That four years is much longer than the bankruptcy itself. A Minimal Asset Process discharge comes at six months and a full administration discharge can come at twelve, and the window keeps running.

The Scots law word for it is acquirenda, meaning things to be acquired. It is one of the least understood parts of the process and one of the most expensive to get wrong.

Four years from the date of sequestration. Section 79(5) defines a relevant date as one after the date of sequestration and before the date four years after it.

Note what section 79(5) does and does not do

It vests nothing. It defines a phrase, and that phrase is then used in the provisions that do the work, including sections 85(1), 86(4) and 87(1).

The vesting itself happens under section 86(5), which says the estate vests in the trustee as at the date of acquisition.

The start date is not always the day you were told

Section 22(7) defines the date of sequestration. On a debtor application it is the date the award is made.

On a creditor or trust deed petition it is the date the sheriff granted warrant, which is earlier. So somebody sequestrated on a creditor’s petition reaches the end of the four years sooner than the award letter suggests.

The whole timetable in one place

That is the wrong question, and asking it is how people get this wrong. Section 86(4)(b) asks whether the thing would have vested in the trustee had it been part of your estate on the date of sequestration.

Apply the test rather than the label

Money would have vested. So an inheritance, a lottery win, a gift and a redress payment all vest, at the moment you acquire them, if that moment falls inside the four years.

Nothing turns on whether the money was a surprise. What happens to savings covers the same test applied to money you already had.

Where each kind of payment lands

Citizens Advice Scotland puts it in one sentence: if you get any new money or property within four years of the start of your bankruptcy, it may be claimed by the trustee, and it names payment protection insurance compensation and an inheritance as examples.

The inheritance refinement the Accountant in Bankruptcy adds

Its notes for guidance on moveable assets say an inheritance vests unless it is held on trust for or by the debtor.

Where it is held in trust for you, the Accountant in Bankruptcy says it vests only if you become entitled to the capital during the four years. That sits on top of section 88(1)(c), under which property you hold on trust for another person does not vest at all.

Your income. Section 85(1) says income of whatever nature received on a relevant date vests in the debtor rather than the trustee, other than income arising from estate already vested.

Wages are not acquirenda

Income earned after sequestration belongs to you rather than the trustee, subject only to a debtor contribution order.

Section 85(2) makes that subject to the debtor contribution machinery in sections 90 to 97, which is a separate calculation. How a contribution is worked out covers it.

The boundary the Act never defines

The Act does not define income of whatever nature, and no published source draws the line. A bonus, a tax refund, a redundancy payment and back pay are all arguable either way.

We are not going to guess for you. That is a question for your trustee about your own payment, and asking costs nothing.

Two other things outside the estate

Section 86(11) preserves section 85 and any right acquired in the estate in good faith and for value. An approved pension arrangement is dealt with separately again.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s notes on claims for patrimonial loss and compensation say a right to claim for personal injury does not vest at the date of sequestration, while a sum awarded during the acquirenda period falls to the estate.

You must tell your trustee immediately, under section 87(1), and failing to do so is a criminal offence rather than merely a breach of the rules.

The word in the section is immediately

Section 87(1) is not limited to assets either. Its second limb catches any other substantial change in your financial circumstances.

Spending it does not solve anything

Section 87(4) makes a dealing with vested estate of no effect in a question with the trustee, with good-faith exceptions in sections 87(5) to (7).

So an inheritance that has been spent is still owed to the estate. Concealing or disposing of estate is a separate offence again.

What the trustee has to do to claim it

On the face of section 86(5) the vesting is automatic, and section 86(6) gives the machinery for getting the property out of a third party’s hands.

No source read describes a claim, a notice or an election by the trustee beyond that. What a trustee does sets out the role more generally.

No, because the four years runs from the date of sequestration and nothing about your discharge shortens it. The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s debtor guide tells debtors to report new assets for a period of four years.

What discharge does instead

It releases you from the debts you owed at the date of sequestration, subject to the exceptions. What discharge ends and what carries on goes through the whole list.

The trustee’s work continues, the contribution order continues, and the acquirenda window continues. Discharge is a release from debts rather than the end of the case.

Which is why the letter matters less than the date

Work from the date of sequestration in section 22(7), not from the discharge certificate. Those can be three and a half years apart.

Nothing read addresses what happens where money arrives after the four years but the entitlement arose inside them. That is genuinely unresolved, so take advice on it rather than assuming.

Recall becomes possible. Section 31(1) lets an application go to the Accountant in Bankruptcy on the ground that the debtor has paid, or is able to pay, the debts in full.

What paying in full has to cover

How recall works sets out both routes and what recall does not undo.

The interest trap

Paying the whole of your debts within six months avoids the interest.

Paying only part of them does not. Section 37A(4) makes interest payable on the whole debt, including the part you have already paid.

Section 37A(4) is express that a part payment loses the relief. What the section does not settle is whether that is tested debt by debt, so take advice before paying some creditors and not others.

Whether interest is written off on a quick repayment works through the section.

And the transitional window has gone

A transitional window for people sequestrated before 25 June 2025 closed on 25 December 2025.

So anyone sequestrated before that date who pays in full now pays interest from the date of sequestration. Older guidance that presents the window as open is out of date.

Yes, and it is the most common way one becomes a full administration. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy determine that the modifications cease to apply.

Watch the figure

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.

Anyone quoting £5,000 has missed the prescribing regulation. How a transfer to full administration works covers what changes.

What conversion costs you

The automatic six-month discharge goes, creditor claims and dividends become live, and a contribution can be assessed. What happens if your income improves deals with the other common trigger.

An inheritance arriving in month two is nobody’s fault and is not misconduct. Not reporting it is a criminal offence, and failing to co-operate with the trustee is named at section 156(2)(n) as one of the matters a bankruptcy restrictions decision has regard to.

What to do the week the money arrives

• Tell your trustee before you spend anything, because the duty in section 87(1) is immediate.
• Ask in writing whether the payment is income under section 85 or estate under section 86.
• Ask for a written figure for the debts, the interest and the trustee’s costs before considering recall.
• Get free advice from Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline or Advice Direct Scotland before committing the money anywhere.