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- What does a transfer actually do?
- What triggers a transfer?
- What happens to the automatic six-month discharge?
- What happens to payments?
- Does a transfer cost you money?
- How do you reduce the risk of a transfer?
- Can you challenge a decision to transfer your case?
- Related guides
- Frequently asked questions
Yes. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy determine that the minimal asset modifications cease to apply.
A Minimal Asset Process is not a separate kind of bankruptcy. It is a sequestration with a set of statutory shortcuts attached by Schedule 1.
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Take the shortcuts away and an ordinary sequestration is what is left. The sequestration itself does not restart.
One consequence is almost never printed, and it is the one that matters most. How a MAP works covers the shortcuts themselves.
What does a transfer actually do?
It switches off paragraph 1 of Schedule 1, which is the paragraph that makes a MAP a MAP. The rest of the Act then applies to your case in full.
What paragraph 1 was doing
It disapplies sections 44, 46, 48, 49, 60, 63 to 65, 122, 131 and 210(3), and modifies four others. Those disapplications are the reason a MAP is short.
Two of them carry most of the weight. With the claims and distribution provisions switched off there is no claims process and no dividend.
What comes back
| The feature | While the MAP modifications apply | After they cease |
|---|---|---|
| Creditors submitting claims | Disapplied by paragraph 1(6) | Applies again |
| The statutory meeting of creditors | Disapplied | Applies again |
| A creditors' vote on the trustee | Disapplied | Applies again |
| Distribution of a dividend | Disapplied | Applies again |
| AiB's statement that no claims may be submitted | Required by the modified section 42 | No longer true |
| An account of your state of affairs | AiB may require one at any time | Required within 60 days, then every six months |
The modified section 42 requires AiB to tell creditors that no claims may be submitted. The difference between a MAP and full sequestration sets out the two regimes side by side.
The sequestration itself does not restart
The date of sequestration stays the date of the original award. That matters for vesting, for the debts caught by the discharge and for the discharge timetable.
What changes is the procedure applied to the case from the date the modifications cease. Nothing is unwound.
Who the trustee is
The Accountant in Bankruptcy is the trustee in every Minimal Asset Process and stays the trustee after a transfer. What changes is the range of what the trustee is doing.
What triggers a transfer?
Five circumstances, all in paragraph 2 of Schedule 1. Assets over the prescribed figure and an assessed ability to contribute are the two that come up most.
The circumstances, and two that AiB adds
| The circumstance | Where it comes from | Law or guidance? |
|---|---|---|
| An error in the application meaning section 2(2) did not apply | Paragraph 2(3) | The Act |
| A deliberate misrepresentation or omission with the same effect | Paragraph 2(4) | The Act |
| Total assets exceeding the prescribed figure after the application date | Paragraph 2(5)(a), with regulation 14 prescribing £2,000 | The Act and the regulations |
| An assessment that you can make a contribution | Paragraph 2(5)(b) | The Act |
| Not co-operating, where cessation would benefit the estate and creditors | Paragraph 2(6) | The Act |
| Owning land or property | Named in AiB's guidance | Section 2(2)(e) bars it at entry in any event |
| Liabilities rising above £25,000 | Named in AiB's guidance | Not one of the circumstances in paragraph 2(5) |
The guide for MAP debtors adds liabilities over £25,000 to its own list. The statutory list in paragraph 2(5) does not contain it.
The figure trap
Paragraph 2(5)(a) reads £5,000 on the face of the Act. Regulation 14 prescribes £2,000 in its place and has been unamended since 30 November 2016.
That aligns the in-process trigger with the entry test. Anyone quoting £5,000 has read the statute without the regulations underneath it.
The window is wider than the six months
Paragraph 2(5) applies at any time after the date on which the debtor application is made. That includes the gap between the application and the award.
The income trigger is dealt with in detail at what happens if your income improves.
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What happens to the automatic six-month discharge?
It disappears rather than restarting. Section 140(1) operates only where section 2(2) applies to you, so the automatic discharge goes with the modifications.
