I would suggest you try and contact one of the experts on here, I done my Trust Deed through one of them and had no issues everything he said would happen did, and 18 months on I have absolutely no regrets....

Most of the folks on here who have went with the experts will all agree that they have been excellent with their advice and support....

Hi RYB, The amount of money you pay every month is not directly related to volume of debt that you have. You are expected to pay what you can afford over 36 months and if this does not work out to be viable for the level of debt that you have, you may have to extend the term of the TD to make it viable for your creditors.

You should have a chat with one of the experts on this forum, the cccs will only advise on your options. The experts will tell you what you need to know, including what payment and many of them you will need to make for a TD to work.

Welcome to the forum RYB.

A few questions for you in connection to the mortgage and your home:

Is it a Northern Rock Together mortgage that you have?

Could you tell us how much is owing on the mortgage element of it and how much is owed on the unsecured element?

Have you included the unsecured part amongst your debt total?

How much do you believe your home to be worth? I assume it's jointly owned?

Assuming that a trust deed doesn't present a threat to your home (that's why I've asked the questions above) there is nothing in the description that you have provided that would make me think that trust deeds wouldn't be available to you.

Just to cover off one more thing (sorry to ask so many questions!) could you tell us how much of the debt total each of you personally have and how much is joint?

As already stated CCCS do not handle trust deeds themselves though I'd imagine there may be a company or companies that they refer clients to. Our advice on this forum is always to think very carefully before selecting any company (whether by referral or your own research); as this forum demonstrates, the standards of professionalism and client-care do seem to vary significantly between firms.

Hi TDA,

Yes it's Nram now we are with and was a together mortgage and have I think £114000 left on the mortgage part. The unsecured loan is included in total unsecured debt and stands at approx £29800. I expect we are also in negative equity as we bought at the height of the boom. Not sure on house value but don't expect it to be more than outstanding amount.

Joint total is £38446
My Total - £24654
Other half - £3700

All approx

Thanks for replying.

Hi again RYB.

Based upon the property being worth £114000 or less I think I agree with the CCCS analysis. Seems as though trust deeds will be available to you each and that that there is a strong case that they're appropriate to your circumstances.

I presume neither of your jobs would be affected by signing a trust deed?

Hi RYB

From the figures you've quoted, a Trust deed certainly seems to be a viable option.

The DAS would also be an option, although you would be looking at a time period in the region of 7-8 years. Certainly from the information, there would be no risk to the house or cars.

Mark

As Mark says, trust deeds or DAS may be viable options. One important thing to note is that if you both entered trust deeds then you would no longer pay the unsecured part of your together mortgage product, so your monthly payment would reduce. When you were calculating your disposable income via CCCS did you take this into account, RYB?

Hi Kevin,

Just a quick question regarding the unsecured part of a mortgage, £25 of my mortgage is for the unsecured element which I should no longer pay as it has been included within my TD. NRAM however collect both secured and unsecured payments in the same direct debit, how can I stop them from taking the unsecured part?

You may need to communicate with them directly SkintAlly to get it changed.

The issue is (or at least it used to be) that both accounts are on one account number. Even once the payment has changed it can cause issues with them writing to you saying you have mortgage arrears because they automatically allocate your new reduced payment between both accounts so that neither is paid in full.

They do have a fix for this so don't worry about it too much; it can just need a little ironing out at the start.

Thanks for that TDA, I was wondering how that would work as there was nothing to stop them form taking payment for the unsecured debt, leaving the mortgage payment short as you described. I'll ask my trustee what they want me to do.

Thanks for all your replies,

Forgot to add there is also an Inland revenue amount of £3800 to be added to that as Other half was on wrong tax code on 2nd job.

Just so I have this right, do we have to enter into seperate Trust deeds or can it be a Joint one?

What happens if one gets declined if it is seperate?

Also if we can't get protected do we have the option of a DAS or is bankrupcy the only option?

Edit- Our jobs won't be at risk if we are in a TD.

Hi again RYB.

It would be two trust deeds, albeit you could appoint the same trust deed company and everything would be set up together and be properly co-ordinated between you. It's not much different to a "joint" trust deed really.

All the major creditors have clear acceptance criteria so any decent trust deed provider should be able to reassure you up front that the prospect of your trust deeds becoming protected are very high (or point out any obvious risks if they exist).

If one of the trust deeds was declined that individual would need to take different steps. That might include the Debt Arrangement Scheme as already mentioned in the thread.

Often when trust deeds fail to become protected people will choose bankruptcy but other options like DAS also exist and may be available depending upon the precise circumstances of the case. If you read around the forum though you'll see that trust deeds failing to become protected thankfully doesn't seem to be a major issue.

Thanks for your help, we really appreciate it. We are planning to sort this out at the weekend so will have a look at the recommended companies and take it from there. I'll post back how we get on.

Thanks again you have cleared a few things up and it doesn't seem as daunting.

I think you're doing the right thing RYB by asking lots of questions, making sure you understand everything and taking a little time over any decision that you make.

The other thing I'd add, whichever company you choose if you decide to proceed, is to get advance written clarification about exactly how assets or potential assets such as your home or a car will be dealt with. That's an area where misunderstandings and miscommunication can lead to problems further down the line if everything isn't clear (for all parties).