Help please on husbands debts

860460iq

It's a long post and I'm sorry but I really need some help.

So the backstory put simply - husband had several companies with his son ( my stepson). Pubs and houses on one side and construction on the other. Husband ran the construction bit SS ran the rest. As I understand it SS spent ALOT of money on the pubs, by way of loans from Construction side. Long story short all the businesses have ceased to trade. Here comes the kicker… I was asked to sign a secured loan against my jointly owned property at the end of the last year, which as a good wife I did on assurance that this would resolve all the issues (I did ask questions) . Now that the businesses have ceased trading - we are selling the our house to cover the secured loan and our personal mortgage - there's enough equity, and we have a buyer, all fine so far. The Loan company have started repossession action, we have court date in April and have submitted a defence to ask for time given we have buyers in place.

However, aside from Bailiff's trying to claim company debts from the home address ( from which no business has ever traded), and the stress of that there's a slew of personal Guarantees my husband and SS signed. I knew about the overdraft only. There's other loans, Joint PG, an overdraft, sole PG, a rental agreement for rent joint PG, a company credit card to name but a few.

SS has created this mess, and doesn't appear to want to take responsibility, and and as they are joint and several PG's, if SS doesn't pay - guess who lands up with the bill. (that's a whole other story)

Husband has spoken to Stepchange and we've done letters asking for more time. However the landlord has just handed my husband a letter stating that he has 21 days to pay £36K we don't have or they'll make him go bankrupt. He's spoken to step change as my husband is still a company director of the business, which hasn't yet been struck off, they can't help.

I'd been thinking that we sell the house and then he applies for bankruptcy, which would protect my share of the left over proceeds from the house sale. His share being used to pay back the debts. I'm not being unsympathetic to the people he/ the companies he/ the business owes money to, but I've never had any part of the businesses, and have had no hand in any of this, and I'm worried I'm going to have pay for it. Does anyone have any advice on where I stand with and whether I can protect any of my share.

TIA - a very worried and stressed Mrs

fatbelly

I don't know if I can fully advise on this but I can make a few comments.

Have you talked to Business Debtline as they specialise in this more than stepchange?

No-one can just make your husband bankrupt. They can issue a statutory demand however. If they follow through with a bankruptcy petition they pay the fees, which will cost them a couple of thousand. If your husband does it, it costs £680. Better to let them do it maybe.

Provided the house is sold for a market price your 50% of the equity wouldn't be in reach of the Official Receiver in the event of husband's bankruptcy.

ManyWays

I agree with @fatbelly.
Business Debtline is a much better source of support for you than Stepchange. Make sure you contact the real Business Debtline, not commercial companies that have similar names. https://businessdebtline.org/

860460iq

Thank you @fatbelly and @ManyWays. A response is really appreciated.

I've told him about business debt line, who he's trying to get through to now… but they're proving impossible to get through to…sign of the time I suppose, but I'll make sure he keeps trying. I'd been reading horror stories of the Official receiver taking control of the house, and issues with selling the house before going bankrupt. I was worried that it might also prevent the sale. We've sold for less than we hoped to, but the price we got was about right for the market in our area at the moment, prices are being reduced all over our local area. The whole thing is a mess… we've been fortunate to have never had financial issues, I guess it's our turn…

We did get a statutory demand, does that change anything?

Thanks again for the response

fatbelly

A statutory demand is a serious move by a creditor to whom you owe over 5k, particularly if served on a homeowner. You have 21 days to respond and after that they can petition for your bankruptcy.

https://nationaldebtline.org/get-information/guides/statutory-demands-ew/

Others will know that I am not a big fan of Formal Breathing Space (Debt Respite Scheme) but in your case 60 days protection might be enough to get the house sale over the line

Stepchange routinely put clients into it even when not needed so that IS something to talk to them about. Other organisations can also do it

https://www.gov.uk/options-for-dealing-with-your-debts/breathing-space

860460iq

Thank you again - we managed to get through to Business Debt line - and had a very long conversation - we've got some help on the statutory demand, exactly as you have suggested, let them know about the house sale and ask for time. We have some paperwork to do over the weekend, and a further call next week to try and get things sorted. Thanks again for your help and the link…. very useful