What takes over, and from when
Because AiB is the trustee, the provision that applies is section 138(2), which lets AiB discharge the debtor at any time after the date which is 12 months after the date sequestration was awarded.
The twelve months runs from the original award, not from the conversion. Someone converted at month five faces a decision at month twelve, not at month seventeen.
The word that changes everything
Section 140 says the debtor is discharged, while section 138 says AiB may discharge the debtor. Automatic becomes discretionary.
Section 138(3) requires AiB to decide as soon as practicable after that twelve-month point, and section 138(6) requires it to revisit a refusal a year later. How long a MAP lasts covers the ordinary timetable.
Before and after, in one place
| The point | While it is a MAP | After a transfer |
|---|---|---|
| Discharge | Automatic six months after the award | A discretion exercisable at any time after twelve months from the original award |
| The wording | The debtor is discharged | AiB may discharge the debtor |
| The six-month clock | Runs by operation of law | It disappears rather than restarting |
| The contribution | Fixed at zero | Assessed, and payable over 48 months from the first payment |
| Creditor participation | None at all | Claims, meetings and dividends all become possible |
| Conditions after discharge | Six months of section 146 conditions | Section 146 applies only to a section 140 discharge, so it does not apply |
| The public register | mygov.scot states 18 months for a MAP | mygov.scot states at least five years for a bankruptcy |
And the six-month tail goes too
Section 146 applies only to a debtor discharged under section 140, so a converted case never picks up those conditions.
That is a genuine oddity of the scheme, and which restrictions still apply after a MAP ends sets the conditions out.
What happens to payments?
A contribution can become payable. Section 95(1) lets the trustee vary or quash a debtor contribution order following a change in circumstances, using the common financial tool.
The order already exists
Section 90(1) makes an order mandatory in every sequestration and section 90(4) allows the amount to be zero, which is what happens in a MAP.
Nothing new has to be created. Whether you make payments during a MAP explains why the nil order matters.
How long payments run
Section 91(2) sets the payment period at 48 months beginning with the date of the first payment, unless a different period is determined.
Section 93(2) provides that the requirement to pay applies irrespective of discharge, so payments outlast the bankruptcy. What a debtor contribution order is covers the calculation.
A trustee-initiated change has a delay built in
A variation made on the trustee’s own initiative must not take effect before fourteen days from the day the decision is made. There is also a review and an appeal against it.
Does a transfer cost you money?
There is no fee to apply for Minimal Asset Process bankruptcy. The fee that used to apply was removed on 6 February 2023, and the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guidance lists no application fee.
What AiB says about a converted case
The guide for MAP debtors says a transfer caused by inaccurate information may result in an additional charge to meet AiB’s administration fee, and that discharge is withheld until it is paid.
AiB does not publish which fee item that is, and nothing establishes a figure for it. Any page printing an amount is guessing.
The other route is different
Full administration sequestration carries a £150 application fee, and no fee is payable under that item where the debtor receives certain prescribed benefits or is assessed as having no surplus income.
That is the fee for applying by the full administration route in the first place. It is not the same thing as a charge arising on conversion.
What you are not charged for
There is no application fee for a Minimal Asset Process and no fee for the certificate for sequestration, which regulation 9 of the 2016 Regulations prohibits.
That is not the same thing as the administration charge above, which AiB says may follow a transfer caused by inaccurate information. It does not publish which fee that is.
Free money advice covers the whole process as well. Nobody in Scotland has to pay a firm to be made bankrupt or to answer a determination.
The real cost is time and contribution
A six-month process with nothing to pay becomes a case where discharge is a decision and a contribution can run for years. That is the change worth planning around.
How do you reduce the risk of a transfer?
Get the application right and keep AiB informed afterwards. Most avoidable transfers come from figures that were wrong on day one.
What the evidence checklist expects
The evidence checklist asks for statements verifying account balances at the date the application is signed, and a valuation for any vehicle owned outright.
A valuation is expected from an independent recognised source. A figure you arrived at yourself will not carry the point.
