My Partner has been made bankrupt

tmrj1970

My Partner has just told me he was made bankrupt last week. We own a house together which I paid most of the deposit (£67,000 partner paid £7,000).


All the household bills are in my name except the mortgage which is in joint names. The bills are paid out of a joint account which we both pay into. The account only ever has enough to cover direct debits and we are up to date with all bills


The OR contacted him on Friday and he has a meeting with them on Tuesday.


Our joint account is in credit and a number of bills are due out today e.g. mortgage etc.


I am in a state of shock at the moment and unsure of who I need to get advice from. My immediate concern is the joint bank account and what I need to do regarding making sure the bills are paid. I am also concerned about the house and the equity in it.


I would be grateful of any advice as I am in a state of shock at the moment.

Anondebtadvisor

You should make arrangements to open a new bank account asap and draw any money out of the joint account before it is frozen.

Do you have anything in writing about the deposits you each paid.

I am not surprised you are in shock, he must have had known this was coming for months! did he say who had made him bankrupt?

National_Debtline

Hi tmrj1970

You will get plenty of support on this forum but for comprehensive, specialist advice, refer to the list of agencies on this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4228011

It sounds as if your partner was made bankrupt by someone else, as opposed to choosing to make himself bankrupt. Is that correct?

I'm also assuming that the process of bankrupting your partner was all done in a procedurally correct way, i.e. the appropriate notifications were given and the relevant papers were served on him. You need to get this information from him to establish whether there are any grounds for challenging the bankruptcy order. This is all very speculative at the moment of course, as I know nothing about the size or nature of his debts.

The likelihood is that any bank accounts featuring your partner's name will imminently be frozen by the bank in order to cooperate with the OR's standard enquiries. The OR can ask the bank to release funds to you as necessary, however, so you may need to contact their office to arrange this.

I would recommend you read the following info from the Insolvency Service website, as it answers a lot of commonly asked questions:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/bankruptcy-what-is-bankruptcy/how-will-bankruptcy-affect-me

As regards the house, more will become clear at tomorrow's meeting. Generally, the OR will be looking to realise any interest the bankrupt has in a property. So if you paid a majority of the deposit this would be taken into consideration. It is unlikely that any snap decision will be made at this stage.

Regards

Dennis @NDL

tmrj1970

Thank you for your advice and support. I have today closed the joint account and transferred the direct debits for all the house hold bills to my sole account.


I am in the process of getting together proof of the deposit I put down on the house so that I have all this information for the OR.


Today has been a steep learning curve but I will feel happier once he has had the meeting with the OR so that I have a clearer picture.


Many Thanks