It is a requirement twice over. Section 4 requires money advice before any debtor application, and section 2(2)(f) separately requires a certificate that only an adviser can grant.

Why a MAP is stricter than full administration on this

An applicant for the longer form of sequestration has three ways to satisfy section 2(8)(e): apparent insolvency, a certificate for sequestration, or a trust deed that creditors refused to protect.

The Minimal Asset Process has no such choice. Section 2(2)(f) names the certificate and nothing else, which is what makes the adviser unavoidable.

The two routes compared

The equivalent question for the longer route is answered at whether you need a money adviser for sequestration, where apparent insolvency gives an applicant a second way in.

What the adviser is not

They do not decide whether you get a Minimal Asset Process. That decision belongs to the Accountant in Bankruptcy once the application is submitted.

Nor does the adviser take instructions from your creditors. Their duty on this part of the process is to check the statutory conditions and to tell you where you stand.

Six categories, prescribed by regulation 4 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016. Four of them sit in free services.

The categories, and where you find them

How to check the person in front of you

Ask which of the regulation 4 categories they fall into and get the answer in writing. An approved adviser will answer that question without hesitating.

Regulation 5 of the same regulations deals separately with who may not be approved, so the list is narrower than it looks.

Where to start looking

Citizens Advice Scotland puts it plainly: if you are considering bankruptcy you will need help from a money adviser.

Your local bureau, your council’s money advice team, StepChange and National Debtline are all places to begin, and none of them charges you.

Thirty days. Regulation 10 prescribes the period for section 2(2)(f), and a certificate older than that no longer satisfies the condition.

The test the adviser applies

Your adviser grants it under section 9 once you can demonstrate that you are unable to pay your debts as they become due.

That is a cash flow question rather than a question about the size of your debt. It is also a different question from whether you meet the eight MAP conditions.

When the thirty days runs

Section 2(10) defines the prescribed period as one ending immediately before the date the application is made, so the window closes on the application rather than on the award.

That is why advisers gather evidence first and grant the certificate near the end. What a certificate for sequestration is sets out the document itself.

It is free, and the regulations say so

Regulation 9 provides that no fee is chargeable for granting a certificate for sequestration. That applies whoever grants it.

A firm cannot charge you for the certificate itself. Anything else it charges for is a separate service you are free to decline.

All eight conditions in section 2(2), plus the supporting evidence. Missing one of them means a MAP is unavailable, however comfortably the others are met.

The eight conditions

Each one is worked through at whether you are eligible for a MAP, and the debt limit has a carve-out most pages miss, covered at which debts count towards the limit.

The evidence that goes with them

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s evidence checklist asks for bank statements verifying balances at the date the application is signed, vehicle valuations, proof of tenancy and evidence of your income route.

The income route adds payslips, evidence of essential spending and pension payment evidence. The benefits route needs proof of the payments themselves.

What to take to a first appointment

Nothing on that list has to be perfect at the first meeting. Bringing most of it turns two appointments into one.

And the debt advice and information package

You must also receive the debt advice and information package required by section 3 of the Act. Your adviser provides it, and how to apply for a MAP sets out the paperwork in order.

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.

The fee was removed, not just lifted for some applicants

Regulation 4(3)(c) of SSI 2023/9 replaced the fee item in its entirety on 6 February 2023, leaving a charge only for applicants to whom section 2(2) does not apply.

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.

Several commercial pages still print £50 or £90 for a MAP. Whether there is an application fee for a MAP sets out the chain of instruments.

Free advisers, and what a paid firm is for

• Citizens advice bureaux employ approved advisers in their own right under regulation 4.
• Council money advice teams are named in regulation 4 separately.
• Accredited advice agencies with Type 2 accreditation or above also qualify.
• Insolvency firms may act, and you are never obliged to use one.

If you are asked for money

Pause and get a second opinion from a free service before agreeing to anything. Nothing in the statutory process requires a payment from you.

Ask what the charge is actually for, and ask for it in writing. A charge cannot be for the certificate, because regulation 9 forbids that.

A free bureau adviser and a paid adviser are granting the same certificate under the same section. The document does not become stronger because somebody paid for it.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy decides it. Section 15(2) lets it determine a debtor application where you were habitually resident in Scotland or had a place of business here.

No court, no hearing

There is no sheriff involved in a debtor application and nothing to attend. The paperwork goes in online and a decision comes back.

mygov.scot says a decision usually arrives within 8 working days where the Accountant in Bankruptcy has everything it needs.

What the adviser does after submission

They remain your point of contact while the application is being considered. Any request for further information normally comes back through them.

Answer it quickly. An unanswered request is what turns a simple application into a slow one.

How common this route is

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s annual statistics for 2025-26 record 2,976 sequestrations, of which 2,415 were debtor applications.

Section 4 requires money advice before any debtor application, so an adviser was involved in every one of them. It is the ordinary way into bankruptcy in Scotland rather than an unusual one.

A refusal can be reviewed, and the review decision appealed to the sheriff, under section 27(5) to (8) of the 2016 Act.

The timetable, which no competing page prints

Under section 27(5) to (8) you have 14 days to ask for a review, representations are taken into account if made within 21 days, and the decision comes within 28 days.

If the refusal is confirmed there are a further 14 days to appeal to the sheriff. Section 214 puts the grounds beyond doubt: fact, law or the merits.

The other thing a refusal is not

It is not the end of the options. Your adviser can look again at full administration, a protected trust deed or a debt payment programme.

The comparison most people need first is at a MAP against the Debt Arrangement Scheme, and a working applicant should read whether you can get a MAP while employed before assuming the answer.

The three things the evidence checklist is strictest about

The three things AiB’s own evidence checklist is most specific about are the certificate’s 30-day life, verified account balances at the date of signing, and a vehicle valuation from an independent recognised source.

All three are fixable before submission and awkward to fix afterwards. That is the real argument for going through an adviser who does this every week.

Get the arguable points settled early

Valuations and savings balances cause most of the trouble, and how assets are valued against the £2,000 limit explains why so little is published about it.