Debt problems

CollB

I posted this elsewhere on this site and was advised to also post it here.
First of all, sorry if I have picked the wrong section to post this in.

The monthly cost of my debt is so high that in a good month I have very little money left and in a bad month I struggle to pay my bills.

I own three properties, conservatively valued at £350k which return me about £2k a month. My mortgages on them add up to about £180k and cost me about £1k a month.

I also own a business that in a good month I can take £2k from, in a bad month I draw no wage.

I also have credit card debt of about £20k which costs my nearly £1k a month and a high interest loan with about £15k left to pay that costs me £500 a month. My bank charges add up to between £300 and £500 a month mostly fees for going over my overdraft limit and having payments returned.

With living costs on top you can probably work out I make a loss each month and I have no savings. In order to try and sort this I moved in with my parents again (I am 35 and separated from my wife 18 months ago). So my living costs are now almost zero so in a good month I can pay my bills.

The ideal would be to refinance to release some equity to pay off my debts but my banks won't lend because I have regularly gone over my overdraft limit and had payments returned, although I have always made the payments in time and so my credit score is almost perfect (just high % usage of available credit stops it being perfect). Mortgage companies require accounts but I draw so little that my accounts show insufficient income to allow them to lend.

I put my home for sale and accepted an offer but the sale fell through because my wife blocked the sale till the divorce completes so I am now renting it out. There will be no money changing hands on completion of the divorce as her family are wealthy and neither of us has claimed against each other.

I will try to sell my other properties, but could take many months or years.

In the mean time if I have a couple of bad months with my business I will not be able to pay my mortgages etc and risk losing everything.

So my question is this. Can I stop paying my unsecured debts such as credit cards without risking losing my property. This would allow me enough breathing room to be able to start paying off debt instead of interest. What are the consequences of such an action. Also some debts do not appear on my credit report, I think because they are in my business name rather than my own name, what happens if I don't pay these?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated. I realise that it would have been much better never to get myself into this situation in the first place but I don't have access to a time machine and it's been a very difficult time for me these last few years not that that is a valid excuse.

Cheers,
B