I'm always wary of recommending that people complain, only having heard one side of the story. However, if you do feel that you were badly advised then and wish to complain then by all means do so.

Hi HAPPYATSEA.

What would you hope to achieve by submitting a complaint?

I'm not questioning your significant concerns, I'm just curious to understand what you'd hope to achieve as a result.

Hi HAPPYATSEA,

From what you say it sounds like the Trust Deed probably wasn't the most appropriate solution available to you. On the other hand, if you had found full time work over the winter months and went onto full time employment then the Trust Deed would have worked and you would have been in a position to maintain the agreed payments per month.

At the time of receiving advice can you remember how you felt about going into Bankruptcy? Sometimes when this option is mentioned to a client along with alternative such as a DAS / Trust Deed a client would rather try alternatives to avoid Bankruptcy. It's only after trying alternatives that don't work can the client come to terms with Bankruptcy as the most appropriate solution. If not saying this is what happened in this situation, I'm just trying to look at it from both sides.

If you feel that you were badly advised and that there may have been procedures that weren't followed when providing you with advice at the outset then you may wish to take the matter further and complain. I'm not sure what the outcome would be regarding your complaint ÔÇô have the organisation that suggested to you about making a complaint advised what potential outcome this would have?

You will need to be confident that your debts don't exceed £17,000 to qualify for the Minimal Asset Process. If your debts are more than this, the cost of the application will be £200 instead of £90 and your case will be a full administration bankruptcy with your discharge coming after 1 year instead of 6 months.

If you do decide to take things further please let us know how you get on.

Hello
Yes debts under £17,000. (mainly from buisness failing) they said there was only 2 options the TD or sequestration, I was fine about sequestration, heard that could be a good solution when totally stuck which I was, and had thought there must be some fairness there, they advised against seq ,likening it to a lottery, and could end up paying more than £150 ,and the TD was a definate fig of £150 a month. I found this confusing as both didnt seem very good solution Also I repeatedly did say to them that my employment future was uncertain after the summer season and not very likely that coming winter. I have previously tried the few winter jobs but not suited (food production - Im to slow) and expensive commute. Island work is very limited and based round tourism, nearly everything shuts or reduces during winter, basically job and wage prospects here not great, if not a professional. They were very assured about it even though I expressed my concerns

Reason for complaining, This is meant to be a reputable company I hope they dont do this to someone else in a similar situation. As I felt out my depth I really put my trust in them, great if I could get the money back or it all went to my creditors but highly unlikely. I feel like I've been bit conned and stupid as Ive wasted a large sum (to me) of money, and will be back at square one, The complaint would also include the debt trust charity who were present at the meeting both urging me to do this TD as the best route. (coincidence their offices in same building , anything in it for either of them ?)
Since been told that all tax credits, benefits etc should have been thouroughly checked, other routes looked at that may have been more suited to a variable work pattern.

Hi HAPPYATSEA.

I think most good advisers see their role as being to lay out the options to their client, explain the benefits and drawbacks of each, and answer any questions that you have.

If you've had an individual from a debt charity and an insolvency practitioner firm "urge" you to select a trust deed rather than sequestration it does sound like you've been subject to a sales process as well as an advice process.

To set against this, the firms and individuals involved might perceive the content of the meeting to have been different to your perception and entering a trust deed was voluntary process for you.

I see my role pretty much like you have advised TDA. A lot of clients that I deal with will ask me to tell them what to do and what option to pick. I'll tell them the pros and cons of each option, rule out the options that are not suitable and the reasons why and then leave it up to the client to pick. By doing it this way you can narrow down the options which makes it a little easier for the client to decide.

Prior to the 1st of April, there wasn't a set way to work out an individual's income and expenditure to determine the level of contribution that they could afford to pay. It was a combination of expenditure guideline figures which were used when working out a budget. This could sometimes lead to slightly different outcomes. In that way, if you went down the route of Sequestration and didn't nominate an Insolvency Practitioner directly then you wouldn't find out what you were to pay until the Sequestration was official although a good advisor should have been able to give some sort of ball part indication on what you may be asked to pay. We have a large contract with the Accountant in Bankruptcy to deal with Sequestrations on their behalf (approx 150 cases per month) and from time to time we would question a budget form completed prior to the Sequestration and have set a payment different from the amount a client was expecting. I can therefore understand why an advisor may therefore have told you that your payment could be higher or lower than the £150.00 HAPPYATSEA.

Now since the 1st of April every organisation that provides debt advice must work off of the Common Financial Statement/Tool. This will ensure that whatever this statement shows and as long as it's backed up with evidence of the bills the payment amount should be the same regardless of which person/organisation assesses the budget. I realise that this doesn't quite help you with your current situation at the moment.

I think it would be extremely unlikely that you would receive any money back from your Trust Deed. The money you would have paid in will have been taken as fees under your Trust Deed.

If you feel like you have a genuine complaint and you want to bring this to the attention of the relevant authorising body then you can complain. This may be a drawn out process and not something which is resolved quickly. In the first instance, you should complain in writing to your Trustee and await their response. If you're not happy with this then you can complain to the authorising body of your Trustee and it will then be up to the Trustee to demonstrate that you were provided with all of the available options. Like TDA has advised, their version of events and what was discussed at the meeting may be a little different from what you understood it to be.