That is the part almost every page on this subject leaves out. Most tell you the threshold and stop, which leaves a reader with an objection letter no better off than before.

Here is how consent is counted, what an objection actually does, whether a creditor has to give reasons, and the two stages open to you if the answer is no. Our guide to how the Debt Arrangement Scheme works covers the scheme itself.

Not all of it. Since 4 November 2019 a programme for an individual is approved where creditors holding not less than nine tenths in value have consented.

Counted in value, and silence counts for you

The test is nine tenths by value, not by number. A single creditor holding more than a tenth of the total can withhold consent and put the application to the fair and reasonable test.

Silence counts as consent. Regulation 23(5) deems a creditor who does not respond within 21 days of the request to have consented, irrespective of any assignation of the debt.

That rule applies only to a programme providing for the payment of more than one debt. A programme covering a single debt gets no deemed consent.

The threshold was substituted by the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2019. Programmes applied for before 4 November 2019 keep the older unanimous rule.

The arithmetic in five lines

Business DAS kept the old rule. Regulation 24(1ZA) still requires every creditor of a legal person, trust or unincorporated body to consent.

Whether all your creditors have to agree sets out the consent rules in full, and what Business DAS is covers the business version.

It moves the application from regulation 24 to regulation 25. The DAS Administrator then has to decide whether the programme is fair and reasonable, and must approve it if it is.

The word that carries it

An objection does not end the application. Where approval cannot be given under regulation 24, regulation 25(1) requires the DAS Administrator to approve a programme that is fair and reasonable.

That is a duty rather than a discretion. A programme meeting the test cannot be refused because a creditor would prefer it were not approved.

Where consent sits in the assessment

Regulation 25(2) lists the matters the DAS Administrator must have regard to, and regulation 25(3) makes that list non-exhaustive, so any other relevant factor may be weighed.

The extent to which creditors have consented is one factor among them, at regulation 25(2)(h). It does not decide the question on its own.

So a creditor holding a fifth of your debt by value has bought itself an assessment, not a veto. The fair and reasonable test goes through all twelve matters.

What the stage feels like from your side

• Your money adviser deals with the DAS Administrator. There is no hearing and nowhere for you to attend.
• It adds time, because the proposal is assessed rather than approved on the arithmetic.
• Your protection against diligence carries on while that happens.
• The programme can be approved with a condition attached under regulation 28.

No. There is no statutory list of grounds anywhere in regulations 23, 24 or 25, and nothing in them requires a creditor to explain itself.

Why that is worth knowing rather than worrying about

It sounds like bad news and is closer to the opposite. Because no ground is prescribed, an objection carries no special legal weight either.

The regulations deal with the problem at the other end, by making the extent of consent one factor in an assessment somebody else carries out. If you are told there is a fixed list of valid grounds, ask where it is written down.

Who decides what

A creditor also has to keep to the rules once a programme is running. It must not try to persuade you to withdraw from the programme or to make extra payments outside it.

Yes. From the moment your application is entered in the DAS Register it is not competent to serve a charge for payment, to commence or execute diligence, or for a creditor to petition for your sequestration.

The provision, and its date

That protection is regulation 30(1)(ba), inserted by the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2015 with effect from 27 June 2015. It ends on approval, or 14 days after a rejection notice is entered, or 28 days after a review application is entered, or on your withdrawal.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance for creditors says the same thing from the creditor’s side, which is a useful page to quote at one that is still chasing you.

Interest and charges are already frozen

Interest, fees, penalties and other charges are frozen from the date the application is recorded on the DAS Register rather than the date it is approved, under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (Interest, Fees, Penalties and Other Charges) (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

A slow decision therefore costs you nothing in charges. Whether a Debt Arrangement Scheme freezes interest covers what happens to those sums later.

Before the application goes in

A statutory moratorium lasts six months. The period was six weeks until section 23(2) of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 substituted six months in section 198 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, with effect from 1 October 2022.

The notice route is section 195 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016, and how a statutory moratorium protects you explains how to get one.

One in any twelve months, under section 195(2). It ends early if a Debt Payment Programme is approved, and it can run past six months where an application has been lodged and not yet decided.

Ask for a review within 14 days. Only once the DAS Administrator has decided that review does an appeal lie to the sheriff, under regulation 47C.

The review

A debtor, or a money adviser acting for them, may apply for review of a determination not to approve a programme. The whole of Part 10 was replaced by the 2013 amendment regulations on 2 July 2013.

The application is in writing and must be made within 14 days of intimation. The review must be carried out within 28 days, on the application and any written representations.

The appeal

You ask the DAS Administrator to review the decision first. Only once that review is decided does an appeal lie to the sheriff, under regulation 47C.

It goes by summary application within 14 days of intimation of the review decision, and only on a point of law. Regulation 47C(3) makes the sheriff’s decision final.

The clock, once a decision goes against you

Appeals to the sheriff are entered in the DAS Register, so the step is not a private one. What the DAS Register holds sets out what anyone searching it can see.

It can ask for a review. Regulation 47(2) lets a creditor named in the application apply for review of a determination to dispense with its consent, or of a determination to approve a programme.

What that means in practice

The route runs both ways and on the same timescales. A creditor gets 14 days from intimation, and the review is decided within 28 days.

A creditor may then appeal the review decision to the sheriff on a point of law under regulation 47C. What it cannot do is unpick a programme simply because it did not want one.

If the programme survives

Approval recalls any arrestment of your income or property from midnight at the start of the day before the notice goes in the register. That timing comes from regulation 26(2).

From then on it is the standard conditions in regulation 27(2) that matter, and breaking one without reasonable cause is a ground for revocation. Why a programme is revoked covers that.

Go back to the money adviser who submitted the application. The review window is 14 days, and a reworked proposal is often quicker than an appeal.

What tends to be worth revisiting

• The figures behind the payment, because the Common Financial Tool is the first thing regulation 25(2) points at.
• The length of the programme, which is a factor in its own right at regulation 25(2)(b).
• Whether every qualifying debt went in, since the application has to provide for all of them.
• Whether a lump sum or an asset could shorten the programme.

Timing, if you are starting again

The old route of intimating an intention to apply, which carried its own six weeks of protection, was revoked on 1 April 2015. Protection before an application now runs through the moratorium.

So the practical constraint on re-protection is the moratorium, one in any twelve months. How to apply for a Debt Payment Programme sets out the sequence.

Where the help comes from

You cannot apply on your own. Regulation 20(2)(a) requires the application to be made by a money adviser on the debtor’s behalf.

Since 4 November 2019 a money adviser may not charge an individual a fee for Debt Arrangement Scheme work, under regulation 12(2) as substituted by SSI 2019/315.

Our Debt Arrangement Scheme page sets out how we help, and whether you need a money adviser explains who qualifies as one.