Personal

For advice on debt restructuring for individuals we suggest you contact your local authority, or the citizens advice bureau. 

You should not need to pay for this advice; it is usually available free of charge.  We would urge you to be cautious about taking advice from lenders (existing or prospective) as their primary interest will be in securing repayment for themselves, and in making a profit from your payments.

Reputable professional firms are not hard to find. Do not take advice from debt management companies who advertise in certain tabloid newspapers, or from the loan companies who advertise on television. Be particularly wary of web sites which claim ownership of trade bodies such as debt management associations which you have never heard of. See our Arrangements page for details of debt advisors.  To find an insolvency practitioner, contact the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland or its equivalent in England and Wales, the Insolvency Practitioners Association, or the Association of Business Recovery Professionals “R3”.

If and when you reach the position where consolidation loans and debt restructuring are not going to provide light at the end of the tunnel, we suggest you contact us to discuss three options:

• 1. Reaching an arrangement, formal or informal, with your creditors
• 2. Making over your assets to a trustee under a trust deed, or
• 3. Sequestration (the Scottish word for bankruptcy)

In Scotland, a civil servant called the Accountant in Bankruptcy often oversees personal insolvency work.  She will act in a sequestration even if it is not clear whether the assets will cover the costs. You can contact her office for advice on sequestration, or to find out which insolvency practitioner is dealing with a particular case.

First meetings with ourselves are always free, and it is usually possible to agree fixed fees in advance of the work being carried out. In a formal insolvency, our fees are fixed by the creditors or the Accountant in Bankruptcy.