Hi goneunder.

My understanding is that you have the right to approach the Financial Ombudsman about the trust deed advice you received once you have exhausted the complaints procedure at the firm concerned.

I believe this is the case as the firm concerned should have a consumer credit licence which I think brings it under FOS jurisdiction. However, I remember someone writing here quite recently that they were having some difficulty getting FOS to accept that they should cover this area.

The more common routes to take complaints further that have been written about here are to go to the professional body of your Trustee or the Accountant in Bankruptcy that oversee the trust deed process.

I think you need to consider whether any complaint to FOS is likely to be successful and whether the outcome of a successful complaint would actually help you.

Your trust deed firm would be asked to put forward their side of the story. It will be easy enough for them to state that they made suggestions of common ways that people do raise equity as part of a trust deed, that the fact that mortgage availability has changed was out of their control, and that they are legally obligated to collect the equity one way or another because you voluntarily signed the trust deed.

My understanding is that where FOS do believe that a firm was at fault they tend to require the firm to put you back in the position you were in before the problem occurred. The issue here might be that before the problem occurred you were, presumably, in some serious financial difficulty otherwise you would not have contemplated signing a trust deed.

I'm not trying to put you off this route, you must decide what will be best for you, but I think your trust deed firm will be able to put forward some counter-arguments and I'm not sure whether FOS would necessarily consider that you have lost out financially as a result of the advice even if they found it to be at fault.

The next problem is that even if you win, your Trustee will still legally be responsible for collecting the equity in your home to help repay your creditors. In that respect, the only thing that would really help you would be if FOS ordered your trust deed firm to pay the equity amount themselves. That would be a pretty big penalty, and they (and FOS) would have plenty of arguments that this goes way beyond putting you back in the position you were in before you signed the trust deed.

The best way forwards, to me, still seems to be to try to come up with some kind of arrangement with your trust deed firm that they can justify is the best outcome available for your creditors. I fully understand that this isn't easy however, not least if the firm concerned aren't receptive to such ideas, and you have my full sympathy that you find yourself in this difficult position.

Thanks TDA
Have been under a lot of pressure with this , its worse than it was before started the TD. Just want it to end . But that doesn#t look like it will be soon.

Hi there.

A quick update on the Financial Ombudsman Service in general when you have a complaint connected to a trust deed.

One of our team went to a Financial Ombudsman seminar last week and we asked about trust deeds, insolvency practitioners and the financial ombudsman service.

The outcome (which we reached eventually!) was more complex than we or FOS probably thought at first. For a debt geek like myself I think the answer is really interesting and a little surprising. If you're interested you can read about it at:

(Blog now removed from website)

So FOS are of no use at all. Good clear explaination from them though.

Paul

It seems for most people, most of the time, the professional body of the IP is the place to go to resolve a trust deed complaint that the firm itself doesn't deal with in a way that is acceptable to you.

Hi goneunder

did you ever approach you Trustee to try and get a reduced figure agreed? (sorry if you have posted this in the past, but I can't remember!)They may be agreeable to less than the £22,000 you quoted at the beginning, and I am just trying to think of you making further contributions. The current economic slump, particularly mortgages, has been around for a few years now, and mortgages for people who do not have a first rate credit history are impossible.