separated husband declaring himself bankrupt

Kerrie-Anne

I am unfortunately still married to a man who is about to declare himself voluntarily bankrupt again (last time was around 10 years ago). For info, our Decree Nisi is through but not the Absolute yet.

Can anybody tell me what the implications of this are? Specifically because, his 2 children and I still live in the former matrimonial home, which is in his sole name (the deeds and the mortgage) although I have a Family Rights Notice at the Land Registry showing that I have an interest in the property - I'm guessing this isn't worth the paper it's written on?

The letter from his solicitor states:

"Please note, our client has now taken specific advice regarding his unfortunate financial position and has been forced to apply for voluntary bankruptcy. It is inevitable therefore that all of our clients capital assets will be vested in the Trustee in Bankruptcy which of course will include the former matrimonial home in which your client and the children currently reside"

So, the house goes to his Trustees in Bankruptcy - is that the bank that the mortgage is with?

Any idea of how long the process might take before we are essentially homeless?

As an aside, I agreed to the sale of the former marital home on the basis that the children and I would keep the whole net proceeds of sale in order for us to re-home ourselves. But no, rather than agree to this, he has to go the spiteful last mile - he would rather the house be repossessed/taken as part of his bankruptcy, than the girls and I get a penny from it to enable us to get somewhere else to live. I'm speechless...

I'm in a bit of a flat spin. Any advice would be very gratefully accepted.

Thanks,
Kerrie-Anne.

skylight

There is no easy answer on this one.

You have already registered an interest in the property - great. These DO mean something, without them you would have nothing. Have you agreed in the divorce settlement though 50% or anything else? The agreement that he is giving it all to you in the divorce is that in writing? How long were you married?

Personally (and its not legal advice etc!) is that you are entitled to 50% of any equity. Although you are not on the mortgage/deeds, you have now registered an interest in the property and you can argue that after X amount of years married it would be deemed yours in a court of law (as it would). His 50% belongs to his trustee; this is not the mortgage holders but an insolvency practitioner and they are not the most pleasant of people to deal with so get as much as you can in writing from his official receiver before its passed to a trustee.

However - the swing bit here is if he is not going to repay the mortgage then the mortgage providers will repossess anyway with his debt going into his BR estate. This is all outside what the trustees will do; they will be interested if there is any equity left after a sale of the property which is after repossession so that it will go towards his debts. You would get involved at this point to try to get your share from them.

You really need to get some professional and legal advice on this one. You may be able to stay in the home for a while as you have the children but only a good solicitor can comment on that one.


Its going to be a long hard struggle for you anyway and you need to decide if its even worth pursuing (take advice first!) For your own sanity, I think you should open up to the idea of just moving now and getting this toad out of your lives. Anything extra would be an unexpected bonus then.

Do you have any joint debts though? You will be liable for all these if there are.


Sorry. I don't envy you one bit with this one.
x

Sunnylooloo

Hi Kerrie-Anne

Do you have a financial order in place yet? if you don't then I think (only because I am going through something similiar although it is me considering BR) and my solicitor told me that if I was delcared BR before the financial order and the Absolute were in place the BR takes precident (sp).

So sorry not really great news.

I think if you have children under 16 there maybe some leeway, but please wait until someone with more knowledge lets you know. Also if the house is in his sole name really not sure where you stand

Have you spoken with anyone maybe at CAB? or do you have a solicitor?

I think you really do need some good legal advice. I know my solicitor said in some cases if you think the spouse is going BR to get out of their financial responsibilities then you can take action to get it over turned - but bear in mind as with anything legal it will cost and sometimes you just have to give in.

I am amazed by the pure spite of some people - I can't even begin to speak about my ex - now it all comes down to the pennies and the pounds end of.............

Wish I had more to say!!

xx