Bankruptcy and maternal home

shell-177

Hi: I recently got divorced and live in the marital home, I was awarded a 70% share by the courts. We have equity in the house. I have two kids 17 and 19 and have to sell when youngest is 21 (4 years). Ex has 50,000 worth of debts (35000 charged on house). He is still gambling and getting further into debt. Ex has said he is going to file for bankruptcy, if he does can they force sale of house now? I wont come out with enough to buy somewhere else. Any advice gratefully given. Desperate exhousewife :embarasse

debtinfo

Hi shell and welcome, how much equity does he have in the house

shell-177

Hiya

Has 30% share works out about 80,000 equity for him but he has charges of 35,000.

Shell

debtinfo

have the charges been put on after the matrimonial order and are they in his name only

shell-177

No they were put on before we went to court, and yes they are in his name only :mad:

debtinfo

okay then his equity may be in the region of £80,000 possibly less (have you had a recent valuation). The Official Receiver (or trustee) will want to realise his equity for the benefit of the creditors. They have up to 3 years to do this. Normally they will offer the equity to be bought out by him, you or one of your family members or friends. If no one can do this then they will eventually force a sale to get the equity. Usually is there are children involved they will give at least 12 months for them to find alternative accomodation

shell-177

Thanks for replying. Its so confusing lol is there any way he could sign the whole house over to me now and then go bankrupt a few months down the line? I realise he has the charges on the house of 35,000 but if he signed it over to me I could eventually sell and pay them off. Im more worried about the kids not having a roof plus if he signed over now his share would still be the kids inheritance. Does that make sense?

debtinfo

Im afraid not even if he did the trustee would overturn the transaction and he would get in a lot of trouble for hiding the assets from his creditors

shell-177

You've been very helpful ta!:rotfl:

out_of_cash

found out the OR can do a 2year 3mth review of property situation , its usualy dealt with sooner after a year has passed in the BR

Although in my case its been 18mths since br and not a letter,and only in rare cases do they get involved with a forced sale as creds will lose out again, admin costs, court costs etc.This is in more detail on the insolvencys web site legal handbook.