Thank you for all your replies. We have an advisor coming out to the house tonight to discuss the Trust Deed. After reading up on the equity on Friday I phone the company again and the advisor that has been appointed for us said that we have no equity on our house and should we decide to go ahead with the Trust Deed, we will get something in writing to that effect. I am going to see how the chat goes tonight and take it from there. I am going to prepare a list of questions, does anyone have any suggestions of questions I can add to my list?

Hi ciara,

Tonight in my opinion should be about discussing your full financial situation and exploring all of your available options and not just discussing a Trust Deed with you. When I sit down with a client I will look at a full and final settlement proposal, the Debt Arrangement Scheme, the possibility of a debt consolidation loan or re-mortgage and also Sequestration (Bankruptcy) and also a Trust Deed. By doing this with a client they can then pick the option which they feel best suits their circumstances. You want to ensure that the advisor goes though some alternatives to a Trust Deed with you.

I wouldn't advise signing anything tonight with the advisor until they have carried out a valuation of your property and you have received a redemption figure for your mortgage. Once this has been done you want to ensure that the company you are using confirm in writing the exact position with the property and equity before you sign anything and you see a copy of the valuation which has been carried out. Once you sign a Trust Deed there is no going back so you need to be sure all this has been confirmed and clarified and that you understand it all.

I'm not sure how an advisor can tell you on the phone without having a formal valuation and redemption figure that your property doesn't have any equity.

The most important point to ask is about the equity in your property and before you sign anything have this clarified in writing.

A couple of things for you to ask with regards to a Trust Deed:

- Length of time that you will be asked to pay a payment for. The minimum timescale for a Trust Deed is 48 months. If you have no equity in your property or a minimal amount then your Trust Deed shouldn't run longer than that. If you do have available equity then you could be asked to extend your payments beyond the initial 48 months.

- You also want to ask if they will handle your Trust Deed themselves i.e. from start to finish or if they are a middleman company and will pass your file onto another company. Will that advisor be your point of contact or will it be someone else? I always deal with the clients that I meet with from start to finish and I'm sure the other experts on the forum are the same.

- Something else to ask about is what will happen with any overtime, increase in income or and bonuses which may happen to you over the next 4 year period.

- Also, under a Trust Deed creditors are required to accept/reject the property and different creditors have a different acceptance criteria. You want to ask the advisor about this and in their experience and opinion the likelihood of your Trust Deed proposal being accepted or not.

- You could also ask about the level of experience that the advisor has. Some advisors that do home visits have been referred to as salesman without any real formal qualification or experience in providing debt advice. The experts on the forum all have over 10 years of formal Insolvency Experience (I think Mark may have double that) so this can be an important thing to ask. When I looked into Solar Panels under the Green Deal Scheme I asked the advisor who came out to ÔÇ£assessÔÇØ my property for this what his back ground was I was surprised to learn he used to be an Accountant and had retired early and he was actually self employed by the company offering me Solar Panels for some extra money. That set alarm bells ringing for me that he had no real experience of this field.

If you clarify the above and feel comfortable with the advisor/firm and what you have been told and have received everything in writing then your Trust Deed should run smoothly and without any problems.

I hope this helps.

I used this company...middle man, not the actual company who will be your trustee for next 4 years. In my experience the initial chat was actually a very rushed and pushy sales talk persuading you to sign. From reading a lot on this forum there is absolutely no need to have a middle man and is more helpful to talk to the actual trustee themselves. Just my opinion, but i would go with someone recommended from this forum.

thank you for all your replies,. I will see how the chat goes tonight and will report back here tomorrow.

Hi ciara,

Your welcome. Good luck with the meeting tonight and if you have any questions following it let us know.

Hi all, so the meeting went well last night. It was just an initial chat, the guy took all my details and we worked out that about £180 a month is affordable for me. The next step, is my file will be passed to a Trustee who will got through my file, arrange a value for my property (although they are quite positive that there is going to be no equity) and then give me a call to see if im happy for a contract to be drafted up.