Three things people underestimate
The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s evidence checklist treats savings above £1,000 across all your accounts as defeating a Minimal Asset Process application. That is its practice rather than something the Act states.
A policy counts at its surrender value, and the checklist treats a vehicle valued over £3,000 as defeating the criteria outright.
How assets are valued and what happens to your savings both set out how little is published about valuation.
Say it before it is discovered
An honest change of circumstances and a discovery of inaccurate information are treated very differently by AiB. The first is ordinary administration.
The second is the situation AiB attaches an additional charge to, and it is also the one that can lead to a bankruptcy restrictions order.
And keep reporting after the award
AiB requires MAP debtors to report income changes, money received and inheritances. That duty is AiB’s rather than a section of the Act.
Can you challenge a decision to transfer your case?
Yes, and there are two stages. Paragraphs 3 and 4 of Schedule 1 give you 14 days to make representations and 14 days to appeal to the sheriff.
The steps and the deadlines
| What happens | The provision | The detail |
|---|---|---|
| AiB considers whether paragraph 1 should cease | Paragraph 2(2) | AiB alone decides |
| You are notified of the circumstances relied on | Paragraph 3(1) and (2) | In writing |
| You make representations | Paragraph 3(2)(b) | Within 14 days of the notification |
| AiB decides and gives notice of the decision and its effect | Paragraph 3(3) and (4) | After considering what you said |
| You appeal to the sheriff | Paragraph 4(2) and (3) | Within 14 days of the notice |
| A statement of assets and liabilities is due | Paragraph 5(2) | Within 7 days of the appeal period ending |
What the appeal decides
If the sheriff grants the appeal, paragraph 1 continues to have effect and the case stays a Minimal Asset Process. If the appeal is refused, abandoned or withdrawn, paragraph 1 ceases.
Fourteen days is short. Send the notice to your money adviser the day it arrives.
What does not change either way
Section 145(3) lists what survives. Fines and other court penalties, debts obtained by fraud, and aliment or a periodical allowance payable on divorce are not written off.
Student loans are outside the discharge by a separate route as well, and whether a MAP writes off all your debts sets out the list.
The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s published statistics for 2025-26 record 2,976 sequestrations, and mygov.scot says details stay on the Register of Insolvencies for at least five years from the date of bankruptcy, and 18 months for a MAP.
Frequently asked questions
Can a MAP be turned into a full sequestration?
Yes. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy determine that the minimal asset modifications cease to apply, at any time after the debtor application is made.
Does the six-month discharge restart?
No, it disappears. Section 140 applies only while the modifications are in force, so discharge becomes a decision the Accountant in Bankruptcy may take at any time after twelve months from the original award.
Is the twelve months measured from the conversion?
No. Section 138(2) runs from the date sequestration was awarded, so a case converted at month five faces a discharge decision at month twelve rather than at month seventeen.
What is the asset figure that triggers a transfer?
£2,000. Schedule 1 paragraph 2(5)(a) reads £5,000 on the face of the Act, and regulation 14 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 prescribes £2,000 in its place.
Do creditors get involved after a transfer?
Yes. The claims, meeting, trustee vote and distribution provisions that Schedule 1 disapplies in a MAP all apply again, so creditors may submit claims and a dividend becomes possible.
Does a transfer cost you anything?
AiB says a transfer caused by inaccurate information may bring an additional administration charge, with discharge withheld until it is paid. It does not publish a figure and nothing establishes one.
Do the post-discharge credit conditions still apply?
No. Section 146 applies only to a debtor discharged under section 140, which is the Minimal Asset Process discharge, so a converted case never picks up those six months of conditions.
Can you appeal a decision to end the MAP modifications?
Yes. You have 14 days to make representations before the decision and 14 days from the notice to appeal to the sheriff, and if the sheriff grants the appeal paragraph 1 continues to have effect.
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Written as general information about Scottish debt law rather than regulated financial or legal advice, and your own circumstances may change the answer. Free, impartial help is available from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline and Advice Direct Scotland.