Some Questions (Long Post - Sorry)

Lady_Python

Hello. This is a bit of a long story.

I am actually writing this on behalf of my friend who is in one horrible mess at the moment. She doesn't have internet access so has asked me to find out certain things for her.

A little background into the situation my friend has found herself in.

She has been married for 7 years to a man neither myself nor my husband liked. We felt, from the first time we met him that he was out for what he could get. At that time my friend had her own house, a really well paid job and basically, everything going for her. Not long after meeting this man he moved in with her. A year later they married (bad mistake). A couple of years down the line, things started to come to light. For example, she had £5000 go missing out of their joint bank account. When I suggested it might be her husband she was adamant that he wouldn't do such a thing so her card must have been cloned. She found out later it was him and he was in debt. Not long after that they sold their house, bought another up North and made approx £70,000 profit. That was 3 years ago. Since then things have gone from bad to worse, including my friend finding out that her husband had been in prison for fraud/embezzlement long before they met. Still she stuck by him (love is blind:rolleyes:).

Gradually, they got further and further into serious debt and just over a year ago they had to remortgage the house with a company that charges the earth in interest. They subsequently fell behind with the mortgage payments and had to take out an IVA. He kept losing his job and in October last year he got another job. My friend was happy about this as even though she has quite a good salary, things were very tight. It all came to a head about 5 weeks ago when she was woken on the Saturday morning to hammering on her door. She opened it to find the police standing there. Apparently, her husband had disappeared with her car, filled it up at the local filling station and bilked off without paying. She paid the bill. He made contact with her later in the evening, promising to give her the car back later on that day. He drove all the way from the North of England to the South where we live. We think he may have been trying to make his way to us for whatever reason, but as he's only been to our house once and unless you know exactly where you're going, it's difficult to find, he eventually went back up North. He turned up at their house late on the Sunday night - and promptly took off with the car again! It turned out that he had lost his job (again) just before Christmas and had hidden this fact from her. To cover his tracks he borrowed money from a well known company beginning with "P" to make her think he was still working. He took out two loans with this company, forging her signature and giving a !!!! and bull story to the company's rep that she couldn't be there in person because she was ill/in the bath or whatever.

She had to get her daughter and her partner to stay over as it was clear that things could escalate. She finally got her car back in the early hours of the morning.

Next day her husband signed himself into the local mental hospital and my friend saw a solicitor and filed for divorce (she should have done that years ago).

Unfortunately, he left her carrying the can. She had to go to Court as the mortgage company went for a repossession order and got it. She is now just waiting for a date to vacate her property. She has been told by the Council that they won't help her as she is not a priority case (her children are grown up and long left home). A week ago her husband got out of hospital, and, of course, he is being looked after by social services, getting everything handed to him etc., totally unfair. This man has bled my friend dry - yet she still says she loves him:rolleyes: If it were my husband behaving like this, he'd have been out on his ear immediately!!!!!!!

My friend has been taking advice from the CAB and also Shelter. The CAB has advised her to declare herself bankrupt and she has been asking me questions about this but I can't answer them, so hence I'm on here.

These are the main questions she's got:

1) Will they take her car? It is on a credit agreement and she needs it for her work as she works with disabled people and has to ferry them around.

2) How long will she be able to stay in her house before she gets evicted?

3) What items of furniture will they take?

4) What items of jewellery can they take (although she says she hasn't got much left as she's sold most of it to try and keep their heads above water).

5) Most of the debt is in her husband's name, apart from a few loans, some small some not so small that he forged her signature to get (that's fraud and I think it should be reported to the police, especially as he has past convictions for it). Will she be liable for his debt?

In many ways I feel really sorry for her as I would hate to be in that position. At the moment she says she is really scared, mainly because she doesn't know what's happening. She's stuck in a sort of limbo at the moment. I've been trying to get her to do something positive, like start looking for somewhere else to live. I can't do anything practical (except this) to help her as I live too far away. I also feel, despite my sympathy towards her, that she did stick her head in the sand as far as her husband went. She admits now that she didn't want to acknowledge what was happening, even though everyone, especially me told her what he was doing.

Sorry this is so long-winded but it will give you an insight into the situation.

I hope you can give me advice I can relay to her.

Thankyou.

tigerfeet2006

Sorry your post seems to have got missed, I do apologise. Welcome to the board. I will try to answer some of your questions. But those I can't someone will be along to help soon I am sure.

1) Will they take her car? It is on a credit agreement and she needs it for her work as she works with disabled people and has to ferry them around. Cars are difficult I will leave this for someone else more knowledgable.

2) How long will she be able to stay in her house before she gets evicted? ditto

3) What items of furniture will they take? No one will take any furniture unless she has a 42" plasma screen tv or the odd Picasso, anything worth lots of money, ordinary household stuff is safe.

4) What items of jewellery can they take (although she says she hasn't got much left as she's sold most of it to try and keep their heads above water). Unless she has stuff worths £100's of pounds the OR has no interest.

