readers can weigh up the scenario with a bit more information which I think is important given the strong nature of your comments about a named firm.

You dispute the valuation of your property that this trust deed provider has obtained. There seems to be no dispute that they used a properly qualified professional surveyor to obtain the valuation. This valuation has resulted in you being asked to make a contribution in lieu of the equity that they believe to be in your home. If there is equity in the property that would be the correct thing to happen and is in accordance with the trust deed that you signed. There is a difference of opinion between that surveyor and one that you have used.

You have contacted the Financial Ombudsman about this matter. You report that they have identified "bad management" but you also state that they said "in theory they haven't done anything legally wrong". Following this you were looking into other possible avenues of complaint.

Hi LauraHigg.

Please let us know what response you get to the letter you're going to send and also what the valuation you obtain says.

The position should be a lot clearer once you get a response to that letter.

To other readers of this thread I just want to point out that the whole situation regarding equity need not be a massive problem if everything is dealt with properly before signing the trust deed. It's really important to get, in writing, details of exactly how any equity will be dealt with (or what will happen if there is no equity) before you sign the trust deed. If you think that there will be equity in your home don't sign a trust deed unless you have a clear idea about how you will eventually pay that over. If there is an amount of equity that you will simply not be able to pay over you may wish to consider other options including the debt arrangement scheme rather than a trust deed.

I am totally kicking myself for not getting it in writing TDA but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The girl i dealt with before was just no nice and telling me everything would be fine. I just feel so stupid now for being so niaive and not getting them to confirm it all in writing!

Hi LauraHigg.

Please don't feel stupid in any way, you've acted on the information given to you which in the circumstances is natural.

I just wanted to add that to help others in the future avoid finding themselves having to deal with similar issues.