Trustee and assets

Minkym00

It might be an idea to ask the mortgage question on the appropriate forum on this website, as there will be brokers and knowledgeable people who can assist with that one. 

Unless the equity is relatively small then a charge is unlikely. The trustee’s role is to realise the asset for the benefit of the creditors and they will want to do that and release themselves as trustee as soon as possible. After all, they are incurring costs without payment until the asset is realised. 

CStar75

Appreciate your help. It's 22k they are going for and I am sure they have bigger fish to fry but I am considering making a part payment now as I am unsure if I can get the credit and put the remainder on a charge and offer monthly repayments.

Brock_and_Roll

Having red your other post today, given their costs I would have thought they would call off the hounds if they could get say £10/£15k  cash now and a payment plan for the other £13/18k. 
...but if you have no savings or generous family, be careful that you are not just postponing the inevitable by borrowing more money with uncertainty about job prospects etc.

CStar75

Hi, I have another question to add to our situation...so after much ado the TIB provided a copy of their driveby valuation which assumed our property was larger than the truth and benchmarked against larger locally sold properties, therefore increasing their beneficial interest. I am so angry as they have put us through immense stress worrying about the over inflated figure which to me is corrupt! Perhaps I am overreacting but if we hadn't pushed for the report we would never know about this blatant inaccuracy. So my question is, is this worth a complaint to the Insolvency Service as I am concerned we might not be the only over inflated valuation and claim with the BR being none the wiser? Thank you.

CStar75

Brock_and_Roll said:

Having red your other post today, given their costs I would have thought they would call off the hounds if they could get say £10/£15k  cash now and a payment plan for the other £13/18k. 
...but if you have no savings or generous family, be careful that you are not just postponing the inevitable by borrowing more money with uncertainty about job prospects etc.

Thank you for your useful advice and having mulled over it the last few weeks, we can most likely raise £10k and make an offer.  We have already paid them £3k in a panic to try and avoid them proceeding with the bankruptcy in 2018 and they claimed PPI on a closed bank account,  which they have appeared to have overlooked.  I am hoping they will consider this as a final settlement or is that wishful thinking....? With the possible complaint being submitted (my previous post) I am also hoping this will give us some leverage. If not, will we lose our home (if they reject the offer) if we can't raise the remaining £8.5k? Thank you.

thehog

Normally a Trustee would ask the bankrupt to provide 3 independent valuations. A drive by valuation is just as it’s name suggests - an agent drives passed a property and makes assumptions based on the outside only, which is why such reports are woefully inaccurate, so not sure why the Trustee went to that effort. 

It may be that when the OR handed the bankruptcy over to the Trustee (this always happens when there’s property to realise in an estate) that they obtained a Zoopla internet valuation but that’s usually as far as either their or a Trustee’s involvement with valuations goes.
The Trustee will have applied for a charging order on the property so it is certainly worth talking to them, explaining your financial position and seeing what can be worked out.

Good luck!

CStar75

Thank you for your reply.  We tried to annul the bankruptcy but couldn't raise the funds so the OR passed to a Trustee. The Trustee carried out a driveby valuation over a year ago but only contacted us about 3 months ago. We arranged our own internal specialised RICS survey as our property is leasehold, with a short lease so believed our property (and beneficial interest) was lower and as suspected it came out £30k lower than theirs! We asked the Trustee to provide a copy of their report which they did reluctantly, because I threatened speaking to the Insolvency Service due to mistrust and discovered they had over valued adding a bedroom and benchmarking at larger sold properties.  They provided photos so they did go to the trouble in instructing an agent. I wasn't aware they have put a charge on the home, just a J restriction at Land Registry -does this not need to go back to Court? Our understanding is they have 3 years following the date of bankruptcy to realise the assets or the assets are returned to the discharged bankrupt and as we are in the last 12 months, they are applying the pressure.  If we can't come up with the funds are they likely to pursue an order for sale in a pandemic, making us homeless or try and negotiate something more affordable for us without them losing their beneficial interest in legal fees? Thank you.

Minkym00

So they want £22k, you’ve paid £3k and can raise a further £10k? It seems unlikely that the trustee will petition for an order of sale, and a judge grant it, for the relatively small amount of £8k given your children are in school etc. Push for the trustee to put a charge on the property instead and then do yours best to settle the balance later (as the charge will be subject to statutory interest which will keep increasing up the longer you leave it). 

CStar75

Great thank you for your message. Hopefully they will accept our plan of repayment which we have until end January to advise.

thehog

This is why a Trustee applies to court for a charging order and puts a land registry restriction on the property - to protect the asset. If they’ve done that then this stops the equity reverting and the 3 year rule no longer applies.