Hello confused69 and welcome to the Scottish Trust Deeds forum.

I'm really interested to hear the feedback of our own Trust Deed practitioners on the numbers that you have provided. Fees for Trust Deeds can seem high (and sometimes creditors will feel too high) but the cost of the involvement of highly educated/trained/regulated professionals along with their significant administrative support teams does come at a cost.

My first reaction to your comments is to be a little concerned about how much you would need to reduce your expenditure to meet the expectations of monthly payment presented to you.

Irrespective of fees at this point (which the experts will comment on) are you absolutely sure that the amounts suggested would be affordable for a period of three years?

The starting point for dealing with unmanageable debt is normally to work out what you can afford and then identify the options available. Identifying an available option and then modifying the affordable amount to conform to it seems at the very least a little risky for you.

Hi confused

there are a couple of areas here. Firstly while I appreciate that there are joint debts, trust deeds need to be dealt with on an individual basis. If there is a joint debt, then you are both jointly and severally liable for the full debt. This means creditors can pursue one or both for the full balance. Obviously if there is any sort of payment from one party, then this will reduce the balance due by the next.

On the subject of fees, I would advise that these vary from firm to firm and a previous posting detailed these at ?ú11k for one firm. Again, while there are common features in both cases, legally we need to look at cases individually, so effectively the IP in question is dealing with a case for approx ?ú1000 per year. Even this may appear high, however you have appointed a professional body to deal with your affairs for a constant 3 year period. By comparison, solicitors costs to sell your house wouldn't be far off this. Strangely, estate agents fees are closer to ?ú3k for a one off, short term contract!

Not sure if this helps, but hopefully provides a wee bit of insight.

Mark

Hi there

I understand where you are coming from, confused69, and it may seem like a lot of money, but the fees that you have been quoted really aren't excessive. The Accountant in Bankruptcy's guide to trust deeds, which you should be given as part of the advice process, does state:

"TrusteeÔÇÖs fees vary, they usually range between ?ú2,500 and ?ú5,000 but
they could be a lot more if your trust deed is complex."

As has been said, there is a lot of work over the course of a three-year period and trust deeds must be administered by highly-trained professionals. Also the costs are very reasonable compared with work carried out by some other professions, as Mark rightly points out.

One other point that I would make is that creditors do accept these costs as being justifiable and necessary - otherwise they would reject the do proposals. At the end of the day a protected trust deed is a formal insolvency procedure, similar to sequestration, and the costs of complying with the requirements of legislation does add up over the period. Moreover, most of these costs are duplicated with 2 trust deeds so unfortunately when 2 parties both sign trust deeds the costs are going to be largely double.