Help urgent advice needed

terrifiedhelpme

Hi I need a little bit of advice and am hoping someone here will be able to either point me in the right direction or even be able to answer my questions.

My partner and I got married last year and at the time he'd missed a payment on our rent (agreement was in both names), our situation was that as main breadwinner he pays the rent and I cover the majority of the household bills.
He assured me everything was under control and it was all being sorted.

At Xmas our landlord turned up and I found out that we were £7,000 in rent arrears (my husband hadn't paid a penny for 6 months).
Things had been very tight as I was self employed at a local stables and during the summer months I do not earn very much money, however business didn't pick up in the winter time so he was effectively trying to support the household, me, 1 child, 2 dogs and 2 horses.
Our landlord said as long as we made an effort to catch up with the rent then he wouldn't take things any further but that we needed to find somewhere to live.
Our accomodation was a 2 bedroomed bungalow with rising damp, rats coming up from the stables, windows that wouldn't open, a toilet in my childs bedroom that kept overflowing, had electricity and gas and water supplying 2 other residences attached to it all that had arrears from previous tennants which we were paying off. Gas appliances that were never serviced and the landlord wouldn't make any neccessary repairs. And all this for the bargin price of £780 per month (now on the market for £675!!!)
Anyhow, sorry for this being long, in Feb our landlord took us to court and we ended up being evicted, despite the fact that we had paid nearly £2,000 from Jan-beginning Feb. I tried the council and every possible housing association we could think of all to no avail, there was no help around at all. In the final hour I found a private landlord and we moved out the day before the baliffs were due.
I have also found out while doing financial statements for my husband that he is actually £40,000 in debt (I knew he had some debt but he had kept it hidden from me for ages to try and protect me)

Now our ex-landlord has served papers on me under the insolvency act (I have £2,000 debt as I took out a loan to cover moving costs I also have 2 ccj's the first 1 is for Zero and should never have been listed, the 2nd one is approx £700 which I have only recently discovered and relates to an old bill which I didn't realise was outstanding as I'd moved house a few years ago.)

The only way that my husband can see out of it all is bankruptcy and I am against it.
If he does go bankrupt how will it affect me?
Will I lose my bank accounts ETC?
Will I lose my horses? (I know sounds selfish but they are my babies and I had them before I knew my husband, and they are pets and part of the family just like our dogs)
I am not too worried about material possesions as they can be replaced but animals can't.

If he does go bankrupt will I get left with the rent arrears bill? (interest is being added on @ £1.67 per day and has been since the first day of payment being missed hence such a huge bill, it is now almost £9,000 the actual cost of the arrears is £4,800.
Our exlandlord has also had a letter from his solicitor regarding the papers being served and claimed that we have been found living on a gypsy encampment (we were not in hiding, and do not live on a gypsy encampment, although we do have a travellers site in the near vaccinity) and has photocopied this and displayed it on a couple of public noticeboards in our area. My reputation and career are now in tatters!

Any advice
Please help I am terrified!

Richard_S

Hi terrifiedhelpme,

That's a long post and I'll have a more in depth look tomorrow but just briefly in answer to your questions:

1. If the bank accounts are in joint names then you will be responsible for any overdrafts; if they're in your name only there shouldn't be a problem.

2. If only your husband is declaring bankruptcy then your assets should be safe. Exceptions to this could be, for example, if he bought you a £20k horse knowing that he had no reasonable prospect of repaying the debt.

3. If the rental agreement was in joint names then it's highly likely that you'll be liable.

This seems like a really negative post and I apologise for that. The facts are, with the exception of your horses, you have no assets, your debts are all unsecured, and there's very little your creditors can do; they're toothless tigers. Don't be afraid of Court proceedings, our lovely Judiciary tend to favour the "underdog" and give you every chance to make reasonable offers to your creditors.

Do you know how much your horses are worth?

There's nothing I can say that could reassure you at this point, but believe me, things are nothing like as bad as you fear; they seldom are.

Best regards

Richard

terrifiedhelpme

Thanks for your reply Richard.

The combined value of both my horses is about £3k they are nothing special but they are everything to me.

I have had a proper look at theses documents from the solicitor and they are a STATUTORY DEMAND? and it seems that ex-landlord is adding extra interest on at £1.63 per day.

Any ideas what one of those is?

am getting more and more scared by the hour and I can only see one way out at the moment but I can't leave my child or my husband, or my horses, but I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

fermi

You can read all about 'Statuary Demands' here:

http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/legal_issues_explained/statutory_demand.htm

This paragraph is particularly important:

Please note that a statutory demand in 90% of instances is 'bluffing technique' used to scare a person into paying up.

It's all explained there better than I can.

Richard_S

terrifiedhelpme wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Richard.

The combined value of both my horses is about £3k they are nothing special but they are everything to me.

I have had a proper look at theses documents from the solicitor and they are a STATUTORY DEMAND? and it seems that ex-landlord is adding extra interest on at £1.63 per day.

Any ideas what one of those is?

am getting more and more scared by the hour and I can only see one way out at the moment but I can't leave my child or my husband, or my horses, but I can't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Hi thm,

Fermi has pointed you in the direction of info regarding Statutory Demands and they are used to petition for an iindivduals bankruptcy but only occasionally.

As for light at the end of the tunnel, please allow me to "light a candle" until such time as you start to realise that your situation is nowhere near as bad as you think.

You have no assets except your horses, you don't have a particularly high salary and you're currently plagued with all the debts surrounding you. Have you contacted one of the debt charities yet? If they advise you that bankruptcy is your best option then once you've actually been declared bankrupt all your debts are written off at the stroke of a pen.

