Savings & House

bernie777

Hi,

I'm sure this has been ansered many time before on these forums but I'm afarid I just don't have time to sift through all the threads. My parents are set to declare bankruptcy very shortly and I have a couple of questions:

1. My mother has £30K in a savings account (nowhere near enought to stave off bankruptcy) that she inherited when her mother passed away last year. Is there anyway she can get to keep this money? Can she pass it on to her children immediately as a gift?

2. Their house is in negative equity and they also have a large secured loan against it - what are the chances of them losing their home?

Many thanks for your time.

Bernie

nervousmother

1) regarding the 30k no im afraid she cant keep this money, although not enought to pay all the creditors it will get shared out between them. If she gives the money away before BR the OR will try to recover it and give her a bankruptcy restriction order to boot.

2) it depends on the mortgage repayments, can she afford the mortgage and the secured loan? what do these two add up to? is it similar to rents in the area?

bernie777

Thanks for the reply - it's really appreciated.

My mother has a secure job and can just about afford the mortgage repayments but, unfortunately, my father's company went to the wall earlier this year and he is no longer working. This has meant they are struggling to meet the montly repayments on the secured loan. Hence (amongst other things) why they are opting for bankruptcy.

the-muffin-man

Would it not make more sense to dib into the £30k and use that to pay the monthly payments on the secured loan for a while? How long this lasts obviously depends on how much the payments are.

Hopefully this will give your father time to get back on his feet and working again. If they go BR now their credit rating will be screwed for the next 6 years and they will certainly lose the 30k anyway and have no benefit from it.

bernie777

My father is in his 60's and suffered a heart attack a few years ago so his chances of gaining employement are virtually nil. He has tried desperately to find work but no one wants to know. Using the £30K to pay the monthly payments would only be delaying the inevitable I'm afraid.

We wanted to find a way of using the £30K that would benefit them but it looks as though all roads are closed. Mum did consider handing some over to us but, if the OR can can after us for the money then I think we'd all rather not go down that route.

Thanks for the help though.

peachyprice

bernie777 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply - it's really appreciated.

My mother has a secure job and can just about afford the mortgage repayments but, unfortunately, my father's company went to the wall earlier this year and he is no longer working. This has meant they are struggling to meet the montly repayments on the secured loan. Hence (amongst other things) why they are opting for bankruptcy.

Just checking that you are aware the secured loan would not be included in bankruptcy and as long as they keep the house they will have to continue paying it.