hi trust deed assistant. yep it is a strong statement from a stressed out family. i would also like to point out that your earlier thread is so true. if the correct equity had been entered at the beginning ie defo done before signing ( thats were mine fell apart) trust deed signed then company done a valuation. everybody out there make sute you know exactly how much equity you have prior entering it.

Hi just thought I'd give you a wee update. My own valuation has came out at £65,000 which is £5k less than one carried out by the IP. I phoned the IP and they seem to be quite happy to take that figure so I feel a bit better although I still don't know where I'm going to get £10k from.

I was thinking TDA - if I decide to sell up and I have someone willing to make me an offer of £60k do you think the IP would be happy with this? There's £55k oustanding on my mortgage so they would be getting £5k out of it...?

Remember to factor in legal fees for selling the property and the home report that the vendor supplies these days. That'll knock a chunk off what you may have to pay to the trustee.

I think the first time they worked out the equity they used 2% of the value of the house as an estimate for legal fees etc. So I work that out to be £1,300 which still leaves £8,700 of equity. I'm not at all sure about these kind of things though so I'm only guessing and they're not being very helpful in advising me. They just keep saying if I don't deal with it just now I can wait until the end of the TD to deal with it! But I just need to know where I stand because I can't go on like this loosing sleep over it I'm like the walking dead!

Hi LauraHigg.

Did you write to the trust deed provider in respect of the £500 payment commitment that was made to you at the start of the trust deed?

No I haven't done this yet TDA. Do you recommend that I just go ahead and do that just now?

Hi Laura.

I cannot see any harm in requesting that the original commitment made to you is met.

Will be interesting to see what response such a letter draws.

Thanks, I will let you know what response I get.

so glad i have read all the recent posts on equity after trust deed completion. I am half way through my trust deed and it has been the worst time of my l ife !!!! wish i never entered into it[V]. i am now going to check all my paperwork as i now remember also being asked at the time when signing did i want to pay £500 to protect the equity on my house at the end of the TD by extending the TD for a further 2 months. this is sooo worrying as i dont know if i have this in writing also!!!!. i was also very naive when i entered into this at the beginning not understanding all th legal jargon that came with it. I actually find myself in a worse situation than i did a year and half ago. it all seemed a good idea at the time but i didnt research this properly!!!! more fool me!!!

I think a lot of us are in the same boat. We didn't research this properly. At the begining of my trust deed, this was the best thing since slice bread. I'd be clear of debt after 33 months and could start afresh. When asked about my equity on my house all I kept getting fopped of with was don't worry, we'll deal with that at the end of the trust deed. I personnally wished I had never entered into the trust deed as it has caused me nothing but stress and worry. It now looks like I will need to sell the family home and present to homeless with my 11 year old daughter. Not a good time at all..........

I think for some of us, signing the trust deed and getting it protected was a great relief and was the start of a period of "normality". Only later did you find out or perhaps realise what you had signed up to and the protected trust deed was not the "magic bullet" that would sort everyone's problems. The small print was left for another day.....

From my own situation I have found out more and now understand the trust deed process a lot better since I found this forum.

Hang in there tompie and keep the paper trail going with your IP, for me it's been 7 years since I put pen to paper....

I think you make some excellent points jp73.

Out of these worrying individual stories is emerging an even stronger message that anyone involved in advising on trust deeds (or any other debt solution) must start from the point of providing "advice" rather than being engaged in "selling". "Advice" partly means taking equal trouble to point out the responsibilities and drawbacks as well as the benefits of any particular option.

Working in the industry I see recruitment adverts placed by major debt solutions firms for debt advisers to join them working in their "sales teams". That message, coming from the top of some (not all) of these businesses, seems entirely inappropriate.

A quick web-search also reveals many debt help and trust deed websites that massively over-emphasise the benefits and hugely downplay the drawbacks of certain debt solutions.

The OFT have recently launched new guidance to firms in this industry that will demand high advice standards, proper customer warnings and balanced information on websites amongst other things. It's a consultation at the moment but hopefully it will be implemented and rigourously enforced very soon.

I've pointed out in other threads that individuals really should take the time to fully understand any commitment that they make before signing up. That stands, but I don't suggest for a second however that the primary responsibility for ensuring full understanding is with anyone other than the debt and trust deed advisers that people should be able to rely on.

Just saw a billboard van driving around George Square advertising trust deeds 90% of your debt written off.keep your home. no upfront fees it screamed at people.

The company doing the ad had a very similar slogan to the one this forum uses., perhaps you should check for copyright theft
No wonder people are becoming convinced a trust deed is a good solution., when companies are as brazen as this.

Reminds me of the power companies fiasco of a few years back

That pretty much sums it up peter. Thanks for sharing what you saw.

If anyone has too much spare time on their hands they may wish to compare the advert as peter describes it to the contents of the debt management guidance consultation document. I suspect advertising of trust deeds and other similar debt solutions will change substantially if this guidance passes the consultation stage.

Link is: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/OFT1338con.pdf

Advertising section starts on Page 36 of the whole document (marked as Page 24 on the document itself).