Are Scottish Trust Deeds Being Mis-Sold?

2nd July 2010

As previously announced the “Protected Trust Deed Working Group” has been reviewing the Scottish Trust Deed process.

The minutes of the meetings demonstrate a significant concern that the public are being subjected to misleading information on websites specifically established to generate Scottish Trust Deed cases. This is stated to be resulting in the mis-selling of Scottish Trust Deeds.

A further concern held by members of the Group appears to be the behaviour and advertising of Debt Management Companies. Once again, this relates to the accuracy of information provided and also to the charging of upfront fees by Debt Management Companies.

It may be noted that neither the website operators nor Debt Management Companies have representation on the Working Group and have therefore been unable to advance their views on the subjects being discussed. This absence will be interpreted by some to weaken the findings of the Group as both play a very significant role in the processes being investigated.

The public-forum of Trust-Deed.co.uk contains many stories from members of the Scottish public relating to mis-selling, inaccurate information being provided to them and excessive fees being charged. Many of these stories do indeed relate to Trust Deed websites and Debt Management Companies where some problems clearly exist.

Interestingly however a very significant number of these stories of mis-selling, mistreatment and excessive fees also relate to the behaviour of Insolvency Practitioners and their teams. Little attention has been directed towards the “sales” activities of Insolvency Practioners themselves which some observers will consider unsurprising given the heavy representation of IP’s within the Working Group.

The Working Group intends to liase with Debt Management Companies via their Trade Associations with a view to improving standards. In addition contact is ongoing with the Office of Fair Trading which polices these companies and also polices websites promoting Trust Deeds.

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