Increased outgoings

G192

Hello all.

I have been bankrupt for 7 months now and have been paying an IPA for most of it and all been reasonably ok up until now.

Since my bankruptcy, my wife has been not very supportive, but I'm not going into marital tiffs here!!! It was only me who went bankrupt, not my wife. Unfortunately for her, last month she lost her car to the Official Receiver because I had financed it with a loan in my name. We then bought a reasonably good car for £400.

However, my wife has got herself a loan and is buying a car and will now be paying out nearly £200 per month for her car! Her argument is that it is me who is bankrupt, not her.
I know there is no way we can afford to pay that back, not unless she's had a pay rise I don't know about.

If I ask the Official Receiver's office for another income and expenditure form, can I include this in the expenditure or would I reduce her contribution to the household income? Or are there any other factors I need to be aware of here? Should I simply phone the OR's office and explain?

My current understanding is that her contribution will have reduced although the rest of the expenditures will be more or less the same and then the IPA would be recalculated accordingly. Or am I wrong?

Any input here would be welcome!

TheGardener

Money is always near the top of the list for marital disharmony I guess and I'm sorry to hear your BR is causing tension.
Your wife does of course have the right to organise her own financial affairs but if the car purchase means more of your income has to go towards essential living expenses then I guess you need to make that argument to the OR and see if they will be flexible. However, if your wife's car purchase means that you are paying more than 50% (proportionally to your respective incomes) then the OR may refuse to amend the IPA.
Perhaps working out a new SOA will highlight to your wife how precarious the family finances are and that maybe she is putting herself at risk of financial difficulty - you said in an earlier post that her own credit rating was not great so has she been honest in her credit application for the car?

G192

Thank you for your reply.
You mentioned 50% towards the family finances. She does earn considerably more than I do and pays a lot more than 50% towards day to day living. Her income was shown in full in the original soa and reducing her contribution would still show she's putting in more than 50%.
Her application for finance was legit. She's had to send off copies of salary and other documents as you do when applying for finance but she will be paying a lot of interest!
I've asked the OR for another soa form and at the moment I've just said circumstances have changed.

tomtontom

Not sure I would describe it as legit when she knew that, as a household, you do not have that money to spare. What she has done has put you in a very precarious position - time to remind her that you're supposed to be a partnership.

G192

I understand fully what you are saying. Before I went bankrupt we separated our joint account into separate personal accounts but since then I don't know anything about what's in or going out of her account or how much she's getting paid although it can't be much different to what it used to be. I don't want to go into marital problems here because that's not what this forum is for. I do need to try and be practical though and get through this bit.
The only thing I can think of doing is redoing an soa with the OR office. I understand I can put her income as best as I know it minus her personal outgoings such as her credit card and the repayments for her car.