Can I become Bankrupt and keep my house?

Starbucks_Junkie_2

I wonder if you can advise me please?

My situation;

I own a house worth 240k

I have a mortgage of 210k - monthly payment £945
2 secured loans totaling 39k - monthly payment £480

I also have car finance on 2 cars totaling 19k - monthly payment £320
Store/Catalogue totaling £400 - monthly payment £100

All of these I can easily meet with my salary, without the following

I also have an unsecured load 8k - monthly payment £141

4 credit cards totaling 11k - monthly payment £300

My question is, firstly, will I be able to declare myself bankrupt, because I earn enough to meet the majority of my debts?

Secondly, If I can declare myself bankrupt will I be able to keep my house and my cars?

I really do not know what to do, the CCCS when I contacted them told me to pay everything except the credit cards / loans and just let a CCJ sort it out but that does not sound right to me.

I simply do not want to carry on as I am as my standard of living trying to juggle all my payments is not good.

Any advice really would be welcome.

Thanks

maxmycardagain

2 cars?.....

Starbucks_Junkie_2

maxmycardagain wrote: »

2 cars?.....

I need 2 cars, I have a 3 hour round trip to work, and my wife needs her car to take the children to school and to go to her work.

maxmycardagain

without full details its very difficult to assess the true situation

I doubt the OR would leave you with £19,000 worth of cars he may suggest your wife drops you at the train station and she get a cheap car....

Your mortgage, debts and income are joint? are you both going BR?

Losing the house is down to what equity you have in it and is it more of a house than you really need?

Your standard of living (2 cars, 250k house and 2 incomes) doesnt sound bad to some....

you need to post I&E to get a decent assessment

wherediditallgo

maxmycardagain wrote: »

I doubt the OR would leave you with £19,000 worth of cars he may suggest your wife drops you at the train station and she get a cheap car....

They'll be lucky if the OR puts it that politely. :rolleyes:

OP, I suggest you contact any of the organisations in my signature, who'll give you impartial advice free of charge. I think you need to prepare yourself for being told that, even if you get to keep two cars, it won't be the two you have now, for the following reasons:

• Someone on this forum was told they had to sell a car worth only £400, though it's more common for the value to be around the £1000 mark before selling it becomes an issue.

• There's another person whose family are living in a caravan worth £400 which is their only home for them & the children, & they've been told they've got to sell it even though it's the roof over their heads.

• The OR will usually let you keep a car that's needed for work. What they aren't likely to do is let you keep cars that have a combined resale value of several thousands of pounds unless they're in a real state, work or not, & even then they may still want them gone. You can therefore expect to be told to get cheaper vehicles, even assuming they agree that both cars are needed.

direstraites

If ive read it properly these will still need to be paid if you intend to keep the house

I have a mortgage of 210k - monthly payment £945
2 secured loans totaling 39k - monthly payment £480

peachyprice

Hi Starbucks,

Firstly it's unlikely you'll lose the house as there's less that £1000 value in it, and with house prices dropping could quite soon be in negative equity as your secured loan won't be included in BR.

Secondly, you won't be able to pick and chose which debts you include in BR, all credit will go in, including the catalogues and possibly the car finance (depending on your agreement).

The cars are more complicated, but be prepared to be made to downgrade them.

That was very strange advice from CCCS, you can sort out reduced payments on your CC's and loans through a DMP, without resorting to getting CCJ's.

maxmycardagain

I wouldnt wanna see his IPOif he went BR........ouch

he says he can easily pay £1800 worth of debt out of his (his) wages, never mind his wifes, take the cars out of the equation (as the OR will probably sort out) and he will get a big IPO...

tomstickland

I don't understand why the OP wants to go bankrupt - a bit of reorganisation and it looks like it could all be paid off.

SuziQ

tomstickland wrote: »

I don't understand why the OP wants to go bankrupt - a bit of reorganisation and it looks like it could all be paid off.

totally agree-your position seems pretty favourable compared to many folks on here with debt.
Surely you could sell those 2 cars, removing the finance on those,use any left over money to buy 2 little runarounds (I have an old Ka,worth £400 but very reliable,cheap to run,and yes I have 3 kids!) and put any left over money towards clearing some of your unsecured debt.

You seem to want to just 'wipe' some debt so that you can carry on with a pretty enviable lifestyle-I totally understand why,but doesn't seem very fair to your creditors.

Starbucks_Junkie_2

SuziQ wrote: »

totally agree-your position seems pretty favourable compared to many folks on here with debt.
Surely you could sell those 2 cars, removing the finance on those,use any left over money to buy 2 little runarounds (I have an old Ka,worth £400 but very reliable,cheap to run,and yes I have 3 kids!) and put any left over money towards clearing some of your unsecured debt.

You seem to want to just 'wipe' some debt so that you can carry on with a pretty enviable lifestyle-I totally understand why,but doesn't seem very fair to your creditors.

Sorry guys, I dont agree.

My car finance that is 19k is not for extravagant cars, my wife has a Polo, I have a C2, we owe this much because the interest on the finance is so high, and no we cannot sell the cars, as they are in negative equity.

I used to have an old Punto that I paid considerably less a month for, but it kept going wrong and did not have the money to keep fixing it, I work 70 miles away from home, and I cannot get to work by means of Public Transport as a) it would take far too long, my daily commute now is 3 hours, with PT it would be more like 6, b) It would be far more expensive than the current cost of commuting now.

My wifes car, becuase I work so far away, I want to know that the wife and the kids will be ok when in their car, and are not broken down somewhere.

That is why we need the cars.

My debt started after a 15k wedding to my wife back in 2001, yes that is how much weddings cost, and ours wasn't extravagant.

After coming back from honeymoon, my wife fell pregnant, which we planned, unfortunately in the same month I was made redundant, and we have never recovered debt wise from that.

The only reason that I have a 240k house, and two relatively new cars, is because I work damn hard, long hours, to try to keep my family this way, and I do not see why I should work as hard as I do just to keep the wolves from the door and have no life... Iv'e earned it..