Debt relief order and joint loan

millie84

Hi. I am considering getting a Debt Relief Order. First I need to remove myself from the joint mortgage with my ex partner, but that's another story (and another thread).
Once I have done this, I am looking at getting a DRO. My debts are around £15K, and I have no realistic hope of paying them off in the next 20 years. I have a debt management plan, the payments for which are manageable, but my predicted discharge is around 23 years.
One of the debts involved is a joint loan, which I have been paying a small amount towards. Is it the same as bankruptcy, will my ex become fully liable for the debt?
Also, will my current partner's income be taken into account? We live together but our finances are totally separate. I pay him half towards the bills.
I understand that the criteria is that the applicant has less than £50 left after essential bills are paid. Is this using the original payment amounts towards creditors?
I have tried speaking to Stepchange but they won't proceed with talking to me until my name is off the mortgage.

wba31

I would speak again to StepChange, it would be good to get the ball rolling on sorting everything else out so once you are no longer named on the mortgage you can get stuff sorted.

With regards to the joint loan, the other party will be left solely liable for the full balance.

Income splits are a funny thing. If you earn 30% of the household income but pay 50% of the bills some would let it go, others would say you need to split expenses 70/30. if you earn more than 50% of household income it may be you should pay more than 50% of bills thus reducing surplus lower.

The surplus of £50 is simple your income minus household expenditure, the payments to creditors are not considered as these would only be repaid out of a surplus.

I would speak to StepChange again and ask them to answer these questions or transfer you to their DRO team (they have a department who work DRO full time to get this started to answer these questions for you to get things moving

millie84

It doesn't sound like I fit the criteria then.
I think bankruptcy is the better option for me.