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Originally posted by Ajscott598
[br]None. I replied yesterday so I'm hoping to get a response that will help in the next day or two. I'm getting a bit more annoyed with it all with the response I got as they don't know much. And as I said, this is the 3rd trustee. And I just got told. I haven't signed anything for these companies or anything.

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I have similar hassle with the same company. I have been in one of their Trust Deeds since 2016 and had zero paperwork sent to me bar confirmation of my protected status. All requests get ignored too, until it comes to review time where they rage an all out assault on me to get this done, but still won't answer any of my requests.

I have had an email through from the company in question as I have asked how much it would be to settle up my trust deed. I have been told that with an original debt of approximately £15,000(which I am arguing) I would need to to pay £24,000. Plus an extra 20% of the fees. Also any money I get from the house sale, the trustee takes £930 for themselves before it goes to my debt. So I'm seeing it as if I was to settle early, my, I would be paying the trustee about £13,000 on top of my debts. This does not seem right and it feels like the whole trust deed set up is more of a very high interest loan. But it's not. And it's a joke.

Hi Ajscott598.

Have you had a breakdown of how this figure has been reached?

For example, do you know how much of the extra money relates to interest being added to the debts?

Over £4,000 in interest apparently. I also have been told that the £930 is solicitors fees so the trustee can protect the income from the sale of my property. To me this reads that it isn't even going towards my debts. Is this correct?

That does sound correct Ajscott598.

It sounds like the trustee is paying solicitors to ensure they receive your share of the proceeds of this sale.

So it's not going towards my debt? A trust deed is essentially a way of people taking advantage of others in financial hardship. What a joke. None of this was ever explained to me. Well and truly mis-led. So I have something that my father left me and my trustee is keeping the money for themselves?

Hi Ajscott598.

The money is apparently going in several directions:

Around £19000 seems to be going to your creditors. This is the original debt owed plus interest you've become able to pay.

Part of the remainder will have been paid out by your trustee to others for the costs associated with administering your trust deed. For example, it looks like they're expecting to pay £930 to solicitors to protect the interests of your creditors during this property sale.

The rest of the money will be their fees. The fee will have been agreed by you, your creditors, and your trustee, when the trust deed began. You could ask them to provide you with a copy of this agreement (if you don't have it already) to check that the amount being charged is what was originally agreed. The fees can seem high when people come into a lump sum because they can be part-based on a percentage of the amount paid into a trust deed.

So it is going to my debt? Because the email I received reads as if the trustee is keeping it. And I don't see why I am paying the £930. The whole system is a joke. Its completely mis-leading. Considering when I signed it. I signed it with a debt level of less than £12,000.its now quoted at just shy of £16,000. Then add on interest at 8%. Then add fees. My original debt at the time of contacting the company was under £12,000. Now I'm at over £24,000. Its doubled. A joke. Absolute joke.

You're certainly not the first person here who has been shocked how much it costs to exit a trust deed early when they come into money.

It doesn't feel unfair to me that creditors get repaid in full and receive some of the interest that they otherwise would have expected. I'm also not sure who else should be paying the legitimate costs incurred by a trustee in this scenario? Certainly not the trustee or the creditors?

I do agree that sometimes the trustee fees seem really high in this scenario. Percentage based fees seem reasonable to me in general, but the total sum they can amount to when someone comes into money sometimes feels disproportionate.

What usually happens of course (when no lump sum materialises) is that the creditors get only part of their debt back and no interest. They also effectively pay the trustee's fees and costs - because it's money paid into the trust deed that they do not receive. The person using the trust deed benefits from debt write-off and a fresh financial start.

That is true of someone that is paying their monthly amounts throughout the whole trust. Yet I inform the company that set up my trust regarding this property and was told it wouldn't be affected or to worry about it. Yet here I am. Over 3 years in. Having already paid £4,000 into my trust to be told that it does count and I am now going to be paying over £20,000 on debts that were £12,000. Ridiculous

Obviously, I cannot defend poor advice in any way. Property owners should be fully advised about how their assets will be treated. They certainly shouldn't be advised that a property with equity can be entirely overlooked. I'm sorry to hear that you find yourself in a position of potentially having been misled.

I'm not sure if this is what's happened here, but there are lots of entirely unregulated "introducers" out there who make a living out of selling trust deeds. The risk is that they tell someone whatever it takes to get them to sign a trust deed (with a trust deed firm that pays the introducer a large fee) and then wash their hands of any consequences that arise later.

For anyone else reading this thread, you'll be better advised and protected if you only accept advice from an FCA regulated debt adviser, or from a licenced insolvency practitioner. You'll have zero protection if you accept advice from an unregulated introducer.

If for some reason you feel you must use an unregulated introducer (I have no idea what that reason might be!) ask the trustee firm every single question you had again, and run through every single concern you had again, before you sign on the dotted line. It's only their answer that counts. Anything an unregulated introducer tells you is essentially worthless.