The five-week period
The relevant objection period runs from the day after publication of the notice in the Register of Insolvencies. The trustee needs to receive an objection within that period for it to count.
This is not a vote you organise yourself. Your trustee administers the notice, creditor documents and responses.
Two separate thresholds
AiB guidance says a trust deed may be protected if the objecting creditors do not represent a majority in number and do not represent one third or more in value.
Either threshold can matter. It is therefore misleading to consider only how many lenders you have, or to assume a large creditor has the same practical influence as a small one.
For illustration, if total relevant claims were £18,000, one third would be £6,000. An objection representing that amount reaches the value threshold. This is arithmetic only: the trustee determines which claims and values count in an actual case.
A creditor who does not respond by the deadline is treated as having acceded under the rules. That is different from receiving a signed letter of approval from every creditor.
Signing is not the final decision
Even where objections are insufficient to block protection, the other requirements still need to be met and the trust deed registered appropriately.
Ask for written confirmation of the protected status and effective date. Keep it with your signed proposal. Our process guide puts this stage in the full sequence.
If protection is not obtained
An unprotected trust deed does not give the same protection from creditors. You can still owe the money, and recovery or bankruptcy action may remain possible.
Ask your trustee what has happened, whether the issue can be resolved and what the next options are. Do not assume that a failed protection application automatically cancels all obligations under a document you have signed.
Questions worth asking in advance
- Are there particular creditor or claim issues in my case?
- When will the notice be published and the period end?
- How will I be told the result?
- What should I do with correspondence in the meantime?
- What are the consequences if protection is not obtained?
No website can guarantee creditor behaviour. Be cautious of a success-rate claim presented as certainty about your own proposal.
Letters after protection
A formal statement or notice is not necessarily an attempt to enforce payment. Forward relevant correspondence to your trustee and ask what action is needed. Never ignore court papers on the assumption that they must be a mistake.
Sources & further reading
Sources checked for this guide on 6 September 2026. Follow the original guidance for full detail.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 where indicated by the source. No government endorsement is implied.