Totally Shocking. I wonder if this was the same company from Manchester who pestered the life out of me. They told me I was not suitable for a TD as my credit use would be classed as fraudulent as I had gambled a couple of thousand. The rest was not, it was debt I had ran up from being a student for 4 years with no income and since graduating spent 4 years paying it back with the odd casino transaction in between. They wanted me to sign up to a das for 9 years and said if I went for a TD I would be instantly rejected. Seems French Duncan didn`t think that and were extremely helpful and supportive and I was protected in 7 weeks from date of signing. Wonder why they pushed the DAS so hard.

I think that this may be the company I have signed up with through the 'Scottish company'. Whilst I have had no problems from start to this point and they have explained everything to help me without feeling pressured, it is disheartening to hear the above and I hope that the couple have managed to find someone decent to help them.

It would be good to name & shame them, suffice to say you may need to see your GP after speaking to them!

Looking at the information from the couple, the solution was fairly evident which certainly did not involve the sale or transfer of the property.

Mark

Hi Mark.

In the site advice team we frequently hear about situations like this from enquirers.

There remain a significant minority of "advisers" that are incompetent or dishonest or both. I guess that just underlines the need to compare advice from a couple of sources before making any final decisions.

It's interesting to note that the ability of rogue advisers to carry on like this may well be curtailed when the FCA take over debt advice regulation from the OFT next April.

The FCA has deemed debt advice to be a complex area and therefore the licence application fees will be comparatively high, the standards for acceptance high, and the application process rigorous. "Advisors" without professional qualifications may find the door to be closed - and there are thousands of them.

Hi Mark,

It really boils my blood when I hear of stories like that and especially when I hear it from a client directly. The difficult thing for us as advisors is to then convince the client that what they have been told by another company is complete rubbish and not to believe them or proceed with them.

Nothing surprises me nowadays when it comes to people providing clients with debt advice. I think that the debt advice that we provide to clients is pretty specialised and it should be something that only qualified advisors are able to give out. After all, it's not like a client is entering into a Debt Management Plan where their assets are not going to be at as much of a risk as they could be by entering into a Trust Deed or Sequestration. I always look at it like I'm dealing with such a massively important part of someone's life especially when it comes to dealing with the assets and their home. I guess not all advisors look at it like that and are happy to tell clients whatever it takes to get them to sign up.

The problem is that whoever the client speaks with first then client will assume that the advisor is qualified and knows what they are talking about which is not always the case.

As you say TDA, it always makes sense to speak with a number of advisors and organisations be it in the private sector or voluntary sector to check the advice that they have received and for a second opinion.

Maybe with the changes that you've mentioned this will tidy up the sector and leave only the qualified advisors providing advice.

Occasionally it's not only the private sectors advisors that provide advice that you need to question but also people working in the voluntary sector/charitable organisations who give out general debt advice when not qualified.

Hi David

As you say, advice can be bad from both the private and the voluntary sector.

The thing that made this different was the 2nd 'advisor' and the blatant attempt to get the property either for nothing or on the cheap. The scary thing is that the person/firm involved are tied to an IP firm in Glasgow inasmuch as they opertate from the same building/office.

Advice of this nature seems to fall into 2 catagories, either the sales pitch where they tell you anything just to get the thing signed, but more worringly, when it's used to frighten someone to make a decision where the sole purpose of the advice is to benefit the person in question. It's like watching the Glasgow version of Hustle.

Scary thing is, there are probably a large number of people out there in a similar position.

Mark

As a wee update, the couple in question went ahead with the Trust Deeds today. The extremely poor information had a couple paying a contribution for 3 years and then dealing/not dealing with equity at the end. That of course was one of the ways forward from the 'advisors' with the other being to effectively lose the house and even worse sign over the house to the advisor's control.

After the initial meeting it was obvious with pension income etc, that surplus was income just about matched expenditure. The result, there would be no contribution and with the help of the family, payments would be made over the course of the 3 year period of the Trust Deed to pay for the equity as this would make a sizeable dent in the figure. On year 3, the family would raise the balance of the equity and this would be sufficient to clear all matters and bring things to a close.

All in all, the best possible result as the couple stay in their home. The equity is dealt with and at the end of the 3 year period the Trust Deed could be finalised with no remaining issues.

Mark