The adviser was pretty confident that the Trust Deed will go through, the 2 creditors are RBS and Halifax, has anyone had any trouble getting these 2 creditors to agree to a Trust Deed?

Hi there

RBS and Halifax are dealt with by The Insolvency Exchange (TIX). As long as the proposal meets their criteria, then they will accept the trust deed.

It's good the the valuation is being carried out beforehand to fully clarify the equity position.

Mark

Thanks everyone, I had my call there from Simple Finance Solutions. My file has been passed to a firm called Carrington Dean in Glasgow. One of their Insolvency Practitioners are going to call me again at 5pm today to go through things a bit more and they are going to arrange my valuation for me.

Hi ciara,

Sounds like your meeting went well.

When you speak with Carrington Dean make sure you request everything in writing and ask for a face to face meeting with them as they will be the ones who are fully responsible for your case.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

I will do David, thank you so muck for your help

just out of curiosity i was wondering have you been told of any problems that may arise if you and your other half should split up ? i know we dont want to think about these things but half the reason i refuse to commit to my bf and live together is the fear of what my debt could mean for him, my friend had so much trouble trying to get his ex out of the house and he was paying mortgage in full, she defaulted on her trust deed and in order for him to be accepted by the bank and get out of his trust deed his gran ended up remortgaing her house to allow hime to buy out her share of the accrued equity on the property dont know exatly how this worked but it was 12k his gran took out a loan for he then had to wait a further 6 months after completion of trust deed before the bank agreed to remove his ex from the house and for him the only reason the bank let him even consider the additional increased mortgage (financially he was borrowing more than he should have been ) was he was a single parent with three kids

Hi Mel,

That is actually a very good question and one that I didn't even think to ask myself!..all we touched on last night was, all the unsecured debts are in my name alone therefore, my Fiance's credit rating will apparently not be tainted by my TD. I was told that unlike years ago when a home address could be blacklisted, 2 people can live in the same house and one person's debt i.e Trust Deed would have to impact on the other person's credit file.

We own our house jointly so that is a very good question with regards to what would happen if we split up (touch wood) I don't think my Trust Deed would be a problem for him if he wanted to buy a new property but I think this is a question I will have to ask at my next phone call.

No problem ciara, it's a big thing which you are doing especially as you own your own home so you need to be 100% sure about everything.

As I've said as long as things are properly explained and everything is confirmed in writing there shouldn't be any complications and things should run smoothly.

With regards to your partners credit rating, you may already be financially associated with them due to the mortgage but overall the Trust Deed should not have an impact on their credit rating.

This is a good point that Mel makes and one you want to clarify with your potential Trustee. If you split up the question would be could you maintain your payment to the Trust Deed. If you could then things would continue as normal. If you split up and the house were to be sold, your share of any equity would be ingathered into the Trust Deed. If you split up and you couldn't maintain your agreed payments then your Trustee could look at adjusting your payments based on your change in circumstances and you would pay a lower payment for the duration of the Trust Deed.

Hi everyone. Well The valuation has been carried out on the house and it has come back as negative equity. I have a meeting tonight to discuss the next stage but my advisor mentioned the £500 that is needed to "buy out their interest in the house" could anyone advise me on what this exactly is?

Hi ciara,

Good to hear that your property has negative equity.

Some firms charge a £500 payment to ÔÇ£protect your propertyÔÇØ should it have negative equity. What they are effectively saying is that by paying this they won't revalue your property during or at the end of the trust Deed.

My firm and the others firms represented by the other experts on the forum do not charge the £500 payment to protect your property. It's an additional charge that you would have to pay with the company which you are using.

If you considered another company you would not have to pay this but you would still have the same guarantee that the Trustee would not have an interest in the property and would not revisit this during or at the end of your Trust Deed.

I guess it's for you to balance up if you want to pay £500 or not.

Have they said when you would need to pay this i.e. up front at the beginning of your Trust Deed?