The surviving list is fixed by statute. No trustee and no provider can widen it or negotiate around it.

Here is each category with its provision, what does go in, and what happens to a joint debt. What a protected trust deed is covers the solution itself.

A debt that cannot go in was never part of the arrangement, and a debt that survives is claimed in the deed like any other and simply is not released when you are discharged.

Three categories, not two

The Scottish Government’s page on debts that can be included in a trust deed separates them in the same way, and almost every commercial page collapses the middle row.

Why the middle row matters most

A creditor whose debt is claimed in the deed shares in the dividend, so the balance surviving your discharge is smaller than the debt you started with. A liability that never went in is untouched.

So both categories leave you owing something afterwards, by two different routes. Ask your trustee which of your debts falls into which.

Court fines and penalties, compensation and forfeiture orders, debts from fraud or breach of trust, aliment and maintenance obligations, student loans, secured debts, and anything arising after the date you grant the deed.

The provision that holds the list

Section 184(6) of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 sets out what the letter of discharge does not do, and it imports the whole of section 145(3) into a trust deed discharge.

Discharge releases you from the debts and obligations existing at the date you granted the deed, apart from those. Everything on the list below stays your responsibility.

The exclusions, limb by limb

Section 145(3)(g) also preserves an obligation imposed by section 215, which is a duty to co-operate with the trustee rather than a debt. It is not something you owe money on.

Two things to notice about the court fines limb

The word any is doing real work. Fines, penalties, compensation and forfeiture orders imposed by any court are outside the discharge, and the provision is not limited to Scottish courts.

Enforcement of them also carries on separately from the trust deed. That includes fines you may have half forgotten about.

Because section 185 of the 2016 Act says so, and it names the specific enactments. It is a deliberate statutory carve-out rather than a lender’s policy.

The four enactments named

Section 185 provides that section 184 does not affect the right to recover any debt arising from a student loan, and defines a student loan by reference to four enactments.

• Section 73(f) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.
• Section 1 of the Education (Student Loans) Act 1990.
• Section 22 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998.
• Article 3 of the Education (Student Support) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

No Scottish debt solution removes one

A student loan cannot go into a Debt Payment Programme either, and it survives sequestration on the same footing. What the Debt Arrangement Scheme is sets out what that scheme can and cannot include.

Repayments are normally collected through the tax system once your income passes the relevant threshold, so a student loan behaves differently from a credit card balance in the first place. The Student Loans Company is the right contact for questions about your own repayments.

Ordinary unsecured debts, and arrears rather than ongoing bills. Overdrafts, buy now pay later credit, credit cards, personal loans, and arrears of utilities, rent or council tax accrued before you signed.

The dividing line is the date you grant the deed

What you already owe on that date is a debt in the trust deed. What falls due afterwards is a bill you keep paying.

Council tax is the clearest example of a single bill falling on both sides of that line, and whether you can include council tax in a trust deed works through it.

One rule about a council’s claim that is worth knowing

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s guidance for trustees says that where a local authority claims council tax and the debtor has already paid part of the period claimed, the authority should reduce its claim accordingly.

So check the years and the amounts on the council’s claim against what you have actually paid. A claim that overstates the period is worth querying through the trustee.

What happens to interest on what does go in

Claims are valued as at the relevant date, so interest accruing after the date of granting is not claimable in the trust deed. That is a rule about what a creditor can claim rather than a prohibition on the underlying account.

Your share goes into the trust deed and the other person becomes solely responsible for the payments. The Scottish Government states that in terms, and it catches out couples and family members constantly.

Why a joint debt does not halve

A joint loan, a joint overdraft or a shared credit agreement does not shrink because one party is in a trust deed. The creditor pursues the other party for the whole balance, as the mygov.scot page on debts in a trust deed sets out.

That makes it a conversation to have with the other person before you sign, rather than after they open the letter.

Couples cannot share a deed either

Section 164(1) requires a trust deed over a single estate, and AiB confirms couples cannot grant a joint trust deed whatever their marital or civil partnership status. How much debt you need for a trust deed in Scotland covers the entry conditions.

Where both partners have debt problems, both cases need looking at. Ideally by the same adviser, so the household budget adds up.

They are outside the deed entirely. Section 184(6)(a)(i) means a liability arising after the date of granting is not released by your discharge, and the new creditor is not bound by the arrangement.

Two consequences, both practical

A new debt cannot be added to the deed later, so it sits alongside your contribution rather than inside it. And a new creditor can pursue you independently, because nothing binds them.

New borrowing also eats into the same surplus the contribution comes out of, and it is not an allowed expense in the assessment. Whether you can get credit or borrow money during a trust deed covers what is and is not permitted.

If your circumstances change, tell the trustee rather than borrowing

There is no statutory payment break in a protected trust deed. The relief the Act provides is an extension of the payment period under section 168(2)(c), with AiB notified under section 180.

Your trustee may agree to a break as a matter of practice, which is a different thing from an entitlement. What happens if you miss a payment on your trust deed sets out what follows two consecutive missed contributions.

You cannot leave a debt out on purpose either

All creditors have to be notified and all assets and liabilities disclosed. AiB warns that deliberate misinformation or non-disclosure may constitute a common law offence.

Then a trust deed may be the wrong tool, and that is worth establishing before anyone signs anything. A deed that leaves your fines and your student loan untouched has not solved much.

How the same debts fare on the other routes

The statutory exclusions in section 145(3) apply to sequestration in the same way, so switching route does not move a fine. What sequestration in Scotland is sets out the differences that do matter.

What a trust deed still commits you to

It is formal insolvency, recorded on the Register of Insolvencies, with a payment period of 48 months from granting in the usual case. How long a trust deed lasts in Scotland covers the duration.

AiB’s protected trust deed information document says the register entry appears for the deed’s duration plus 12 months after completion. That is AiB’s own statement of practice rather than a statutory retention rule.

The exercise worth doing first

Write out every debt you have with the date it arose, and put the excluded ones on one side of the page. How much debt you can write off with a trust deed explains why the date of granting decides most of it.

Then get somebody with nothing to sell you to look at both columns. Should you use a free debt charity or a paid debt adviser covers that choice, and our trust deed page sets out how the solution works.