Welcome to the forum smcg.

When did you originally sign your trust deed please?

It might make a difference to how we answer both the closure and car questions.

good afternoon

my trust deed was first signed on 8th of march 2010

thanks for taking an interest

Hi smcg.

Sorry that you've had to wait a little while from an answer.

I believe that the threshold for car values increased from £1000 to £3000 in November 2010. Because your trust deed was signed before then, the old threshold will apply.

That means you almost certainly have a liability for the car, though you may wish to source an alternative valuation for your trustee to see if they'll agree to a reduced figure.

You can't be discharged until payment due for the car has been paid I'm afraid.

Hi smcg,

As TDA has advised in November 2010 the threshold for a car value increased from £1,000 to £3,000.

The first thing you want to do is check the paperwork when your originally signed your Trust Deed to see what it confirms regarding the car valuation and how this will be dealt with. If it confirms that your car was valued at £4,000 and you agreed to pay this over then your Trustee may well hold you to this as this is what would have been proposed to your creditors.

When we value a vehicle we will use two websites, wisebuyers and parkers. You can adjust for mileage, condition etc. In the rare occasion that someone disagrees with the valuation we have from those websites we have an auctioneer who will value the vehicle by carrying out an inspection of it.

If you could check your paperwork from the start of the Trust Deed and let us know what it confirms we can advise you further. If you don't have this paperwork ask for a copy from your Trustee.

The key thing in this and all matters is to check what was agreed at the start. This will normally determine what the future issue will be.

If the trust deed pre dates the Nov 2010 change, then the £1000 rule will apply as mentioned above and the trustee will normally seek the value to the paid to the trust deed.

If you dispute the valuation, it's best to advise the trustee that this is an issue and seek an independent valuation.

Mark

thanks for all this i got this reply from the company

"I would confirm that current legislation with reference to the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Scotland) Act 2010 introduced on 28/11/2010 does state that the lower limit for a vehicle being considered as an asset is £3,000. However your Trust Deed was signed on 08/03/2010 at which point the Accountant In Bankruptcy recommended that £1,000 was be the lower limit and that the full value over this amount, could be ingathered into an estate"

i asked were they got the valuation from and was told webuyanycar.com i went on and used the same site and got a valuation of £2060 pound informed the company of that and offered to pay them £1060 which is the additional value over the £1000 value as per above.

i was then given this information from the comapny ( i should say all this info can be backed up with emails)

"if the vehicle was disposed of (i.e sold) by yourself or the Trustee, irrespective of the sum the sale generates, this would be the final figure and no further monies would be requested from you"

so i asked around my office and a colleague offered £1000 pound their and then i passed this onto the company and received this reply.

"I have been advised, following consultation with the case manager, that no offer can be accepted until an independent valuation of the vehicle has been provided. Once you have provided a valuation, the Trustee will consider the offer that has been submitted and respond accordingly."

so it appears that they are unwilling to accept any offer on the car regardless of the information that they supply .

Hi smcg

I think they are trying to protect themselves from the car being 'sold' at under value. However it looks as though they will at least negotiate a lower price.

Mark

Hi smcg,

The Trustee needs to try and obtain the maximum value from any assets that you have and needs to be careful about selling an asset for undervalue.

If the car were to be sold on the open market or at auction then whatever it's sold for is what it's sold for. If a party connected to you offers to buy the car the Trustee needs to be comfortable that the sale price is fair and reasonable.

I think in this situation an independent valuation is a sensible option. Hopefully from this an agreement can be reached which will allow your Trust Deed to be brought to a close and you can finally move on with things.

You could do your own research and collate information from parkers, wisebuyers, auto trader and ebay showing the value of similar cars to yours and pass this to your Trustee.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi smcg.

I think it's obviously not right that someone could choose to sell an asset to an associate at below market value in a way that results in a loss to their creditors?

It would seem that this is assumed in the statement that you quote in your post.