On the verge...

jacksville_2

Hi everyone

I have been reading through this forum and just have some questions
I am on the verge of taking the plunge and taking bankruptcy
I owe about 30k to IR and about 130k business and personal debts.
I have house valued 180k with mortgage and secured loan up to around 170k so very little equity after a sale - i have friends and family who can keep going mortgage repayments.
Is there anyone who have kept their house in this situation i have read that the OR would calculate what equity is in the house and would give an opportunity for a friend or family member to buy the OR's interest in the property - is this the norm?
Also have car on hp in negitive equity would i be able to keep this as i would need it to continue working - again if payments are kept up on this.

Many thanks everyone.

wherediditallgo

Hi, & welcome to the forum

Your first port of call should be to contact one of the free advisory services - the links are in my sig. Everyone's circumstances are different, & there are bound to be some other issues in yours that will need to be taken into account. Making the calls doesn't commit you to a decision - they'll take some details from you, but you don't have to go along with what they say, & you can ring any/all of the companies if you wish to compare the advice given.

The car is a difficult one - it used to be that we could take it pretty much as read that if the car was worth under £2000, you'd get to keep it. However, there have been instances of cars been lost even at £1000 value - ultimately, it depends on the OR you get & their assessment, so it's important to give them as much info as you can about why you need to keep it. You can usually get to keep a car that's needed for work (depending on the value), but you should also look at your HP agreement to see what their terms are - you could ring the finance company & put a hypothetical situation to them without giving your name & see what they have to say.

Make some calls, see what they have to say on the house & car, & please come back to us if you have any more questions.

Homework

Marketing, conveyancing etc all cost money so there has to be money in the equity to begin with to make it cost effective to sell the property.

jacksville_2

thanks everyone, i will call the helplines as your right everyone's situation is unique.....
one other question was that i was thinking of selling the house before going through the bankruptcy to my partner, if i did this would there be a comeback from the OR?
Many Thanks again everyone!

fiveyearplan

There's no need to sell your share of the house to your partner it is much better to do this after BR. If you only have £10k equity, after legal costs etc your OH could buy your beneficial interest for less than £5,000. Its all above board then and the OR will not see it as trying to deceive him. I've got a similar situation and hopefully will be going BR this week so I'll let you know how I get on. I've got £279K mortgage and I think our house is probably worth no more than £315K. I have an early redemption charge of £15,000 if I sell before 11 October 2008.

jacksville_2

Hi fiveyearplan
Thanks for that and do let me know how things go - best of luck! am sure it will go ok for you...