Bankruptcy and home ownership transfer

TheHits

Hello all,

Question for all you legal eagles and financial hawks out there.
Scenario is that my gf separated from her ex several years ago. She moved out of the jointly-owned home at the time, but was still paying her share of the mortgage. Some time ago, her ex moved out to be with his current partner, with whom he has two kids, and my gf moved back into the house; since her ex was a waster with sizeable debts and wasn't able to contribute to the mortgage, he voluntarily handed over, for free, full ownership to my gf who is now the sole legal owner and mortgage-payer - this happened in 2011.

Anyway, she got a letter last week informing her that her ex has now had a bankruptcy order issued against him and asking her to provide proof that the house is in negative equity (which it is, judging by the failure of houses-for-sale on the same street to sell, at a price currently £20k less than she and her ex paid for the house at the time) but she doesn't have a formal valuation at hand.

Question is, should she be worried about her house potentially being sold off to pay his historical debts that were in his name only? I know that a house with negative equity is unlikely to be sold off by court order, but if it turns out that it does have equity, then the implication in the bankruptcy order is that the transfer of ownership will have been to the detriment of creditors, in which case, will she have to suffer losing her house because of that?

All of her ex's loans were unsecured.

Appreciate any advice here, to save a packet in legal advice and queueing at a CAB that never seems to be open :-/

fiveyearplan

I would get 3 valuations for a quick sale. Just ask 3 different local estate agents. I did this and actually got 5 valuations and I pointed out everything that was wrong with the house. I didn't tell the estate agents what I wanted the valuations for - they assumed I wanted to sell. I chose the lowest 3 valuations and sent those in. Anyway it will give your g/f some peace of mind if they all come back and say the house is in negative equity.

Is she now the only person on the mortgage?

arcon5

Tell the estate agents why you want to valuation, offer to pay them for their services and I'm sure the valuations will be to your benefit, avoiding an argument with the receivers office

fiveyearplan

I didn't tell the estate agents my reason for wanting a valuation therefore I didn't have to pay them. If you are fairly sure the property is in negative equity the valuation will show that.

TheHits

fiveyearplan wrote: »

I would get 3 valuations for a quick sale. Just ask 3 different local estate agents. I did this and actually got 5 valuations and I pointed out everything that was wrong with the house. I didn't tell the estate agents what I wanted the valuations for - they assumed I wanted to sell. I chose the lowest 3 valuations and sent those in. Anyway it will give your g/f some peace of mind if they all come back and say the house is in negative equity.

Is she now the only person on the mortgage?

She is now, yes, and has been since 2011 (October, I think).

Good idea with the valuations, I think money is a bit of an object here though...