Brother in bankruptcy, Parents being asked to pay on his behalf

jamesdono

Please if anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

Last year my brother declared himself bankrupt, prior to my parents knowing. However he racked up most of his debt whilst in the army and based over in Germany...at the time one of his assets was a 206cc convertable..he wrote this off within a week of purchasing and was kept in storage for over a year. My parents borrowed him the necessary money to bring it out of storage and to repair and to bring back to England to sell and recover some of the money that they had spent in recovering etc, this amounted to 3k...at the same time there was tax outstanding on the vehicle owing to the inland revenue of about 2k...when the car was sold, the 2k was passed onto the inland rev and my brother also provided my parents with the money that they had spent on the car for him this totalled over 3k.in the end my brother recouped about 6k for the car, 3k sent to my parents to pay off their credit card which included the bills of flights to germany, storage fees, repair of vehicle etc

My parents have now received a letter and had several phone calls from "the insolvency company" demanding that they must repay 3k to them as my brother at the time preffered to repay my parents as oppose to his creditors..this company are puttin pressure onto my parents to repay the 3k and are even saying things like you are his parents it is your duty to help him out in this situation..the thing is surely they cannot make my parents repay this 3k as they have no legal ties to his debt ..ie they were not guarentors of the loan taken out for the car or any of his debts that made him go bankrupt...

Question i ask is, are my parents liable to repay this money that they received from my brother...i have told them to seek legal advice but thought in the meantime i could hopefully gather some information from the moneysaving experts themselves...

Any help / comment would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

James

shadowdragon

I dont think they can FORCE your parents to pay, they can only request they repay what they deem a preferential payment to a creditor.

It sounds as if they are harrassing your parents, get them to ring the CCCS or speak to CAB about it, that would be my first port of call.

dalip

Hi James
Although i have no personal experience of this,it has been brought up before and the advice has always been to just say you have not got it. They can not take it if your parens have not got it.They may try to bully your parents but they should stand firm and just say they have not got it to give back. Dx

jamesdono

shadowdragon wrote: »

I dont think they can FORCE your parents to pay, they can only request they repay what they deem a preferential payment to a creditor

this is the exact term they used Preferential payment..they are quite worried, altho i have told them nobody can force them to repay this as my brothers debt is not legally bound to them in any way.. I have said to my parents to make them an offer of 5or10 pounds per month for as long as it takes to repay the debt and that by proposing to pay them they must accept their payment offer, is this correct, is this a viable option for them?

dalip

No tell them not to offer anything. WHY SHOULD THEY! Find out the name of the IP that is bothering them and try ringing them yourself and telling them your parents do not have they money and they are making themselves ill through worry.Dx

shadowdragon

No dont offer anything, they dont have to pay. Is this a private company chasing the Preferential payment? or the Insolvency Practitioner/services.

I would get your brother to speak to his Official Receiver about it, and tell him if they are chasing his parents that they dont have it and cant give them something they dont have. Remember they cant access there bank details ect unless there was a very good reason (fraud ect) and then it would have to be done through a court order ect.

Please tell them not to panic or make any knee jerk reactions.

maybe write a letter, explaining exactly where this money has gone i.e repaying there CC ect, the OR insolvency services should not put your parents into debt because there son went BC (if that makes sense).

SNAP DALIP LOL

dalip

Snap SD:D Glad we agree.Dx

jamesdono

guys i can not thank you enough for your swift response and replies, it is the actual "insolvency company" that are chasing the payment(thats the name of the co on the letterhead) - i will speak to my brother tomorrow and ask him to speak to his offical receiver, i will also make a phone call myself to this company and try and gather more info and do a bit of reasoning etc, at this point in time the info i have obv received has been a bit sketchy so will try and gather as much info on this as possible. Then i will ask my parents to provide their cc statements showing all their purchases etc totalling this figure - then i will write a letter to the insolvency company and hopefully put my parents mind at ease..today has been a very stessful day for them, but hopefully thanks to all your kind words and wisdom, heres hoping tomorrow will be the start of removing this issue from the forefront of their minds..

dalip

If you stress that it is making them ill through worry they should back off. When this as happned in the past on here the OR normally accepts that the person can not repay and leaves it at that. Good luck and please lt us know what happens.Dx

Rylynn

Do not let this company have any of your parents cc statements please or bank account details, they do not have to give them to them.

I agree with Dalip and SD here, your parents should not be liable for this, I would be extremely firm on the phone with this company, do not give them room for any leverage. Also tell them they will be reported to your brothers Official Reciever as well, that may just shut them up. They are harrassing your parents, if it continues get legal advice from one of the numbers in Dalips signature and write to your local MP as well.

RL