IVA and Joint Assets

Monkey_Puzzle_2

My girlfriend has been divorced from her ex-husband for over a year.

They own a house together in joint names, but since he has been defaulting on his half of the mortgage repayments and she doesn't have enough income to be sure of meeting the repayments, they have decided to sell.

They have signed an agreement with a "cash-buyer" - although they have accepted an offer that is below the market value of the house, it was felt that a quick sale would be preferable to marketing the property through an Estate Agent.

The cash buyer has appointed a solicitor to act on their behalf.

Now it turns out that her ex-husband has an IVA agreement that was already in place before they met and that the company with whom he has the agreement wants to seize all of the profit from the sale of the house and divide it as they see fit.

Are they entitled to do this? Do they have any entitlement to her half of the proceeds at all? Who can she turn to to act on her behalf to ensure that she receives her share of the profits?

I'm hoping someone has an insight into this as we do not have a clue.

Happy New Year to you all!

Cobalt77

Pre-empting any more expert replies, my advice would be to find a specialist insolvency lawyer ASAP and get advice before doing or agreeing to anything.

I would not be tempted to use or get advice from a local "general practice" high-street solicitors, as (apart from generally being complete bu11sh1tters) most are completely clueless when it comes to the nuances of insolvency law, and will give you generalised advice - which invariably turns out to be less accurate than asking one of the guests on the Jeremy Kyle show.

DebtDoctor may be able to point you in the right direction of a reasonably competent lawyer.

Monkey_Puzzle_2

Thanks a lot,

I'm googling debtdoctor right now....

Cobalt77

To follow on from my earlier post, the first question which needs to be addressed is exactly how the property is owned:

1. If the property is jointly owned (as is usually the case), then my gut feeling is the IVA Co may have a potential claim against any surplus on disposal (i.e. all of it, so you could have big problems)
2. If the property was purchased as "tenants in common" (nothing to do with renting!) it means that each party owns a 50% share (or otherwise agreed split) in which case the IVA Co could only go after the ex-husband's share of the profit and not touch your girlfriend's slice.

But, this is only initial advice, and there will usually be many other factors which will have a bearing. This is exactly why you need specialist advice ASAP.

HTH

Cobalt77

Monkey_Puzzle wrote: »

Thanks a lot, I'm googling debtdoctor right now....

Don't Google him - he's a resident expert here.

You can send him a message: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=223640

Monkey_Puzzle_2

Oh dear, that goes against what you'd expect to be the case, sometimes the law really is an !!!.

teddysmum

I don't know what kind of ownership they had (mortgage paid off), but when a relative went bankrupt his wife bought out his share ,with family help. Her part was unaffected.


One question,though...If the man was bankrupt before the couple met and took a mortgage, why were the mortgage company willing to lend to him ?

Cobalt77

teddysmum wrote: »

I don't know what kind of ownership they had (mortgage paid off), but when a relative went bankrupt his wife bought out his share ,with family help. Her part was unaffected.

One question,though...If the man was bankrupt before the couple met and took a mortgage, why were the mortgage company willing to lend to him ?

1. Yes, it is possible for a spouse/partner to "buy out" the Official Receiver's interest in a property in BANKRUPTCY, but this question is about an IVA (which is a individual's formal legal agreement to repay creditors over a period of time. An IVA is totally different to bankruptcy.)

2. The man was NOT made bankrupt. He is apparently subject to an IVA, which was presumably put in place after the mortgage was taken out.