What happens if I have payment problems during my Protected Trust Deed

A typical Protected Trust Deed will have a 3 year term, and as we all know, a lot can happen over a 3 year period.

Life has an uncanny ability to through the odd spanner in the works, especially when we least expect it, or should that be when we are least able to react to it.

So, what would happen if you have payment problems during your Protected Trust Deed? This could be something like temporary reduction of income, or a large unexpected and unavoidable expense.

After all, if you do hit problems and your circumstances do take a turn for the worse, yet you’ve committed yourself to paying what you can afford into your Protected Trust Deed, what can you do to help the situation ? After all, it is not possible to cancel a Trust Deed once it has started.

Well, it will come as some relief for you to learn that if you have payment problems your Protected Trust Deed payment can be temporarily reduced by your Trustee to a more affordable level.

The purpose of a Trust Deed is to help people whilst they are experiencing financial problems, so reducing the payments temporarily makes a lot of sense.

In some more sever changes in circumstance your Trust Deed payments can be suspended altogether, if your Trustee feels you cannot afford to make a payment at all, and that a suspension is appropriate.

Once you have overcome the temporary payment problems the Protected Trust Deed payments will be returned back to their original level.

If, for some reason, it is not possible to return your payments to the original level, your Trustee will establish what level he believes your payment will be affordable for you, and he’ll set the payments there.

Having this level of flexibility in payments, we believe, gives the Protected Trust Deed applicant the reassurance that a Protected Trust Deed is a realistic debt solution, with very high chance of reaching a successful conclusion – even if, financially speaking, things do take a turn for the worse.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that receiving a reduction in the Protected Trust Deed payments will be at the discretion of the Trustee.

He alone will decide whether the circumstances you are facing warrant him making a reduction in your Protected Trust Deed payments, and it should not be assumed that every change in your circumstances will warrant him making a reduction.

Therefore, if you are in a Protected Trust Deed and you believe you are about to experience a significant change in your circumstances – whether it be a change for the better or a change for the worse, your first action should be to contact your Trustee and inform them immediately.

They will be able to assist you in managing the changes in the most appropriate way, whilst ensuring there is a minimum impact on your ability to continue with your Protected Trust Deed.