5) Most of the debt is in her husband's name, apart from a few loans, some small some not so small that he forged her signature to get (that's fraud and I think it should be reported to the police, especially as he has past convictions for it). Will she be liable for his debt? She is only liable for anything in her name. If there is anything joint then it will then fall to him to pay if she files for BR.



Hope that helps some. She can also talk to CCCS or National Debtline if she needs advice. Any thing else you need to ask just yell and can I say what a lovely friend you are helping like this.

Lady_Python

Thank you for your reply. Believe me, if I could wave a magic wand and make everything alright for her, I would.

I particularly like the sentence "She is only liable for anything in her name. If there is anything joint then it will then fall to him to pay if she files for BR."

It's about time she turned the tables on him!

utterbar

2) How long will she be able to stay in her house before she gets evicted?

The 'usual' order is possession 28 days from the hearing. At that point the bank is entitled to apply for a warrant of possession and a bailiff's appointment is made. If the bank is on the ball and applies straight away they'll probably apply for the appointment within a week or so of the possession date. It then depends how busy the local bailiffs are and it could be anything from a few days to a few weeks and there's no way to predict it without asking the local bailiffs.

tigerfeet2006

I quite liked that bit too :rotfl: especially after reading her story. When a debt is joint both people are 'jointly and sevrally' responsible for the debt . So if one can't pay they can chase the other for the full amount

You should get some more advice tomorrow but don't hesitate to ask anything we will do our best to help.

fermi

Lady_Python wrote: »

1) Will they take her car? It is on a credit agreement and she needs it for her work as she works with disabled people and has to ferry them around.

Cars subject to a credit agreement/HP are very hard to judge.

Most cars on finance are worth less than the outstanding amount owed/secured on it. So the OR is unlikely to want it to be sold to release funds.

Secondly, it is up the the bankrupt to put forward a case as to why continued access to a car is necessary rather than simply convenient. There is some more info on how they would look at that HERE.

Additionally, the repayments on the vehicle would need to be at a level that the OR feels is reasonable. And that is a very hard one to judge.

But if you can convince the OR of all that, then they may allow you to keep the car subject to approval by the finance company.

Now, with many/most HP/credit agreements for a car, going bankrupt puts you in breach/default on the agreement. Some companies will be OK with you keeping the car as long as you can keep the payments up, while some others will just want to take it back whatever.

So as you see, there are too many "ifs and buts" on that one to be certain.

Hope that helps.

Lady_Python

As far as I know, the CAB are trying to renegotiate a longer payment term (reducing her payments) on her car. She does need her car in connection with her job, but to be honest, if I were in her shoes I'd get rid of the car, thus releasing whatever it is she pays per month and instead buy herself a little run around off eBay. My husband is a salesman and clocks up thousands of miles a year. He bought a little car off eBay, nothing fancy for £400 15 months ago and it's still going strong.

It's one area I think she's being a bit silly with and I think there's a bit of snob value there too, but maybe I'm being a bit harsh.

As for her house, the hearing was 3 weeks ago and so far she hasn't heard anything.

Another thing I'm worried about is that when the house is repossessed and sold, as she lives in the North of England where house prices aren't rising as quickly as down here in the South, she ends up having to pay any shortfall. She's only been in the house just over 3 years and remortgaged it just over year ago so there's little or no equity in it.

As for her husband, I think as soon as anyone comes chasing him for money, he'll sign himself back into the mental hospital. He's one slippery character:mad:

I'll be talking to her on the phone tomorrow evening as she will be at work. My phone system lets me have free calls to landlines but I have to pay to phone mobiles. She lost her landline about 2 years ago so we talk when she's at work. The type of job she does she has to stay overnight in.

One thing I will emphasise is this is my friend's problems and not mine. I do have some debt of my own but it's tiny in comparison to hers - and I live in a Council house. When I see some of the problems some people have, I'm suddenly quite happy with my little two-bed terraced house:D

utterbar

As for her house, the hearing was 3 weeks ago and so far she hasn't heard anything.

If a possession order was made she should have been sent a copy within a few days of the hearing specifying the date by which she's supposed to hand the property back.

Lady_Python

I know the company were granted repossession of her house but whether an actual order was made I don't know. She initially said she thought she had to be out by the 28th Feb but this is where it gets confusing as the CAB told her (I think) that that date could be put off but she had to have some letter or another which, at that point (and still hasn't) had. It is the one area she's got me well and truly confused about and I think she's very confused herself.

As for her husband, she thinks, but can't prove that he spent the money in casinos and gambling.

I'll be talking to her in the evening so I'll try and clarify the repossession situation.

utterbar

If the company were granted possession then a possession order was made and she should have been sent a copy.

I suspect the CAB have told her she can apply to have the eviction warrant suspended if she's got a reason that will persuade a court, the letter they're referring to might be court form N244 which she would need to obtain (from the court) and fill in if/when a bailiff's appointment is notified to her.