Bankruptcy and "Beneficial Interest"?

europa16

Hi all,

I currently owe over £23000 to three creditors, Egg, Mint and MCS (First Direct debt). The debts are solely in my name, and having been on incapacity benefit for a number of years, and my partner being in and out of work (he's self-employed), I managed to run up these debts on basic living.
It's getting to the point where I cannot see a day when these debts will be paid off, and so I've been thinking about applying for bankruptcy.

The question I have is: Could they take my partner's house off him. The mortgage is in his name only, and so are the title deeds. The only forms I filled in at the time were to say I'd be living there. Would the fact I live there be considered as "beneficial interest"? I do try to make some sort of contribution to the bills due to his erratic income. Would this give them reason to pursue it?

Sorry if I'm rambling...I'm trying to get my head around it. It's not a decision I want to take lightly.

Thanks

Xbigman

As long as your debts are unsecured and you name is not on the deeds of the property they cannot touch it in respect of any debts 'you' owe.
What you might find is that they pressure you to secure your debts via a new loan that is secured/joint names. Just say no to any of that sort of suggestion. Similarly, say no if they try to get your partner to pay your debts.
Regards




X

earthboundboy

Have you looked at all the other options before bankruptcy? I'd suggest speaking to the CCCS (or similar) first and see if you can get some sort of payment plan set up. My wife and I have joint debts of 48k and the CCCS said that bankruptcy needn't be an option - we do both work although you can often negotiate quite low payments through the CCCS. It's certainly worth looking at. They should be able to help you restructure your income and expenditure so you're not increasing your debts on living expenses.

One side note of caution with Egg though - make sure any correspondence with them is sent recorded delivery and keep as accurate a paper trail as you can. They're not great on the customer relations side when you are having payment problems, in my experience.

europa16

Thanks for the advice. I am with Payplan, and have a monthly plan set up. I do try to keep up with it. But it's going to be at least 12 years before I settle these debts. The defaults are supposed to come off after 6! I looked into an IVA but I don't have enough per month, so that's out of the question.
Anyway, now my mind's been put at rest about the roof over our heads, I think I will file in the new year when our joint loan (with Black horse- 43.9% - robbin' b :mad: ds!) is finished, and i can get us disassociated.

missimaxo

Hi

Sorry to be bearer of bad news, if you made yourself bankrupt then the Official Reciever WOULD probably allege a benficial interest in the house, especially if you were together when the house was purchased, and contributions towards bills would mean that you were contributing towards the general household expenditure and therefore also aquiring an interest in the house.

It would be deiificult to prove, and they would probably appoint a trustee to decide how much interest you had aquired.

Tina

trencherpilot

Hi Europa

My wife was declared bankrupt earlier this year. The worrying bit was that we have a joint mortgage on a house with vertually no equity, but I have a house that I've had for 10 years. My wife has never had anything to do with that one. I was worried when she had to declare herself bankrupt that as her husband they'd go after my house.

The receiver looked at all the paperwork, and basically said you've never paid a cent towards it, so we can't go after it.

I also sent a letter saying basically that if they did go after it, I'd mortgage it to a point (and fight legally with the proceeds) where there would be no financial gain for them. As a result they have put a charge on our joint property which I'm in the process of buying my wifes share. But left the other house completely alone. Any questions send me an IM

Trencherpilot

rdwarr

CTT wrote:

:: Post now removed - Edited by FM ::

That's one of the nastiest, most unhelpful posts I've seen on this forum yet. You have no knowledge of the OP's personal circumstances and therefore no right to tell them how they should have run their life, or what they believed at a particular time.

tattooed_lady

CTT wrote:

:: post now removed - Edited by FM ::

The debtfree board is for people to ask questions about their (often very difficult) situations and not to be made to feel like a 'thief'.

You have your opinion CTT and that's fine, in some circumstances I don't agree much with bankruptcy either but the words you used in your post were too harsh especially not knowing the op's full story.

Op has stated that she ran the cc's up on BASIC living, not flash cars etc, maybe we could be more supportive and recommend some other method of debt repayment eg a DMP as I'm sure bankruptcy is something she would like to avoid as well.

OP, have you contacted any free debt help companies for some advice?

Addicted2Chocolate

If the following all apply to your case: i) you did not contribute any money to the deposit at the time of property purchase ii) you have not contributed ever at all to the mortgage repayments (no payments from your bank acocunt to mortgagee, no payments to your partners account to help him pay the mortgage) iii) your contributions to bills have been for your half share of consumed utilities such as council tax, electric, phone, water, tv licence

if all the above apply then the Official Receiver as Trustee would be unlikely to identify a beneficial interest. Howver if you have ever directly or indirectly contributed towards the deposit or mortgage repaymetns then the Official Receiver may idenify a beneficial interest, if so the facts would be included in the Report To Creditors (which is issued to all your creditors stating your assets debts, causes of bankruptcy etc), and a meeting of creditors would be called for the appointment of a Insolvency Practioner to act as Trustee in Bankruptcy. It is the Trustee's job to pursue and recover any beneficial interest, but bottom line is the creditors have to fund the Trustees costs.

Ignore the unhelpful ciricial posts! email me if you have any specific questions but please note I cannot give legal advice, I am not a trained solcitor, but have some work experience in bankruptcy field.

trencherpilot

Europa

When my wife was having problems, she went to see an insolvency practitioner. 1st appointment is free, and they explain all the possible choices. Hers was brilliant. Look in the Yellow pages and make an appointment. He/ She may come up with a solution you didn't know existed.