Try and imagine that now; you are completely debt free, none of your creditors can touch you and all you have to think about is yourself and your family, and pets of course

That has got to be a goal worth working towards.

Kind regards

Richard

fermi

Richard is much better at the calming words than I am.:o

As normal, they are not just calming, but spot on as well.:D

terrifiedhelpme

Thanks.

I spoke to a company day before yesterday who have suggested that both myself and my husband do an IVA, which is fine for my husband but I have spent the last 5 years trying to build a credit score (I'm 35 and only got my first ever switch card last year!) I've NEVER had credit (now got 2 catalogues which I maintain VERY carefully, never overspend, only used for xmas shopping, and payments up until this month never missed)
I took out a loan so that we were able to move house after we got evicted and am only 2 months into the agreement.
And then this bloody statutory demand has arrived because my bloody husband couldn't see fit to open his mouth and say I can't afford to pay the rent! And now it looks like I stand to lose everything I've tried so hard to rebuild after a divorce 5yrs ago which left me with my 2 horses and 2 carrier bags of clothes, no money from the sale of the house (ex-blew the lot) a crap solicitor who screwed me over and lost me my child (I got him back after 2.5yrs) no child maintenance, and a child who I can't even build a future for. No work anymore - previous landlord has destroyed my reputation so clients cancelling ALL lessons
My total debts without the rent issue are £3,000

Sorry guess I'm now starting to feel a little bit angry with the situation which is making it even worse.
Can anyone reccomend a charity as all the companies I've looked up on tinternet all seem to charge for stuff, and I'm also dubious about that as my husband tried one of these sorts of companies 3 yrs ago and they were taking more in fees than people were getting for paying off the debts so creditors were screaming even louder, and a few companies wouldn't even deal (HSBC even kept putting more and more charges on top)

wherediditallgo

You can contact Consumer Credit Counselling Services, National Debtline or Payplan. Any of them should be able to advise you.

fermi

Hi,

You need to contact either:

Consumer Credit Counselling Service. http://www.cccs.co.uk/

or

Payplan. http://www.payplan.com/

Both are run by a charity or a non-profit making trust, so they only have your best interests at heart.

They can do one or more of the following:

• Review your financial situation and recommend the best way forward.
• Set up and run (free of charge) a Debt Management Plan.
• Recommend an Insolvency practitioner to set up an IVA who will not rip you off in the way the companies you mentioned will.
• Help you deal with the Statutory Demand.
• Help you through the process of bankruptcy if it comes to that.

You can also get advice from a CAB 'money advisor' by making an appointment with one at your local CAB office.

There is always a way to sort these issues out, but you must get in touch with these sorts of organisations to find it.

terrifiedhelpme

Fermi thank you!!!!!!

At the start of all the troubles I waited for 3 hours in citizens advice bureau only to be told they couldn't help like the council and every other organisation we went to as we had made ourselves homeless.


I've just been in touch with cccs who have put me in touch with community legal services who have just said they can't help me as my husbands earnings are too high before tax and htey only take into consideration how much rent you pay.

Over the last 4 months I've been trying to get help from so many different places for so many different issues and must have tried about 50 differnet avenues all to have the same response, sorry we can't help. I just need 1 to say yes before I completely give in. I'm losing my fight.

Richard_S

Hi thm,

If you feel as though your world is collapsing around you, that you don’t know what to do for the best because your mind is in a complete whirl, then please read this post and follow the suggestions I make.

1. Forget all about contacting IVA and DMP companies on the internet. They can afford to advertise their services on the net and other media because they earn a lot of money out of people in the situation you’re in at the moment.


2. Contact CCCS, CAB or the National Debt Line; they are charities and their advice won’t cost you a penny. Their advisors are professionally trained, they are completely objective and only have your best interests at heart; fermi has included links to their websites in his previous post. CCCS will give you an in depth interview over the phone and my personal experience of them is that they are excellent. It’s not just the quality of their advice it’s the support and understanding as well; utterly and completely un-judgemental.

3. Once you have spoken to one of them post again on here and let us know what the outcome was. It’s not in our place to suggest bankruptcy or IVA’s or do the lottery or anything else either. That is a decision you have to make based on accurate, objective and contemporary advice.

At the moment you’re confusing the past, present and future and understandably must be dreading waking up in the morning. You have to set yourself some clear manageable objectives so that your waking hours are dedicated to improving your financial situation and not mentally crucifying yourself. If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because I’ve been where you are at the moment. Despite a life time of business and financial experience I didn’t start to put my life back on course until I made that phone call to the CCCS.

You’ve obviously had a difficult life to date and quite rightly feel proud of the achievements you’ve made. However, that past is history, it’s gone and nothing you can do today will change it one iota. Learn from the mistakes you’ve made, be proud of your achievements but other than that completely forget about it. At the moment you’re allowing the past to influence what you do in the present. The same is true about the future; you’re conjuring up all manner of nightmare scenarios in your mind about what horrors await you in years to come. Concentrate 100% of your physical and mental energy on today; the only way you’ll positively influence the future is by the constructive choices you make today.

It sounds as though you’re running a business and I assume that’s based around your horses. Take a minute to think about a future scenario. Your debts and mistakes of the past are behind you, your husband is working, you’re running a successful business doing something you adore, you have a home that is comfortable and more than anything you have the time to enjoy your own existence at the heart of your family.

Follow those three steps above and post on here again and it’ll be the start of getting your life back on track again. It’s never an easy route but it’s one that’s eminently achievable, there’s all the help and support on here that you need to gat through and we can point you in the direction of whatever resources you need along the way.

Warmest regards

Richard