I have just been rejected for a mortgage today on grounds that my TD is still showing. I was discharged in November 2011, I entered in on July 2008. The TD does not disappear until 6 years after the start date. Been advised not to apply for mortgage until July /August 2014 when TD off my records 🙁

Remember financial groups may keep records longer than the 6 years things stay on your cedit files so it may be worth avoiding anyone you had debt with before.

Paul

Yes, I agree with plasticdaft that some financial groups refer to old record's perhaps 6years + which isn't good - perhaps a mortgage broker may help?. I've read this before on here, but cant remember where tho... perhaps someone else will know where or have more information.

Its true some firms keep records longer than 6 years ,into year 7 of my deed but all my defaults etc do not show on my credit file .

Got constant letters from AMEX , to apply for the Platinum card ( had debt with them ) and thought ok , will apply , they came back and said due to previous debts my application could not be processed , which shows choose your lender with caution .

Hi buckeye.

There are possibly three different issues here:

1: The trust deed lays on a credit file for six years after it starts.

2: Banks may keep their own records and there's a public record on the Edinburgh Gazette beyond six years.

3: A mortgage lender may ask if you've ever been insolvent or in a trust deed. Irrespective of the time since discharge if you don't answer honestly you might commit mortgage fraud.

Mortgage brokers are best placed to help you navigate around this.

Do we know how long it's in the Gazette for, I have wrongly presumed it's the same as your credit file.

That old saying 'never presume' .

The Gazette can be accessed online and is archived. I think its there forever.

Hi twizzle,

You can search for items going back quite a few years so on that basis I'd agree with kdog7 in that it will appear in the Gazette for a long period of time, perhaps for as long as you can access it online so it may always show up via that.

Thanks for the replies so far. Like I said any mention of the TD dropped off her credit report last December so would the lender have any reason to carry out the extra work by checking the Gazette?

I also believe that due to some data protection law, banks/lenders can only go back 5 years in Scotland and 6 years in England/Wales in their credit checks, is this true?

Hi buckeye.

Lenders can use publicly available information as they choose. How hard do they look? I suppose that depends on the lender.

There may be a limit to how long they can keep old data that they have on file - though I'm not sure how that would apply if they sourced that information originally from public records rather than it being handed to them by a previous client. There might not be a limit... I don't know.

They can ask about previous insolvencies in a credit application whether or not it remains a matter of public record. If a question such as this isn't answered honestly you risk being added to an industry register that might make it impossible to borrow almost anywhere in the future. In more serious instances it might be construed as being fraud.

In short I think it's best to figure out how to work around what's happened in the past rather than trying to make those events disappear.

That's the problem though, if you admit to having a past TD you're treated worse than if you had committed murder.

So how do you suggest to "work round" the past?

If it's to do with a mortgage buckeye I'd suggest:

1 - Doing what you can to get your partner's credit record in the best shape that you can.

2 - Saving up the biggest deposit that you can.

3 - Finding a good mortgage broker.

4 - Being totally open with the broker so that they can factor in the circumstances when choosing between lenders and products. For example there was (maybe still is) one major mortgage lender that doesn't have a previous insolvency question in their application form.

I can appreciate being held back by something that happened so long ago must be frustrating and feel very unfair. The problem is that not doing the "right" thing could make things so much worse.

Hi

I have posted before on here about getting a mortgage in June, with The Nationwide. Their criteria about Trust Deeds was you had to have been discharged for at least a year before being considered.

My wife and I were approved by them, they knew about my TD (discharged in Sept 11)

We did have a large deposit due to it being Council right to buy though (20%)

I misunderstood - I thought the 6 years were from discharge, not from the start of the trust deed - we're also considering our future mortgage potential (though having two small daughters in nursery makes deposit saving completely impossible at present). So my trust deed and defaults will drop off in 2015 (trust deed opened in October 2009), rather than 2018 like I thought? Good news!