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Are Protected Trust Deeds Being Mis-Sold? 24 September 2010
Andrew Graveson (about the author)

The “Protected Trust Deed Working Group” has been reviewing the Scottish Trust Deed process.

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

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

It could be noted that neither the website operators nor Debt Management Companies had representation on the Working Group and have therefore been unable to forward their position on the subjects under discussion. 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 www.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 certainly do relate to Protected Trust Deed websites and Debt Management Plan Companies where significant problems clearly exist.

However a very high 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 oversees such companies and also polices websites promoting Protected Trust Deeds.

Source: Trust-Deed.co.uk