Welcome to the forum Stesshead.

If your home is in negative equity then a trust deed or trust deeds should not cause an issue if you want to keep it (provided everything is done right from the start).

There's no such thing as a joint trust deed (there is a joint debt arrangement scheme) so your circumstances would be looked at as individuals to some extent rather than just as a couple. That means we'd need to know more about how the debts split up between you to pass further detailed comment in some respects. Please let us know if you can.

That also means that a trust deed probably will not be available to you. If you're a student without significant earned income you may need to look at other options; though it doesn't close the door on this being an option for your husband. It's actually quite common that each member of a couple embarks upon different ways to deal with each of their debts.

In terms of formal debt solution options like a trust deed, the debt arrangement scheme or bankruptcy, there is going to be a difficulty with maintaining a £400 per month payment to your brother in law. Other creditors will not tolerate this in almost all scenarios.

Cars worth less than £3000 will be a non-issue in a trust deed provided that there is a reasonable need to keep them.

Contributions to any debt solution will be based upon affordability. All income (including the DLA) will be considered as should all reasonable expenses be. If your expenses are unusually high with good provable justification there are ways for a case to be made to creditors in support of that situation.

You are thinking about whether to keep your current home or hand it back. That's a very personal decision so it's hard to pass further comment on it. You'll need to think about what will be best for you as a family, and then establish how that might affect any debt solution that either you or your husband is considering starting.

You really shouldn't put up with being hounded by any debt adviser. Their job is to get to the bottom of your financial and personal situation, provide balanced information on the options available to you, and then give you whatever space you need to ensure that you feel you're ready to make a decision that is right for you. If you're getting "sold to" by any source of advice I'd run a mile.

Whether you could keep the new accounts you have opened will depend upon the acceptance criteria for each account in terms of any particular debt solution you may decide upon, and also on whether the bank finds out you have started such a solution. We advise people to open up the basic bank accounts that are on offer; if your accounts came with overdraft availability you may not have basic accounts and they may be vulnerable but it's hard to say without knowing which accounts they are.

I feel as though I may have created as many questions for you as I have answered. Please continue to ask about anything you wish and we'll try to give you the information that you need.

Hi stresshead

The response from TDA is spot on. Creditors unfortunately would not allow the payment of £400 for the other loan as under a Trust Deed, this would be seen as the responsibility of your brother in law.

Also, the Trust Deed would not appear to be an option for you as you have no income source and cannot use benefits or part of your husbands income to set this up.

It's unfortunate re the online company hounding you, as TDA says, you should be able to sit with someone who will answer all your questions and then leave you to decide what best suits.

Regards

Mark

Thank-you to both of you for your replies.

Now i'm even more confused as the contact at Right Debt Solutions have told my husband that he would act as a guarantor on the trust deed for myself? Is this not true?

If not then what would be our best solution do you think?

Both my husbands employment and the line of work im studying to go into would not take lightly to bankruptcy so I feel kind of stuck again.

With regards to the debt split, jointly all we have is the mortgage and the unsecured loan attatched to it.

My unsecured debt is in the region of £26K and my husbands is approx £16. Mines is higher as when we applied for a personal loan with our bank he was refused but my credit was fine so advised me to apply (with no income of my own I may add) and I was approved.

With regards to the debt to my Brother in Law would a DAS allow us to continue paying him this debt?

With regards to the income that is assessed, it is just so confusing that if my husband was to enter a trust deed then the Child Tax Credit, DLA and Child Benefit which is received in my name would be taken into account but his wage does not get taken into account for me? I am aware that my student loan payments are not taken into account as income so I assume I would be free to use these in any way I needed to?

Thanks again think im more confused than ever now 🙁

No wonder you're stressed. I don't know how you're even able to breath with that lot in your life. You'd probably be best making an appointment for either someone to come to talk to you or for you to go to sit down with someone. More questions will keep coming and having someone there to answer them will help. I wish I'd found this site before I signed my trust deed. I'd have probably went with one of the experts on here as opposed to who I did go with. Start writing down everything you need to ask. Also write down where your money goes each month - will help when you have to discuss reasonable living costs. I can understand the additional expenses of children with additional needs. I have friends that have them and they do go through things much quicker than typical children.

Good luck with what you decide and with uni.

Hi again Stesshead.

