Spouse's property and bankruptcy

Davenbex

Hi there

I was wanting a bit of advice! I have massive debt (around £22,000) that i dont see anyway of being able to ever pay off! They all spiralled out of control when my Husband suffered an injury and was unable to work for 18 months. The charges and interest climbed as i just burried my head in the sand and tried desperately to juggle to keep them happy.

I am now considering going bankrupt as I think this may be the best option so that i can be clear of it before i retire!! What i am wanting to know is are they able to take anything that belongs to my husband? All the debt is in my name but he owns the car etc. Do they look at everything in the household or just things that belong to me? I have kids etc so i beleive they cany take things that belong to them or are essential to there wellbeing.

Also has anyone else done this for a similar situation and do you think its really the best option? Is it true what everyone i know has been telling me that i will never get a bank account and it will follow me for the rest of my life?

Many thanks for reading and i look forward to some informed replies!

Bex

P.S. forgot to mention that we have one car on finance in my husbands name - can they touch this? Or can they insist that we can't afford the credit and that we should be paying the money into the bankruptcy?

skintchick

Bump!

Surely someone can help? I have no knowledge of this kind of thing myself.

smokey112

Bex

Don't know if I can be of help re our circumstances - but we are in Scotland

We where declared BR in Oct of last year - we have been allowed to keep our Car - on finance - as our IPA (what we pay to the OR for 3 years to pay our creditors at the end) is what the OR accepts - our total debt was £80k

AFAIK - your debts are your debts - if you have any equity in your house (that is if you own it) then the OR may be interested in that however it depends on how much the mortgage is and what it is worth - my house (as my OH is not in the mortgage has no equity - I have to find someone to pay £500 for the OR to "lose" his interest in the property (beneficial Interest) - this means that if house prices go up in the next 3 yrs he can't say I want some of that.

Re bank account - on previous posts I have said that our bank account is the same one as we had before BR - just a Basic account. the OR is not interested in your or your kids property unless you have 42inch plasma TV - expensive Jewellery, Persian carpets etc -

HTH

Anyone - please correct me if I am incorrect

Ang
x

in*the*red_6

Hi Bex and welcome
I'm not going to give you any advice on bankruptcy as I don't know much but just wondered if you've sought help from either the CAB or one of the debt charities about your debts before deciding to go down this route? £22,000 seems like a huge amount of debt to you at the moment but there are people on this board who have dealt with/are dealing with figures much higher with the help of this forum and often those charities. If you feel you can post more details about income and outgoings people will be able to give you more specific advice for your situation.
Best wishes
ITR

Conor_3

If it is you that is going bankrupt, they can only take things belonging solely to you however unless you've individual items that'll fetch £100's at the local salerooms, they'll not touch them.

TAKE A VERY CAREFUL NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING.
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Where it becomes complicated and very risky is if you have a joint mortgage and equity in your home. When you are declared bankrupt, your interest in your half of the home now becomes the property of the Official Receiver. In effect, he owns half of the equity in your house although you'll still be responsible for the mortgage. You will have to get your home valued and provide the settlement figure for your mortgage. Your husband will then have to buy the Official Receivers interest off him. If he doesn't, the Official Receiver can order the sale of the house. The Official Receiver sets the price which is UP TO 50% of the equity. In my case, it was 30%.

What this means in practice:

Say you bought your house for £100,000 and have a £90,000 mortgage left on it. It is valued at £120,000. You have £30,000 in equity. Half of that equity now belongs to the Official Receiver. For you to keep your home, your husband would have to find up to £15,000 to buy the Official Receivers interest from him.

Davenbex

Thanks for your replies!

I will sort out details of my income etc later and post them to see if anyone can see another way out of this rather than bankruptcy!

Thanks again

Bex

Addicted2Chocolate

if the property is solely in your partners name, the OR woud be unlikely to claim an interest in the property unless you have contributed to the deposit of the mortgage repayments. If you have paid towards deposit or mortgage payments they may put the info to the creditors and call a first meeting, for the creditors to vote on who will be appointed to act as your Trustee. It will be the Trustee job to realise anmy assets.