My ex is going bankrupt shortly, how does it affect me?

Laureb

My ex husband is going bankrupt soon, we share a mortgage and a secured loan, i live in the house with our 3 children and my new partner. He lives in rented accomodation but still pays half towards the mortgage and half towards the loan, plus he pays maintence for our children.
He has told me he will be putting the mortgage and the loan on his bankruptcy petition as he cant afford to pay them anymore, he has a new family to pay for now and cant afford to keep both houses. Im unsure what i want to do so i was hoping for some advice, the house is in negative equity so there will be nothing to gain from selling it, i dont want to go bankrupt myself as i would like the option in the future to buy a house with my new partner. I dont like the idea of being handed the mortgage and loan payments when he goes bankrupt though and cant really afford to live here, im out of work and my partner earns lower than average. Any suggestions on what i should do would be appreciated.

debtinfo

The bottom line is that you and your partner need to take care of your own household expenses from now on from your own incomes/benefits plus whatever the ex is lawfully oblidged to pay you in maintanance (or if you were maried and divorced then what is in a lawful divorce agreement) and you have to decide how and where you are going to live based on that calculation.

Sorry i cant give you better news

sundays

You will be liable for the full amount as his share will shift on to you, him being BR means he cant be chased but you can.

So its one of three things.

Continue to pay the mortage and loan costs
Surrender and walk away then go BR as you will still be liable thereafter otherwise, and that could get nasty with baliffs etc.
Get Repossessed then go BR.

yesican

Laureb wrote: »

My ex husband is going bankrupt soon, we share a mortgage and a secured loan, i live in the house with our 3 children and my new partner. He lives in rented accomodation but still pays half towards the mortgage and half towards the loan, plus he pays maintence for our children.
He has told me he will be putting the mortgage and the loan on his bankruptcy petition as he cant afford to pay them anymore, he has a new family to pay for now and cant afford to keep both houses. Im unsure what i want to do so i was hoping for some advice, the house is in negative equity so there will be nothing to gain from selling it, i dont want to go bankrupt myself as i would like the option in the future to buy a house with my new partner. I dont like the idea of being handed the mortgage and loan payments when he goes bankrupt though and cant really afford to live here, im out of work and my partner earns lower than average. Any suggestions on what i should do would be appreciated.

Hi Laureb

Hate to break this to you Laureb but if you share a mortgage and a loan(if both your names are on these two),once he goes BR,you'll be liable for the debts.

Wish i'd better news for you..

All the best.

JCS1

BR covers unsecured debts only, so in this case the joint mortgage and secured loan would not fall to the OP when her ex goes bankrupt.

However, the OR will still have to deal with a property, and if as part of that process the property is sold/repossessed, the debt then becomes unsecured and any shortfall would be the OP's debt in full.

Ineedaname

JCS - Surely, as the OP is not BR herself, she will be responsible for paying the mortgage and secured loan by herself (with partner's contribution) if she wishes to remain in the house. They are jointly responsible so if one goes BR, the other becomes liable for maintaining payments.

toddle2u

If the OP wants to stay in the property she will be responsible for servicing the mortgage and secured loan, however, if their is any equity in the property the OR will have the beneficial interest in this which means that the OP would have to negotiate with the OR to buy this if they want to remain in the property. If there is no equity in the property at this present time the OR will wait 2 yrs 3 months before then looking again at the property to see if the value has risen and if there is then any equity available. If there is the OR will again look to the OP to purchase this (if they want to).
If the OP doesn't keep up with the mortgage and the property is reposessed then the OP will be responsible for any shortfall in the mortgage and secured loan when the property is sold as her ex-husband will have put a contingent liability for this in his Bankruptcy.

sheffield_soldier

Oh dear! I'm afraid joint mortgage then if there is equity in the house then it's likely to go.

silvercar

sheffield_soldier wrote: »

Oh dear! I'm afraid joint mortgage then if there is equity in the house then it's likely to go.

OP has already said there is negative equity, so she will have the option to buy the beneficial interest for a few hundred pounds.

The ex will have no choice but to include the loan and mortgage payments as part of his SOA, and as he lives elsewhere the payments won't be regarded as essential.

In maintenance terms OP can only expect maintenance for her children, from which she is expected to pay for housing, so there won't be any extra help.