The question I suppose I'm asking going on threse figures time left on mortgage what advice would you give Inam 51 my partner 57 would you walk away sell up be £900!a month better off ? I know I probably won't get another mortgage ,I also know if anything happened to 1 of us we cdnt afford to pay mortgage on our own.

Hi Mk0605 - my heart goes out to you as it sounds like you are really feeling the pressure of all of this.

The only way that your Trust Deed can be finished early is if the debts are fully repaid, along with interest and your Trustee's costs and outlays. I presume the £39k figure is what your trustee has worked out this total to be.

Are you and your husband both in Trust Deeds with them?

If you cannot afford to maintain the Trust Deed payments due to your increased mortgage payments then you are right to consider your options - carrying on with an unaffordable situation is never a good idea. Selling your home may well be a feasible solution, though it is obviously quite a drastic one and your Trustee would need to be involved in allowing it to happen.

Hi mk0605.

I’m sorry to hear that you are financially struggling again and have accumulated some mortgage arrears.

I’m not sure if I can give you the answer to sell your property or to keep this but what I’ll try and do is give you my thoughts on this.

Your mortgage payment is almost 50% of your total income per month. After you have paid that you then have £1,640 to live on and then once you pay your Trust Deed you have £1,465 to cover everything else. Have you looked at your budget to see if you can cut back in any areas, shopping around for insurances, perhaps changing your shopping habits? When we had our second child and my wife reduced her hours to part time we had to make some adjustments to our spending habits to make things work. We changed from shopping in Tesco to Lidl and found that we saved around £50-£80 per month. Also, my wife makes soup for me to take to work which helped me to cut down the money (£60 per month) I was spending in the local sandwich shop. Small adjustments like this can help your overall budget. I accept though that you may have already done this.

Can I ask how old your children are? Sometimes parents don’t want to take “dig” money from their children but if your sons are adults and working then even accepting a small amount of money from them (£50 each) per month could help your situation.

If you did decide to sell the property then like you have been advised this will end up costing you more than the original debt which you put into the Trust Deed. You are required to pay your total debt, plus statutory interest and then any costs of the Trust Deed. From what your Trustee has told you this would be £39,000. This would mean that all of the equity in the house is swallowed up by the debt and the Trust Deed. If your house is jointly owned and your husband isn’t part of the Trust Deed then all that the Trustee can ask for is your share. If all you paid over was your half share then this may not be enough to end your Trust Deed and you could be asked to continue with payments.

If you managed to see out the Trust Deed and complete all of your payments and then decided to sell the house and downsize then you would benefit from the potential £45,000 of equity that you have available. This would be a useful sum of money to have in the bank for emergencies. The issue is trying to sustain the Trust Deed whilst also trying to live and pay the mortgage and arrears.

If you did sell your house now and moved into rented accommodation paying £750 per month is this an amount that when you reach retirement your state pension and any private pension will be able to cover? If not, then you would need to consider moving again to a more affordable place based on your income. This is something that is a number of years away but it’s also something that you should think about. If you did manage to see out the Trust Deed and then pay off your mortgage you wouldn’t have to worry about retirement and where you will live.

It’s a really difficult position for you to be in and one which you need to have a long hard think about and not rush into things. It could be a good idea to arrange a meeting with your Trustee to try and discuss all of this face to face as that way you can understand what your options are. Ultimately though if you don’t feel like you can afford to maintain the mortgage, the Trust Deed and your personal life/health is suffering then selling the house and clearing the Trust Deed may be the right option for you.

Hopefully this helps.

Good morning Kevin , no it's just myself in trust deed mortgage also in my name only . I can maintain the payments just , obviously the worry if my husband takes unwell I couldn't , am I best to carry on , the other question I was told that a family member could possibly pay to get me out of this after 18 month - 2 years for a much less figure I.e £5k , the other thing I wanted to ask its showing on my trust deed equity of £44k could this also cost me ??

David Tannock thank you so much for that advice I will seriously take on board .

I'm afraid you've been misinformed about the possibility of a family member being able to pay a smaller sum to end the Trust Deed early. This was potentially an option in the past but is no longer, not for any Trust Deed signed after 28 November 2013.

What was agreed with your Trustee when you signed up regarding the equity in your home? I suspect they may have advised creditors that you will try to remortgage to release it and if that is not possible will extend your payments for 1 or 2 years instead, does that sound familiar?

Kevin - That wasn't mentioning and that is also a concern for me my trust deed showing equity at present of £44k . I was told a Family member could definitely pay a reduced amount to get me out of this ? I would probably have been better doing a DAS would I not ??

So what did they say about the equity when you signed up?

If you are being expected to release the equity and pay the debts in full plus costs then yes, you probably would have been better off with a DAS.

I'd be surprised if this is the case though - more likely they asked creditors to forego the equity in return for an extended term. This arrangement would no longer apply if you do sell your home though, which is what David is meaning when he says you may be better off trying to see the Trust Deed through before selling.

The only thing that was mentioned was my car if I still had equity in that they would add that on , there will be equity in my property so can they make me pay more based on this.. I don't have a problem paying what I owe this all came about me selling my business and not getting paid what I was due but that's a long story. I was told that I was lucky to get a trust deed as they have now stopped this if you have equity ? I am really annoyed being told a family member can get me out of this , so basically my trust deed wouldn't run full term !! Why was I told this and again it was mentioned a couple of months ago ??

Hi Mk0605.

I'm afraid to say that some of the things that you're reporting being told seem to be very misleading.

It's impossible for us to say why you were told these things. If it were me I'd be asking the person/firm that did tell me these things whether they're true and, if they say yes, demanding that they're put in writing to you now.

Hi Mk0605.

As TDA has advised I think you need to direct these questions to your Trustee and to the person that you spoke with about setting it all up. It doesn’t quite sound right how they have explained things to you.

I would also ask them to send you a copy of the original paperwork from the start of your Trust Deed that you signed. This confirms the exact proposal to your creditors and also how any assets you have will be dealt with.

Also, if you enter a Trust Deed and you have a property with equity then you should sign a form called– Form 1B – Agreement in Respect of Heritable Property. This form confirms the position with your equity and what agreement there is to pay the equity over. It’s signed by you and also your Trustee. Ask for a copy of this.

Once you receive some answers from your Trustee and also the paperwork out in writing we can then help with further advice.

Thank you this has been most helpful