Hi Shona

Like you, these types of arrangements are becoming more common. I had a meeting which followed exactly the same lines, except it was initialted from a cold call. It transpires that the company in question has a marketing department within the same building with the same MD who obtain court records of recent judgements and call you promising debt help.

This may well be fine at this stage, however the advisor on being told that Mrs X was unemployed stated that they would use the some of Mr X's wages to make her Trust Deed work. The house was also fine (despite no valuation) and they should make a couple of payments to the advisor up front. He them organised the signing meeting despite having NO information whatsoever.

Mark

Scary stuff when they are messing with people's homes. Anyone thinking of a trust deed, please, please, please, get everything in writing.

Thank you Shona and Mark

It is so helpful having your advice on this forum.

I have found it very useful reading the comments
and feel more informed in many ways.

As questions come up I know I can ask Mark who
I have signed TD with, or any other expert on this site.

Thanks for putting in the time

From the perspective of the advice team we've lost track of the number of people that have told us that they were informed by an adviser that their homes will be safe if they pay £500 to a prospective trust deed firm.

Understandable perhaps if the home had no equity (even though there is no need to pay the £500), but total madness given that many of these folks had already made it entirely clear to the firms that there was significant amounts of equity in their homes.

God after reading this it's making me wonder if I had got a trust deed through the original company I was going to go with wld I have had the sense to have gotten everything in writing? Not convinced I would have and I like to think of myself as pretty intelligent but when it comes to this I think I'm pretty naive. Probably why I got into his financial mess in the first place. Thank god I found this forum.

Property should always be the main consideration when doing anything. That is why it is vital that the position is clarified in writing with no doubts or grey areas before signing anything.

Mark

And preferably an actual valuation done before anything is signed.

Hi Shona,

Before dealing with any letting firm, try to check out their previous background. You could seek the counsel of an expert in this field. I think you should ask the agent to show you the results of your checks ÔÇô this is your right as being their customer.

Always try to deal with a good, reputed and experienced like London (LINK removed)a reliable and trustworthy company that remain competitive in pricing and offer great services to their customer and make true valuations too.

And there we have it... Plaza Estates of London spamming a website focussed on Scottish debt solutions with a load of irrelevant rubbish.

Doesn't really say much positive about the firm involved does it?

Do they even look what a site is about before spamming?

Fuds.

Paul

It's an interesting post and one which I'm sure will help a lot of people when considering entering into an arrangement on what to do prior to signing.

I'm currently dealing with a couple at the moment who have approximately £50,000 of equity and the property is jointly owned. Mr is a retired pensioner and his partner is young enough to enter a DAS and repay debts within a 10 year period prior to retiring. They do not wish to do anything which will risk the property as the mortgage will be paid off in the next couple of years.

I've been discussing a Debt Arrangement Scheme with them. I had a couple of days holiday and when I returned to the office and picked up the case, they clients advised that they have decided to proceed with an English company and enter into a DMP. The clients believe after speaking with the DMP company that their property will be protected, interest and charges will be frozen and everything will be fine. The English DMP company even went as far as to say we are their sister company from Scotland to reassure the clients about proceeding with them. It's a DMP that the company are proposing for the clients, not a DAS.

I advised the clients to be extremely careful about proceeding with the DMP company and referred the clients to various impartial advice websites including the AIB. The problem is, the clients are now unsure who to believe regarding advice.

I also took a call from the DMP company asking me not to contact their client any longer. When I advised that the client should be entering into the DAS, the advisor said ÔÇ£you tell them about the DAS, we will tell them about the DMP and the client can choose which one they wantÔÇØ. They did say that if a DAS is the most suitable option after assessing both cases (I assume as well after taking 2/3 months payments for their fee) they will pass them to someone for a DAS.

As you said Shona advisors are messing with peoples life and homes for the sake of targets and commission and some advisors will say anything to get a client to sign up with them.

TDA, I've noticed on other forums that they can have a ÔÇ£stickyÔÇØ post at the top of the forum. Have we thought about something like this for people to read when considering what they should keep in mind when deciding what to consider and be aware of before entering into an option? It's good threads like this that can fall down the pages and people often miss them.

I think it's been said on numerous occasions that the position with property is normally the single most important issue in Trust Deeds and where possible should be absolutely clear before anything is signed.

Hopefully the new regulations will tighten up on this, although when in the hands of middlemen trying to get a 'sale' anythimng is possible.

Mark