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Topic starter
09/08/2011 3:38 pm
I have been in a trust deed for nearly 5 years now. After paying 300 per month for three years then a further two years to pay 5000 in equity on my home.Earlier this year a member off my family died leaving me their home which i had only had one payment to make when they died
I have moved into my family home and now the trustee is gunning for every penny i was due plus the interest for the paST five years.
Should the trustee not have told me at the time then i could have borrowed the 5000.
Now it looks like i have paid nearly 20000 and owe more than i first entered the deed.Is there any way to appeal this decision or do trust deeds not worth the paper they are written on.
I stuck to the agreement all these years but it looks like they the trustee can chamnge the goal posts whenever they like
IS THIS Fair?
09/08/2011 4:04 pm
Hi betrayed and welcome to the forum.
I can certainly appreciate your frustration as to how things have worked out. Unfortunately I'm not sure that my response is going to be what you were hoping to hear but I hope that the information is useful.
The starting point for a trust deed is that it only writes-off the debts that you cannot afford to repay. It is therefore normal that where circumstances take a financial turn for the better (for example a pay increase or an inheritance) that the creditors receive a higher return on their debt than originally expected. This is part of the terms of a trust deed and part of the reason why your creditors accepted yours in the first instance. It applies until discharge from the trust deed. I think this is a position that most people would agree is fair.
The most that has to be paid, in total including any monthly contributions already paid, is the original debt level, interest on the debts and the fees/outlays connected to the trust deed.
When your three years contributions were finished the equity figure of £5000 became due. Trustees are normally quite flexible about how this is paid provided that it can be recovered within a reasonable period of time (like the extra contributions you made). I think if you had been able to raise a £5000 sum at that point in time your Trustee would have been delighted to have accepted it from you and your discharge would then have followed.
Should you have been told that your Trustee would have accepted the £5000 at that time? I doubt that there are any rules in connection to this, but I'd expect that in most instances they'd make the options apparent to their client. It's in everyones interests for this to happen.
Your Trustee is now in a difficult position. If you have inherited a major asset prior to the discharge of your trust deed they have no option other than to collect the appropriate amount of funds for your creditors. They have a legal obligation, an obligation to your creditors and an obligation to their regulators.
I don't think that your Trustee has moved the goalposts, but clearly something has gone astray somewhere if you haven't understood where those goalposts are.
Qualified Debt Adviser & Forum Administrator - Ask me anything about Trust Deeds 