Your husband isn't going to be able to be a "guarantor" of your trust deed in any way that I can see, frankly it seems to be a really strange piece of advice.

We're not going to be able to be specific about what your best options are at this point in the forum as that requires a full analysis of your income and expenditure first. You may wish to contact an adviser or trust deed company to do this.

I cannot see any likelihood that DAS would allow you to continue to pay your brother in law in full. Your creditors will expect to be treated fairly, and in their view he will be just another creditor in the same way that they are. If trust deeds, DAS or bankruptcy went ahead I'd imagine he could receive his share of the contributions that you make in the same way as your other creditors.

This part of your situation probably needs some thought at this point. I think you may need to weigh up whether you need to arrange to speak to your brother in law about all of this as it seems he'll be significantly affected if you proceed with any formal debt solutions.

All of your household income and expenditure will be taken into account if either of you move to start any formal debt solution. Your husbands wage does get taken into account for you, it's just that as you have no earned income you're not going to be able to do a trust deed yourself. Your trust deed would have to be based on your share of any household disposable income which, given you're not currently working, will be low.

It may be difficult for you to make much progress towards a decision at this point until you've thought through the situation with your brother-in-law. I recognise that this may be a very difficult part of this for both of you but, if you cannot continue to manage your current debts, it's going to have to be dealt with at some point.

Just a thought Stesshead... is bankruptcy completely impossible for you in terms of your future career?

I guess I was wondering if your husbands debts (including the payment to his brother) would be affordable if the household no longer had your debt repayments to contend with as well?

Thank-you Gillian, it is a very stressful time being made even more stressful really![:(]

Thanks for your insight TDA, it makes me mad that there are companies out there who are clearly taking advantage of vulnerable people and by giving us this information we believed a trust deed would be our answer. Clearly not as simple as that.

With regards to my career I am a student Social Worker just about to start my 2nd year and I have looked through the Scottish Social Services Council Code of Conduct and there is nothing specific to financial difficulty but I didn't think it would look too good to future employers as a profession that has a great deal of responsibility me being in a state of Bankruptcy?

My husband is also a Prison Officer and although he does know of colleagues who have been previously bankrupt/financial difficulty he isn't clear what the ramifications of doing this would be.

Also if bankruptcy was my only option either for myself or both of us what would be the situation with the house?

If I was declared bankrupt would we have to sell the house if my husband entered into a trust deed?

If both of us declared bankruptcy I'm assuming we would most definately have to sell/hand over the house?

Thanks again for this

Hi stresshead

I am not aware of any issues re your husbands employment.i have a couple of prison officers and policemen and theres been no issue.

If you have negative equity, then I see little danger to the house in either the trust deed or bankruptcy.

As for tbe online company calling you, they can be a real pain and will promise anything for a 'sale'. Best deal with an ip firm direct.

Mark

I know a Social Worker who has been sequestrated, they do not do credit checks for Social workers........

I have a friend who was sequestrated while working as a social worker and the only work issue she encountered was not being able to apply for a promoted post where she would hold a budget until after she was discharged. This really was not a problem though. Also her colleagues were extremely supportive.

Hi stresshead

You sound exhausted by the whole thing.

There is no such thing as a guarantor for a Trust Deed, to tell you that is completely bizarre!

Income & expenditure is looked at, so additional costs wiould be taken into account.

As Mark says, there is no restrictio for a prison officer or socail worker. Although I have only had two bankruptcies for prioon officers, i have had several social workers, and never had a problem. I think you need to sit down and talk to someone as you have so many issues, your head must feel like bursting!

Thank you to all for your replies. Its good to know that there are cases of prison officers and social workers in similar situations so hopefully that won't be a hurdle.

Thanks Shona, in all honesty I've never felt stress like this 🙁 its really eating me up and worrying me all the time. I wish we had never allowed my brother in law to take the loan out as basically that is the only thing stopping us from doing anything. Its really playing heavy on mind that this is going to affect him majorly if a trust deed/bankruptcy take all our surplus income. I just can't let him down.

We have an advisor from the local council coming to see us on Friday afternoon so hoping he will be able to give us a bit more advice on the best way forward at this point.

Thanks again for the replies its much appreciated

Hi stresshead

You are already making progress by speaking to an adviser from your council. I am sure they will be avble to help you. Good luck with it.