Made an offer for BI but not heard anything

dack_2

Hi,

I was made bankrupt in August '09 and have a joint mortgage with my wife (she is not BR). Shortly after my OR phone interview my case was passed to a trustee at PWC.

I submitted house valuations to the trustee who then arranged their own valuation which came in 10k higher than the one I submitted.

Ultimately this led to the trustee calculating the BI as around £13.5k, much higher than we had expected and way beyond what we can afford.

My wife decided to make an offer of £3k along with a letter explaining how their valuation seemed rather optimistic. This letter was posted late Jan of this year and we have heard nothing from the trustee since.

It can get so difficult not knowing one way or the other what is going to happen. In a sense we see every passing week as an extra week without being kicked out, on the other hand not knowing is tough to live with.

Do you think we should contact the trustee and ask what is happening regarding my wife's offer?

Thing is, the mortgage is currently on interest only and has to be paid in full by the end of April 2011, I worry that as the trustee knows this they will simply wait and see if we pay it or not. Of course if we do, the trustee will have another £3.75k+ in the BI (mortgage is £7.5k outstanding).

On a side note, I was being taken to court by Tesco despite telling them I was BR (Tesco loan accounted for over 50% of the debt in my BR). I wrote my defense and sent to court explaining that I was BR and they should contact my trustee. After about a month I received a letter saying the case had been dropped
Shortly thereafter, I received a statement regarding the Tesco loan and the last entry showed early settlement of over £16k and a final balance of £0.00, account closed. This surprised me somewhat as I have had nothing at all from my other creditors.

Regards,
dack

debtinfo

Yep i would give them a ring and ask what is going on

dack_2

Thanks debtinfo, think I will do that tomorrow.

Does the fact that I got a statement regarding the Tesco loan being 'settled' and account closed mean anything?

Wouldn't they keep it open until they had gotten their share of my estate?

Makes me wonder if things are progressing somehow. I was really hoping to maybe get ED, I assume the house thing being ongoing would prevent this?
Insolvency website, under 'Status' shows I am BR with automatic discharge 10th Aug 2010. Feel good that it's only about 4 months to go without ED. I have never heard mention or suggestion of a BRU/BRO and don't believe I did anything to warrant this but still feel a bit uneasy. Is this something that could be sprung on me last minute?

Thanks for the help

debtinfo

A BRO can be given at any point before discharge but usually things would have started rolling by now such as having a second interview.

Regards tesco, they are saying you have £0 to pay them they can still put a claim in the bankruptcy, i would suggest they have acted quickly because they have probably been given a ticking of by the court, the judges so not like having their time wasted.

The house does not have to stop ED they can carry on dealing with existing assets after discharge

dack_2

Thanks very much again debtinfo. Never had a second interview, in fact heard very little from my trustee throughout the process. Will give them a call tomorrow (re: the BI) and may be back with more questions

debtinfo

BTW it is the Official Receiver that would do any BRO not the trustee

dack_2

debtinfo wrote: »

BTW it is the Official Receiver that would do any BRO not the trustee

OK, thanks for clarifying that

dack_2

Just got off the phone to the trustee. She said they sent a letter out acknowledging receipt of my wife's offer back on 22nd January, though we never received it!

She also said she has written to HSBC for confirmation of the date our mortgage is due to be paid in full. She then said they would need an offer substantially more than the £3k we offered (they say £13.5k equity) and asked if my wife would be in a position to offer more once the mortgage had been paid off (beginning May 2011) implying that they may be prepared to wait until then. This sounds like it may be a good thing but I have some questions...

Would they be likely revalue the house closer to the time? Perhaps house value will rise?
My wife will be paying off the mortgage, hence equity will increase by £7.7k. Would they consider half of this (£3.85k) to be mine therefore increasing the BI by this amount so we effectively pay for it twice?
Once mortgage is paid we still need to save money for the trustee, how long are they likely to allow for this?
What sort of revised offer do you think my wife should make? (based on £13.5k equity)

Thanks

dack_2

evening all, quick bump

debtinfo

The problem is that they can revalue as they go, usually it is best to get it sorted as quickly as possible. I would keep pushing them to accept the offer yu have made.

1 other thought (not necessarily a good one) but would it be possible for the wife to get a remortgage or secured loan to buy the interest

dack_2

Yeah, the length of time has me concerned. In about three months or so we may be able to offer some more, say £4.5k, but this eats into our ability so save up to pay the mortgage off. We also have some house repairs (new roof) that need doing asap so have to consider this. You say we should perhaps stick to our guns with the £3k offer but what if it is rejected again? Would they still be open to further higher offers or would they just start proceedings to get us out of the house?

Regarding, remortgage/loan, my wife works approx 30hrs week, min wage and has been there for only 9 months. This with the fact that her hubby is BR I thought would make it impossible for her to borrow any money. You think it would be worth approaching our current mortgage lender (I owed money to them in my BR)?
Are there any other particular companies we should consider?
Should we wait for a response from the trustee and haggle before approaching a lender?

Sorry for so many questions, new ones springing up all the time