Wife's house at risk for my debt?

ian_w_4

Looking for a bit of advice and thought I'd try you lovely people before paying out for a Solicitor!

I am self employed (partnership) and we recently had a customer go bust owing us about £15,000. We now have to trade out of this which should be possible but given the current climate (we work in the automotive sector just to help things!) I may have to cease trading which will leave me with a debt of around £10,000 to find. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but enough to cause problems.

My wife is obviously concerned that the house could be at risk should the worst happen.

One saving grace might be that the house is hers, was bought by her before we married, the deeds are in her name only and the mortgage comes from her own bank account (though we have a joint account just for paying the bills).

Could it be argued that the house is not one of my assets and therefore not at risk or does it become part of the pot just because we are now married?

Thanks for any advice.

Georgie4

ian_w wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice and thought I'd try you lovely people before paying out for a Solicitor!

I am self employed (partnership) and we recently had a customer go bust owing us about £15,000. We now have to trade out of this which should be possible but given the current climate (we work in the automotive sector just to help things!) I may have to cease trading which will leave me with a debt of around £10,000 to find. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but enough to cause problems.

My wife is obviously concerned that the house could be at risk should the worst happen.

One saving grace might be that the house is hers, was bought by her before we married, the deeds are in her name only and the mortgage comes from her own bank account (though we have a joint account just for paying the bills).

Could it be argued that the house is not one of my assets and therefore not at risk or does it become part of the pot just because we are now married?

Thanks for any advice.

If the house is in her sole name and this was the case before you were married then it should be fine. Problems start if it can be proved that you have moved assets into your wifes name in order to avoid liabilities

ian_w_4

Thanks for the quick reply!

Everything has always been in her name since she bought the house in 2001. Never moved anything between names so that should be fine.

KeepYourChinUp_2

You should make sure you seek legal advice before hand if you do have to cease trading as that way you will cause yourself less stress as you will know for certain.

Goodluck

Pee

You should def take some advice... I think the advice given here is good, but we don't know what we don't know...

RAS

Your first port of call should be to contact one of the Debt Charities; see links below. Their services are free; they have no vested interest to serve; their advisors are professionally trained and the advice they give will be objective and in your best interests only.

CCCS 0800 138 1111 National Debtline 0808 808 4000 Business Debt Line 0800 197 6026 CAB – Contact your local office and ask to speak to a Specialist Financial Advisor. Insolvency Service- 0845 602 9848


Nicked from Tiger on the BR forum but you might want to talk to teh business debt line first.

Steel_2

ian_w wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice and thought I'd try you lovely people before paying out for a Solicitor!

I am self employed (partnership) and we recently had a customer go bust owing us about £15,000. We now have to trade out of this which should be possible but given the current climate (we work in the automotive sector just to help things!) I may have to cease trading which will leave me with a debt of around £10,000 to find. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but enough to cause problems.

My wife is obviously concerned that the house could be at risk should the worst happen.

One saving grace might be that the house is hers, was bought by her before we married, the deeds are in her name only and the mortgage comes from her own bank account (though we have a joint account just for paying the bills).

Could it be argued that the house is not one of my assets and therefore not at risk or does it become part of the pot just because we are now married?

Thanks for any advice.

I don't have any specific advice, but wanted to let you know I understand how you must be feeling right now as I had a client go belly up four months ago owing me nearly 10k.

I decided to go hell for leather and trade out of it, which I've almost done. I'm in the marketing sector, which is an odd one to be in. Either people increase their spend or cut it completely in this area.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and let us know how it works out.