Hello kat3773 and a warm welcome to the forum.

I think this is one of the hardest questions to answer both on the forum and when we get called. For understandable reasons it sometimes seems unfair to people when they perceive that a change in their personal lives unconnected to any debts might change the position they find themselves in connected to their debts.

It has to be remembered that a trust deed is in many ways a compromise between a debtor and her/his creditors. In this respect this subject can sometimes be best answered by asking you to see this situation from the perspective of your creditors.

Your creditors have agreed to write-off a proportion of your debts in return for you paying what you can afford for a fixed period.

It seems fair from a creditor standpoint that if you live with other working adults that they contribute to the costs of running your home. If they did not, your creditors would effectively be subsidizing the debt repayments of your partner (if he could not afford to pay his fair share of domestic costs and repay his debts). If I were a creditor of yours that wouldn't seem fair to me.

I therefore think that your Trustee, who is responsible for striking a fair balance between you and your creditors, would be right to expect that your partner pay his fair share of the costs of running your home if he moves in. Based on each of your earnings I expect that he would be calculated to contribute 35% of the household expenditure.

Please remember that your household costs will increase if he moves in as well as your household income. Your expected contribution to your trust deed may not increase as much as you fear.

This whole situation with calculating a percentage of contribution towards household expenditure is a paper exercise.
Therefore your partner need not actually pay this percentage of the bills but of course if he does not you may find it difficult to maintain your trust deed payment.
If your partner were to pay his fair share of the household bills he may find it difficult to continue to fully service his debts. In this case he may need to look into options to resolve any imbalance between his commitments and his ability to repay them.

All of which probably isn't what you hoped to hear but I hope that the information and explanation is useful.

The most important thing will be to contact your trust deed company when this change happens so that they can make any amendments required to ensure that all parties continue to be treated fairly. They will not want your trust deed to fail so I'm sure that they will work with you to find an appropriate way forwards. At the same time you'll need to understand that they rightly have a legal responsibility to your creditors.

One final thought is whether it would be possible to open up to your partner on this subject? Many people are naturally nervous about doing this but our experience is that partners tend to be very supportive. Once any initial shock has worn off they tend to really appreciate and respect the honesty of their partner having shared this very personal information. I understand that this is very much a personal matter for you and, of course, that you're the only person in a position to make the right decision for you.

Thanks for that. I know I need to talk to my partner about it. Does my IP need to see proof of his income or just proof of what he would be contributing to the household?

I think that's a question to ask your trust deed company kat3773.

The representatives of the three trust deed companies that post in this forum (Kevin, Julie and Mark) may well be able to share with you how their companies would handle a similar situation.

Hi Kat3773

It is a difficult one as the Trustee needs to look at all income and expenditure. I think there is certainly an argument that he has his own costs and expenses to meet, however there is also the argument that he will contribute, even a minimum amount, to the expenses and this should in theory free up some funds.

Best bet is to speak with the Trustee. It is never as bad as you think.

Mark

Thanks for that, Do you know if they will require to see proof of his income or proof of payments being made to me. i havent discussed my trust deed with him yet ans not sure how he will feel about someone wanting to see what he will class as his personal information?
Apologies for the volume of queries just want to be informed before I talk to him about it.

Thanks

Hi Kat

I don't think the Trustee has any real right to ask or request payslips, so probably wouldn't volunteer this info.

Mark

I think that if you were both contributing equally to the joint household bills then there should be no issue regarding checking payslips etc. However, if you are seeking to justify a position where you are contributing a higher amount to the joint bills than your partner then i think it is reasonable for your trustee to look for proof of your partners earnings to back this up.

I very much doubt that they would look for any proof of any payments being made by him to you however.