If he goes bankrupt

sparklyshoes1

Hey all,
I am worried sick at the mo as I have a mortage with my soon to be ex husband. It has been put in writing now from his solicitor that he is no longer contributing financially towards the mortgage. After him getting us into arrears on the mortgage I have built up a good relationship up with the bank and have now taken on responsibiity for the full monthly repayment. The bank has told me if I maintain the full monthly repayment for six months then they will consolidate the arrears into the mortgage and they will take my exes name off of the mortgage. The probem that I am having is that my ex is saying if I don't take full responsibiity for the other debts that we accrued whilst together then he will declare himself bankrupt which will force me into moving house with our 4 children. The bank has told me that if he declares himself bankrupt, as long as I am still paying the full monthly amount then this won't affect the house or mortgage. However a friend has just said that as his name is still on the mortgage the courts will still see the house as one of his assets and therefore it will have to be sold. I am five months off having the house soley in my name please can somebody help me. Who is correct the bank or my friend? Many thanks for taking the time to read this post.

dojoman

If there is equity in the house and he goes BR the OR will have an interest in his share of the equity, also any joint debts will automatically fall on to you as well.

dancingfairy

I guess it depends on a) the divorce settlement - ie how the debts/ assets are split between you - I'm not sure how you would be affected if you got divorced and then he went bankrupt? presumably you would then be o.k as long as the official receiver didn't have any concerns as to how the debts/assets were split - I know they can intervene if they feel an asset has been deliberately got rid of prior to bankruptcy at an unfair price/or hidden but not sure how this works with respect to divorce.
It depends on how much equity there is in your house as well -
when someone goes bankrupt the other partner can buy the equity back from the Official Receiver as far as I understand it (I'm not sure if this is only if it is negative equity though).
I would ring one of the debt charities for advice and get your solicitor onto it (as you're getting divorced I guess you might have one?).
If you haven't got a solicitor it might be worth getting one and if you are on a low income there are schemes to help people with legal costs etc - I think it's called the community legal scheme?
df