Ex Wife gone Bankrupt

cogsy1976

Hi all

I have recently split with my wife after I discovered she had been a secret gambler and had gambled away £118k. We own a home and our son lives at the property with her (I moved out 5 months ago).

She has gone down the bankruptcy route much to my annoyance as now my sons home is at threat from her actions. I am hoping that after all the bankruptcy fees etc have been calculated that there will be less than £10k equity in her share (trustees share to be correct).
She has the house on the market at the moment but I dont want to sell, I would like to postpone sale for a year if I can.

I want to keep the home obviously for my son whereas my ex seems to not give a s..t and is happy to sell and give up the home despite the fact our son lives there.

Basically when we got married I had my own house in my name, after that we had moved 3 times but all of the equity had come from my original purchase in my name, is there anyway of stating that she never had any of the money for a share in the property because it all came from my original house that I owned? I mean she came into the marriage with nothing basically so is there anyway of showing that actually she didnt have any equity at all?

what Im a bit p1ssed about is the fact that a bankruptcy trustee can just take her share when I actually think of it as my share as I was the one who enabled us to purchase the properties over the years.

Any thoughts please? I'm just desperate to keep hold of the house for my sons sake and I'm literally looking at anything that I can do to help in such a distressing time.

Thanks

elsien

You say ex-wife but are you divorced or just separated? Any financial agreements in place ref the marital assets or are these still to be agreed?
How old is your son?

RattyIrk

Probably last thing you want to hear but you really need to speak to a Family Law solicitor.

The legal starting point is an assumption of 50/50 but strikes me you can challenge that assumption on possibly two points:

1. if you are primary carer of your son.
2. As you say the capital put in initially was yours.

Could be other things but you would need proper advice and to go through it in detail. On a practical point sounds like there is not an awful lot if equity in there. If ex wife does not put up any resistance is arguable how worthwhile it is the trustee pursuing it. Could be willing to agree a low amount for her share rather than get involved in a potentially costly legal dispute.

thriftylass

cogsy1976 wrote: »

Hi all



what Im a bit p1ssed about is the fact that a bankruptcy trustee can just take her share when I actually think of it as my share as I was the one who enabled us to purchase the properties over the years.

I am sorry that your wife abused the marital promise and got both of you into trouble with her actions but I don't understand why people get married if they think like that, yours-mine, but I earnt all the money, I bought the house, she came with nothing, it's all mine (even for your son's sake to be fair)........

Forget for a the moment that she obviously gambled a huge amount of money away that was marital. You enter a marriage to share all possessions etc. Each partner supposedly contributes to the wealth in their way. Did she stay at home to look after your son so you could go to work? Did she work and pay for other shared things.

However, I agree more detail is needed if you are already divorced or if the house deed has both your names on it etc etc. I wouldn't think she can just sell the house without your consent unless it is solely in her name.

Def speak to a solicitor

RattyIrk

In terms of selling the house unless you both consent she would need to get an order for sale (or trustee would) which is a Judge formally ordering a sale of the property. Goes back to how much money your ex wife/trustee wants to throw at it. I am struggling to see on the figures you mention that it is really worthwhile from their side.

Minkym00

Your previous post stated that there was £66k equity in the property, with £33k being her share – this is the figure that will be looked at. The trustee (assume an IP?)’s and ORs fees will be paid first. If there is nothing left to pay off your ex’s bankruptcy debts and it’s all swallowed up in costs then, unfortunately, so be it. As she has your son living with her she can maybe put it off for a year but after that they can sell it by getting a possession order. Unless you buy out her interest. Is this something you can do? Anyone else?

Unless when you bought the house you ringfenced the money you put in via a declaration of trust then it’s going to be difficult (probably impossible) to get around this.

You need to see a solicitor.

cogsy1976

Yeah there is a lot less than that, its on the market at the moment for £245k and likely to be £240k so equity would be about £56k now.

lisyloo

I can’t see anywhere how old your son is. Is he a dependent?