The Accountant in Bankruptcy or a qualified insolvency practitioner. Section 51 decides which, and in a Minimal Asset Process it is always the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

The rule for each route

Section 51(11) is the one that decides the Minimal Asset Process. It forbids the appointment of a nominated practitioner where section 2(2) applies, and how that route works explains the rest of it.

Why it matters to you

A Minimal Asset Process has no contribution to collect and no dividend to distribute, so there is nothing for a private practitioner to be paid out of. Full administration is different.

The trustee’s outlays and remuneration come out of the estate and your contributions either way. What a sequestration costs separates that from the application fee.

There is no Official Receiver in Scotland

That office belongs to England and Wales and appears nowhere in Scottish bankruptcy law. Any page that mentions one is not describing your case.

Seven functions, set out in section 50. They run from recovering the estate through to supplying information to the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

The functions in plain terms

The duty to find out why you became insolvent is the one people find intrusive. It exists so that conduct can be identified, and it is not a judgement on you.

Who the duties are owed to

The creditors as a body, rather than to any one of them. That is why a creditor cannot direct the trustee to pursue you for its own benefit.

It also means the trustee is not there to negotiate on your behalf. A money adviser is the person whose job that is.

Where the powers come from

Further powers sit later in the Act, and all of them are exercised for the creditors as a body rather than for any one creditor. Your trustee can tell you which of them is in play in your case.

The trustee also reports on your conduct at the ten-month point under section 137(4), which is what your discharge is decided on.

Realises what is worth realising, leaves what is not, and deals with a family home under its own rules.

The family home has a gate and a clock

Section 112(2) reinvests your right or interest in the family home in you at the end of three years from the date of sequestration, unless the trustee has taken one of nine listed steps.

One of those steps is commencing proceedings to obtain the authority of the sheriff to sell, under section 113(1)(b). A family home is not something a trustee can simply market.

Whether you lose your home sets out the three years, the nine steps and the agreement route in section 112(4).

Everything else

A vehicle, savings and a pension each have their own treatment, and what happens to your car and what happens to your pension deal with them.

No regulations set out how any of it is to be valued. Ask the trustee what basis is being used on any item that matters to you.

mygov.scot’s guide to assets in bankruptcy is a short official summary of what a trustee looks at.

Through a debtor contribution order rather than an arrestment, and only in defined circumstances directly from your employer. Section 94(4) allows an instruction to your employer where you have failed to pay for two payment intervals.

How the contribution is set and changed

Section 90(3) requires the common financial tool to be used, and how a contribution is calculated sets out the arithmetic.

The prescribed tool is the Common Financial Statement, under regulation 15(1) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016.

If your circumstances change

Tell the trustee first. Section 95 lets the order be varied or quashed following a change in your circumstances, and the trustee must reassess using the same tool.

A payment break of up to six months is possible, but it is not available on request. Section 96 requires your disposable income to have fallen by at least half, because of one of seven listed changes in your circumstances, and the decision is still a discretionary one.

A break granted under section 96 is a deferral rather than a reduction, because section 96(9) adds it to the payment period. You pay the same total over a longer time.

What an instruction to your employer costs you

Regulation 20(5) lets an employer charge a fee equivalent to the one chargeable under section 71 of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 and deduct it from the balance due to you.

That is a reason to keep the trustee informed rather than to go quiet. What sequestration does to diligence covers the arrestment side.

Co-operation, and it is a statutory duty. Section 215 imposes it, and section 145(3)(g) keeps that obligation alive even after your discharge.

What that means in practice

• Answering the trustee’s questions and providing the documents asked for.
• Telling the trustee about a change in your circumstances rather than waiting to be asked.
• Keeping the contribution up to date, or asking for a variation.
• Telling the trustee about anything you receive that could form part of the estate.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guide to the consequences of bankruptcy sets out what it expects of debtors in its own words.

It also affects your discharge

The categories the Accountant in Bankruptcy uses when it defers a discharge come from its own notes for guidance rather than from the Act.

The statutory position is a discretion exercisable at any time after twelve months, with a review and an appeal. How long a sequestration lasts sets out that machinery.

The notification duty is narrower than most pages say

Section 51(13) requires the appointee to notify the debtor of the appointment only where the petition was presented by a creditor or by a trustee acting under a trust deed.

It is not a universal duty, which matters if you are waiting to hear from someone. Whether a creditor can make you bankrupt covers the petition route.

Creditors can replace one at the statutory meeting. Section 49 lets them confirm the trustee appointed under section 51 or elect another person.

Who cannot be elected

You cannot be, and neither can anyone who is not qualified to act as an insolvency practitioner or who holds an interest opposed to the general interests of the creditors.

Nor can the Accountant in Bankruptcy itself. Section 49(5) names it in the list of those who may not be elected.

A person who has not given a written undertaking to act is also excluded. Where nobody is elected, the original trustee reports to the sheriff and carries on.

What the statutory meeting is

It is the creditors’ meeting held in the sequestration, and the vote on the trustee happens at the end of its business. Not every case has one.

Where nobody is elected, nothing changes in practice. The trustee already in office simply carries on.

Choosing one at the outset

On a debtor application you may nominate a qualified practitioner who has given an undertaking, and how you apply sets out what has to accompany the application.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy is not obliged to make the appointment. Where it does not, it is deemed to be the trustee itself.

Not when you are discharged. Your discharge and the trustee’s discharge are separate events with separate procedures.

Two discharges, two dates

The trustee’s own discharge comes under sections 148 to 151, once the estate has been realised and distributed. Whether discharge ends everything deals with what carries on afterwards.

Why a case can stay open for years

A property to sell or a contribution order running its full term keeps a trustee in office well past your own discharge. The estate stays vested until the administration ends.

That is the clock most pages leave out, and how long sequestration lasts sets it beside the other three.

What happens to anything found later

A closed case is not always a finished one, and estate that comes to light later is not simply yours to keep. Ask your trustee what would happen in your case before you assume either way.

That is another reason to disclose everything at the outset. Late discovery is more expensive for everyone, including you.

What to do if you disagree with the trustee

Put it in writing and ask for the reasons. Several decisions carry their own review and appeal routes, including decisions about your contribution.

A free money adviser can help you frame that, and how a contribution is calculated sets out the figures a review would turn on.