Advice Please

garymcl

Hi everyone

I'm hoping someone may be able to advise me on a situation I am trying to help a family member on.

I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

My brother and his wife separated (bad separation I must add) last summer. She is living in what was the family home with their only child (11 yrs old).

The solicitors have engaged and agreed on the payments that my brother must make to his wife which also includes the mortgage on the property for them. In a nutshell he is losing over half of his monthly income.

In addition to this he has a lot of debt (circa 20k) which he is having to pay out of his halved income and is in a real bad way.

Forgive my niavity on bankruptcy but is it possible for him to make himself bankrupt so that he can lose the debt and try and start afresh?

He is not looking to get out of paying his keep to his wife and of course his child, he would continue this as any normal person would.

I'm just looking for options for him hence the post.

Many thanks

Gary

PippaGirl_2

Half his income is an awful lot, normally 15% of his net income is paid for one child in child maintenance and it is now very rare for the courts to approve periodical payments to a spouse unless the parent has disabilities and is unable to support themselves, otherwise if periodical payments are granted they are usually fixed for a short term period. But I guess that wasn't your question ..

much more info is needed as to whether BR is a good option for him, what are the debts for? What assets does he have? Is his name on the mortgage/deeds of the property his stbx is living in and if so, how much equity is there in it?

garymcl

PippaGirl wrote: »

Half his income is an awful lot, normally 15% of his net income is paid for one child in child maintenance and it is now very rare for the courts to approve periodical payments to a spouse unless the parent has disabilities and is unable to support themselves, otherwise if periodical payments are granted they are usually fixed for a short term period. But I guess that wasn't your question ..

much more info is needed as to whether BR is a good option for him, what are the debts for? What assets does he have? Is his name on the mortgage/deeds of the property his stbx is living in and if so, how much equity is there in it?

Hiya

Thank you or replying so quickly. I'll need to speak with him to get some of the key information you mentioned.

From what I believe he gets £1800 gross per month. His solicitor has stated he will pay £375 pcm to his ex wife including the mortgage (which I believe is £325pcm) and a secured loan? (which I think is approx £240pcm).

I'm certain the deeds are in his name as is all the family debt. I believe the loan was for consolidation a few years ago and all other debts are CC's.

The home, unfortunately like many others is in negative equity. I believe he bought it for £150k around 8 years ago and it is now worth approx 80k (lives in Northern Ireland where the property market has been hit extremely hard).

That's about all I know at the moment I'm afraid.

I did bale him out 2 years ago with a large amount of money and he has asked again (hence me starting this thread). I feel giving him more money will not solve his problem (and it certainly will not help myself!!).

Cheers

Gary

garymcl

Hi Guys, just wondering if anyone could offer some further advice on this subject please?

Many thanks

Gary

tigerfeet2006

I am afraid that the rules in NI are completely different from the UK and none of us really has experiance of NI. On the Look Here First sticky there are some links to people who van help in NI, I suggest you contact them.