How will husbands bankruptcy affect family?

Sortitout_3

Hello. I am totally new to all this so wondered if anyone could explain things to me? My dear husband is self-employed and seriously in debt. He has an IVA creditors meeting next week which if approved will avoid bankruptcy but if not .. it's straight to court! I am employed in my husbands small business and so obviously in the event of his bankruptcy my job is also lost (his business premises is also owned by him so that would be lost in bankruptcy as well). We have 4 children and a house in joint names with a some equity in it which I assume will be sold pretty quickly. A big concern is that I personally have one loan of £8000 (the remains of a large loan I took out to help my husband) with only 18 months left to pay on it. I really don't want to also become bankrupt for the sake of one debt and I believe that my share of the house equity would cover the loan, however with complete loss of my income I would be unable to make repayments. How do you think this would be handled? Would the bank understand and be patient & can I even be made bankrupt for that amount? Generally how on earth do you start up again when everything has been lost/taken (house/business premises/business/job) ?? - Bit general I know but I really haven't got a clue & you look such a helpful bunch!

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome.

Your first port of call should be Business Debtline and go through everything with them. Link and no. in my sig.

Who is the IVA with?

Sortitout wrote: »

Hello. I am totally new to all this so wondered if anyone could explain things to me? My dear husband is self-employed and seriously in debt. He has an IVA creditors meeting next week which if approved will avoid bankruptcy but if not .. it's straight to court! I am employed in my husbands small business and so obviously in the event of his bankruptcy my job is also lost (his business premises is also owned by him so that would be lost in bankruptcy as well). We have 4 children and a house in joint names with a some equity in it which I assume will be sold pretty quickly. A big concern is that I personally have one loan of £8000 (the remains of a large loan I took out to help my husband) with only 18 months left to pay on it. I really don't want to also become bankrupt for the sake of one debt and I believe that my share of the house equity would cover the loan, however with complete loss of my income I would be unable to make repayments. How do you think this would be handled? Would the bank understand and be patient & can I even be made bankrupt for that amount? Generally how on earth do you start up again when everything has been lost/taken (house/business premises/business/job) ?? - Bit general I know but I really haven't got a clue & you look such a helpful bunch!

Is the business operated as a sole trader or a Ltd. co?

The OR will not force a sale straight away, he will probably wait for about a year.

You can be made BR for as little as £750 but as it costs creditors in the region of £1700 to do so they very rarely do. The bank will likely hassle you and then pass the debt on to a DCA to hassle you. If you do lose your job then ring National Debtline to get advise.