Advice needed: who can help with debt, spousal debt etc

Angmcd

When I met my husband he had his own house (mortgaged not owned). We have now been married over a year and both live in this property. We both have debt and not in a position to buy a home together at the present time as we are trying to pay debts off first. I have a loan and credit cards and my husband has the same however has a huge loan (in excess of £30000) which he took out agsinst his property before we met. The majority of this is his mothers debt as she had a problem with store cards and credit cards which she was struggling to repay. This was my husbands way of trying to help her out! Obviously his circumstances have now changed. He is now married and our first baby is due in the next month. I'm constantly worried about this debt. We're not sure whether its best for me to be named on the mortgage? Whether our debts are passed on if something happens to one of us? What the situation is with the property if something happened to my husband or we seperated. Basically it's a bit of a mess and not sure where we can go for advice? I'm reluctant to go to a financial advisor as they will just try and sell us things and I just want advice on what we should do. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!!

go_cat

You may want to try the debt free wannabe section on here, there's some great support and advice. You can put up a statement of affairs to get advise on where if any you can cut spending etc.

There are also FREE debt charities to offer advise, do not pay for other companies to help you

Good luck

dancingfairy

Trouble is if you ed up with any joint financial products the your credit files will be linked (which may not be the best thing for you).
It might be worth having a chat with someone like NationalDebtline or StepChange.
What is the state of the debt? Did he take out a secured loan or was it a loan/credit cards that got defaulted and the creditor has applied for a charging order? Is the debt being paid off each month?
df

Angmcd

Hi. Thanks for replies. My debt amounts to around £16,000 from an unsecured loan and two credit cards. I'm not struggling to keep up the repayments each month so its slowly coming down and believe it or not is in a much better position than I was a few years ago. My husbands debt is far greater than this. He has around £25,000 on credit cards and the £30,000 outstanding loan which is secured against his property. Creditors have not been involved as he manages to keep up the payments each month too. His mother also pays towards the loan (however it is all in his name which worries me incase she stops paying). We have never missed payments on our debts and don't really want to go down the route of bankruptcy or anything as we manage at the moment and are chipping away at them. I'm just concerned about where we stand if something terrible happens and what's the best position to be in for the future. Thanks

RAS

Hi

You need to go over to the Debtfree Wannabee forum on here and do what is called a Statement of Affairs. This will show you how much you are spending on what.

it will also highlight where you can best make savings and how best to pay off the debt.

For example if you have one credit card @8% and one at 29% and £50 spare you can pay off per month, that need to go on the 29% card as this will massively reduce the amount of interest you pay over the years. It is called snowballing.

A lot of people seem to get the DFW bug as their first child arrives or shortly after, as they have expenses they had expected. So this is a good time to sort things out. As part of that please think very carefully about what you can get for free, cheap or make for the baby and what absolutely needs to be brand new - probably the mattress.

Angmcd

Hi. I have re posted on another thread but I'm still a bit stuck. I wasn't really looking for advice on how to reduce the debt and budgeting as we are already doing this and paying the maximum on our debts and budgeting wherever we can and this is reducing them slowly. What I really would like is advice on the legal side of things ie who can help advise us on whether its best for me to be named on the mortgage, the issue around the loan secured on the property and the next step for us now we're having a child. Thanks

podperson

You could try CAB, or see about whether you could get a free half hour with a solicitor. Do you both have up-to-date wills?
Afaik debts would not 'pass' to you in the event of your husband passing away, but they could be applied for from his estate. If one is secured against the property anyway they could possibly apply for a charging order against it - so if it was sold then they would be paid from any profit. It is unlikely that you could be forced to sell it, especially if you still had a child living there. However, I'm not an expert by any means so please try the above places for more professional advice.

rpc

I wouldn't touch the mortgage.

You are married, so you have certain rights to the property. It is a marital asset, regardless the names on the deeds.

Make sure you have wills and financial powers of attorney set up.

Assuming you don't have joint financial products (like a current account) at the moment, I'd keep the accounts separate until the debts are cleared.

prettyfires

Not sure if this is English or Scottish Law.
Make sure you check the title deeds of the house- they could have a 'survivorship destination' on them. In Scottish law this * trumps* any Will.If the property has someone else's in the title deeds it could pass to them and not you - be careful !
But you could use this to your advantage - it might be worth putting a survivorship destination on the title deeds in both your names - your husband's share of the property would pass to you immediately on death and would not form part of the 'estate' and therefore not liable for any debts ( check this with a lawyer though) .