Help with bankruptcy

Gibblestick

Hi I have a friend (no really!!! it's not me) who has run up a lot of debt (at least £45k that I know of, probably a lot more) and he has decided that bankruptcy is the way to go.
He needs to know if they can re-posses his home or their cars as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. The house is owned outright by his wife (no mortgage) . All the debts are in his name alone, no joint debts. She is solvent
He got into the debt since marrying her and he has little other than clothes and a beer belly to show for his spending.
Any help would be appreciated

missk_ensington

I very much doubt that they would allow his wife to keep a mortgage free house whilst he declares bankruptcy. I think it would depend on what his contribution to maintaining the house is, what his income is, if his wife works and what she earns compared to him.

Yes they would take any assets of value and that would include his car, unless it's a work vehicle and can be proven as such. That would also include goods from his home like TV's etc (not if they're just little cheapy things I'm talking £1000 plasma's etc).

Getting rid of anything would be disspiation of assets and carry jail sentence. My ex tried to dissipate his static caravan, and it might have worked if he hadn't been a ****** to me, cos the first thing I did was phone and tell them!

There are other threads on bankruptcy which go into a lot more detail

CLAPTON

he needs to get expert advice....if he doesn't know the answers to the question you have posed, then he's probably not really in a position to know whether bankruptcy is the best thing,

tell him to consult CCCS or Payplan

the question of the house is complicated, if she owned it before they married and they haven't been married very long and she can show that he didn't contribute to running the house then it should be safe...but it too important not to get expert advice.

he will probably lose his car if it is of value and not essential for his job but he would normally be able to buy a cheap car (say less than 2k). Her car should be safe.

Gibblestick

Thanks guys (and gals).
I don't think that those are the answers he wanted, Maybe he'll have to rethink his strategy

Addicted2Chocolate

agree with other posts. even if house is in wifes sole name, if OR can show he has contributed to deposit or the mortgage repayments then it is likely a meeting of creditors will be held, for creditors to vote on which insolvency practitioner will be the Trustee. Iit will be the Trustee's job to realise assets and to try and proove that the bankrupt has a beneficial interest in the house. If she has paid all mortgage but he has paid all bills, this means in effect he has paid indirectly to mortgage (as she usd her share of utilities so should have paid her share) and a beneficial interest may be claimed. How the Trustee would calculate the value of a Beneficial Interest is compicated, called Equitable Accounting.
OR would likely wonder how house is mortgage free: this is very rare these days so they would look at whether his income went into the house.
Did she own the house in her sole name before they married?