trying not to go bankrupt

pierce1

We need a bit of advice if any one can help

Over a few years we lent money to a my exboss who was also a friend, everything was done legal and above aboard. He then started with holding payments and final we had to go to court to try and get the money back. In the end we got a charging order on his property, in the time between getting the Interim and final charging order he disolved his business and went personnel bankrupted. We have now been told that the charging order is not worth the paper its wrote on. The money we put in was my husbands medical retirement, he is also classed as disabled and unable to work, I work full time and we have three children, we receive, child tax credits and disablement benefit. We our on a debt management scheme run by the CCCS but are finding it a big struggle to make ends meet.

My questions are is they any way of claiming some of the money back form the money we lent, and does any one know if we are entitled to any benefits.

Iam not blaming any one for going bankrupt as some time its the only way to go, but we do not really want to go that way as we don't want to lose our home.

I hope I have posted this in the correct place and hope someone is able to help

RAS

Hi

Sorry to here your news.

No doubt one of the real experts will be here soon (fermi, Richard), but in the mean time

1. Can you get together your income details and plug them into www.entitledto.com to check that you are getting everything?

2. As you have already done an SOA, post a new thread on the DFW board as there are some really good folk who will be able to spot things that you can get for less (almost certainly).

3. Whilst you are there have a look for some of the responses by chevalier, who has a list of web-sites that you can use to get vouchers and things like mystery shopping and or cinema tickets. You could suggest that OH takes that on board as one of his contributions to your household.

it would help people here if they knew how much your house is worth, what your equity is and whether you have any other debts secured on it? This sound horrid, but it may be possible for only one of you to go Bk and still keep the house. I think toto posted on this previously.

fermi

Hi pierce1,

Property is not my strong point, but I'll try until someone else can help.

As far as I'm aware if the charging order was not 'made final' then yes it is now worthless.
(Still this may be worth confirming by someone like CAB, Community Legal Service Direct, or National Debtline, if you haven't had independent confirmation already)

However the debt should still be provable against your former bosses bankruptcy estate. So we should ask:

• When was he made bankrupt?
• Were you included as a creditor? His OR should have written to you if it was.
• Have you submitted details of the sums owed to his OR?
• Has he been discharged yet?

Even if the OR is fully aware of the debt owed, it's likely you would only get a small proportion of the debt back (if any), but something would be better than nothing.

You're already doing the correct thing by being with CCCS, who should be able to advise you if/when bankruptcy becomes the better option for you as well. Make sure they are always up to date with your situation.

Richard_S

Hi pierce1,

I can't really add much to what fermi has said apart from taking legal advice on the status of the charging order. If you're on a low income you should qualify for Legal Aid and it may be that the C.O can still be enforced. You could do a search on the property through the land registry and that would show what charges were held against the property and if yours is showing then you should be able to enforce it.

Best regards

Richard