The waiting comes afterwards, while creditors get their statutory window to object and AiB checks the paperwork. Nothing has to be agreed by anybody.

Before going further, be clear what this is. A protected trust deed is formal insolvency, publicly recorded, and what a protected trust deed is covers the solution itself.

No. The Accountant in Bankruptcy describes a trust deed as a voluntary arrangement entered into by a debtor to convey assets to a trustee for the benefit of their creditors generally, and it is granted by you rather than negotiated with creditors.

Who does what

You grant the deed. The trustee gives the advice beforehand, sends the notice to AiB, circulates the pack to creditors, and applies for registration.

AiB then checks that the conditions in sections 164 to 170 are met and registers the deed. Its notes for guidance on protected trust deeds set out what it looks at.

The step that is described backwards almost everywhere

The claim that a trust deed is accepted if half of the people you owe agree to it is widely repeated and wrong. Nothing has to be agreed: creditors are deemed to have acceded unless enough of them object, and how many creditors have to agree to a trust deed sets out the real test.

Protection is prevented only where written objections arrive from a majority in number of notified creditors, or from creditors holding no fewer than one third in value. Silence counts in your favour.

A living individual with total debts of not less than £5,000 including interest at the date of granting, and a sufficient connection to Scotland. Partnerships and certain other entities can too, but limited companies and limited liability partnerships cannot.

The three conditions that decide most cases

Section 164(3) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 sets the £5,000 minimum, and how much debt you need for a trust deed in Scotland explains why it is a statutory condition rather than a provider’s policy.

Section 164(1A), in force from 1 July 2024, asks whether you were habitually resident in Scotland or had an established place of business there at any time in the year before granting. Whether you have to live in Scotland to get a trust deed covers both limbs.

Section 164(1) also requires a deed over a single estate, so couples cannot grant a joint trust deed whatever their marital or civil partnership status.

Two conditions people often miss

A previous bankruptcy is not an automatic bar. Section 164(2)(a) blocks you only where the trustee in that sequestration has not yet been discharged under section 148 or section 151.

There is also an affordability ceiling. Section 168(4) requires contributions across the payment period to total less than your total debt including interest, so AiB will not register a deed where you could repay everything from income.

Section 167(3) puts the duty on the trustee, not on you. They must hand over the debt advice and information package and the trust deed information document, explain the consequences, allow you adequate time, and sign a joint statement with you confirming they did so.

The consequences that have to be explained

Section 167(3)(a) lists them: the possibility of sequestration, being refused credit, not being able to remain in your current home, being required to relinquish property you own, being required to make contributions from income, damage to your business interests and employment prospects, and the fact of granting becoming public information.

The debt advice and information package has its own statutory root, in section 10(5) of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002. It is the same package a creditor has to give you before an earnings arrestment.

Adequate time has a floor, and here is how it is counted

Guidance issued by Scottish Ministers under section 167(5) sets it at a minimum of three clear days, counted so that the day the materials reach you and the day you sign are both excluded.

AiB’s own worked example has materials sent on 20 January 2025, the three days running from 21 to 23 January, and an earliest signing date of 24 January. Answering a follow-up question does not restart the clock.

Practitioners are expected to extend it where there are more complex vulnerabilities. Take the days you are entitled to and use them.

One requirement dated 20 January 2025

The trust deed information document and the express duty to allow adequate time were added to section 167(3) with effect from 20 January 2025 by section 10 of the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024, and deeds granted before that date are outside the change.

Advice, signing, the Form 1 notice, the creditor pack, the five-week objection window and the application on Form 3. Each has its own deadline, and missing the four-week one at stage six is fatal to protection.

The sequence against the clock

What goes to creditors, and when

Section 170(1) requires the pack to go to every known creditor except a secured creditor who consented under section 166(2)(c), within 7 days of registration of the notice.

It contains the deed itself, the register notice, Form 2 for creditors to claim on, your statement of affairs including Form 2A, an explanation of the preconditions and consequences of protection, and Form 3 Part 1.

The statement of affairs also has to show your expected contribution and the anticipated dividend, and any Form 1B heritable property agreement. Ask to see it before it goes out.

The deadline that cannot be missed

The trustee has four weeks from the end of the objection period to present the deed for protection. AiB says a deed will not be protected if it is not presented inside that period, and a sheriff would have to direct resubmission.

Everything. All assets have to be disclosed whether or not the trustee intends to realise them, and AiB warns that deliberate misinformation or non-disclosure of assets may amount to a common law offence.

The forms you will meet before protection

Form 1A is the secured creditor consent form, not the application form. The application for protection is Form 3, and that confusion is common enough that AiB’s own guidance flags it.

The income and expenditure side

Your income and expenditure goes on Form 2A, and expenditure is tested against the Common Financial Statement trigger figures, the specified method under regulation 15 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016, which AiB administers and last revised on 1 April 2025.

Trigger figures cover categories such as telephone, travel, housekeeping and miscellaneous costs. Rent and mortgage have no trigger because they vary too much, and how trust deed monthly payments are calculated works through the assessment.

Adding up the statutory steps gives a floor of roughly six weeks from signing to protection and an outer limit of roughly eleven to twelve weeks. That is arithmetic from the statute rather than a published average.

Why nobody can give you a real figure

AiB publishes no average time from first contact to protection, or from the Form 3 submission to registration. Treat any confident timescale you are given as an estimate rather than a promise.

What matters more than the total

You are not protected during the gap. An ordinary trust deed does not bind a creditor who refuses to accede, and what happens between signing a trust deed and it becoming protected covers the exposure.

That is why a statutory moratorium is often run alongside, and it can be extended for up to seven further weeks while a trust deed seeks protected status. How a statutory moratorium protects you sets out what it does and does not reach.

Protection runs from the date of registration, under section 163(2), and not from the date you sign. That single date is what turns an ordinary deed into a protected one.

Before and after, side by side

Section 172(1)(a) is what binds a creditor who was not notified or who objected in time, and section 173 is what ends an existing earnings arrestment.

What that does not reach

Section 173 deals with earnings-based and maintenance-related diligence. Part 14 contains no equivalent provision for a bank arrestment, and whether a trust deed stops a bank arrestment in Scotland explains what protects you instead.

Money deducted before the date of protection is credited against the debt rather than refunded. Ask for a written balance once an arrestment ends.

That it is public, long and conditional. It is not a quick fix, and discharge at the end is not automatic.

The four-year clause that is easy to miss

Section 167(1)(b) requires the deed to bind you to convey any estate acquired in the four years after you grant it. An inheritance, a compensation payment or a windfall in that window falls to the trustee.

It is one of the least discussed features of a trust deed and one of the most consequential. How much debt you can write off with a trust deed covers what that does to the arithmetic.

The public record and the credit record

AiB’s protected trust deed information document says the register entry appears for the deed’s duration plus 12 months after completion, which is AiB’s statement of practice rather than a statutory rule. Whether your trust deed will appear on the Register of Insolvencies sets out what is recorded.

The credit file is a separate question with a separate period, and how long a trust deed stays on your credit file keeps the two apart.

Discharge is applied for, not automatic

The trustee applies to AiB on Form 5 with a statement that you met your obligations and co-operated, and the date AiB registers that application is your date of discharge. How long a trust deed lasts in Scotland covers the whole term.

One clear next step

Speak to a money adviser before you contact a provider, so you are comparing a trust deed against the Debt Arrangement Scheme and sequestration rather than looking at it alone. What free debt advice is available in Scotland lists who to call.

The Scottish Government’s own trust deed guide is a neutral starting point, and our trust deed page sets out how we help.