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Husband bankrupt and Trustee wants to sell our house??!!!??

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  • threeofus
    threeofus Posts: 106 Forumite
    renting is a waste of money, for me it would be more than I actually earned and everything I have worked for for 25 years will be gone because I was financially abused, he has now walked away with his 'clean slate' yet I have nothing, can't even house my children as the property market is slow I will have to reduce the sale price leaving a pittance
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303
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    renegadefm wrote: »
    I hate to say it but if she was pregnant now the trustee couldn't do this because it could make them and a child homeless.

    Not true I'm afraid. The rules involving houses with equity in BR are quite clear and the fact a family could be made homeless is no barrier to the OR - pregnant or otherwise. The OR has to initiate selling the property within 3 years. this would have been explained to the husband but he either failed to recognise the info, didn't take free advice from a debt charity or chose not to tell his wife. So in effect the pair have had over 2 years to find another home or find a way to buy the ORs interest back.
    The OR can only have the husbands share of the equity and the wife could make an offer to the OR to buy her husbands interest. As the OR will have to take all the costs of the sale (solicitors/agents/auction fees etc) and their own fees out of the husbands share - then the wife doesn't have to offer the full £100K - the OR will be open to negotiation on that.
  • fatbelly
    fatbelly Posts: 20,380
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    renegadefm wrote: »
    I hate to say it but if she was pregnant now the trustee couldn't do this because it could make them and a child homeless.
    The best that would achieve is to give them a little more time, if this was deemed 'exceptional', and I'm not sure it would be.

    This is what the technical manual says:
    After one year has passed the court assumes that, unless there are exceptional circumstances, the interests of the bankrupt!!!8217;s creditors outweigh all other considerations, and the order will be given. The rights of the creditors are also considered paramount to any matrimonial or civil partnership proceedings home rights, and to the rights of occupation of the bankrupt.

    31.3.186 Exceptional circumstances which might prevail over the interests of the creditors

    The courts have largely taken a narrow view over what might constitute an exceptional circumstance. Family hardship caused by the bankruptcy is not considered an exceptional circumstance. The hardship suffered by a wife and children of a bankrupt when the family home is taken is deemed distressing on the parties concerned, but not exceptional. Exceptional circumstances have been found to be present where there is illness, including mental illness. The need for the bankrupt!!!8217;s wife to care for her terminally ill husband has also been held by the court to be an exceptional circumstance. Exceptional circumstances were also found where a bankrupt!!!8217;s spouse is disabled and in poor health. The court may make an order postponing the sale of the property until an ill/disabled person has died or chosen to leave the property. In a case concerning a property in which a disabled child was resident, the court delayed the sale for a period of three years.

    edit; cross-posted with The gardener and there is good advice in that post
  • atush
    atush Posts: 18,719
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    Edi81 wrote: »
    The trustee won!!!8217;t deal with you. They will only deal with your husband.

    I find it hard to believe that after three years you did not realise that this could happen.

    I agree. What have they been doing for the last 3 years? burying your head in the sand? The OP could have gotten a job and a mtg for 100K. They could have saved 20K etc.

    Or borrowed it from a family member (who would then own your husbands half of the house til you pay them back).
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303
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    The frustrating thing for the wife will be that I suspect they have continued to pay the mortgage over the past 2 years when in fact if they knew there was no chance they would be able to buy back the husbands interest - they didn't need to bother paying the mortgage and could have used the mortgage payments to find a new home - even if it was temporary rented.
    This is where getting the right advice from the outset can save untold heartache. Even though the hubby was made BR by a creditor - he could/should have taken professional, free advice so they could make the right decisions and plan for the future. The wife could have got a job and not been so distressed now the time has come to sell the house.
  • renegadefm
    renegadefm Posts: 1,303
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    comeandgo wrote: »
    Why not rent? They will have £100,000.

    Well for a start if they use the £100.000 on rent it wouldn't last that long, and once its gone its gone.

    All I'm saying is if the trustee takes half, its actually worse than a marriage breakdown in terms of what is being lost.

    It would basically leave just 50 grand for each person, I say each person because trying to find a house suitable for a couple for £100.000 wont be as easy as just one of them trying to find somewhere for £100.000 similarly to that of a marriage break up.
  • renegadefm
    renegadefm Posts: 1,303
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    Personally, I get the impression that they've spent the last 3 years congratulating themselves on being so clever that they have avoided paying a penny towards the husband's £200k debt whilst living very comfortably thank you very much in their £420k house in the South East.

    Well, now that the faecal matter has hit the fan, they will be evicted, the house will be sold, the husband's share of the equity will be seized and they will be dragged kicking and screaming into the real world.

    But hang on, its not like the both of them are partners in crime here and we're trying to be clever. Its the husbands debt, not the wifes, but she will be equally affected by this, which to me there must be something to prevent this. Hence my post about the marriage breakdown scenario.
  • BeccaGee
    BeccaGee Posts: 27
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    Thank you all for your messages. I am reading
  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,613
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    renegadefm wrote: »
    Well for a start if they use the £100.000 on rent it wouldn't last that long, and once its gone its gone

    Where would you be living that £100,000 wouldn't last that long?
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
  • TheGardener
    TheGardener Posts: 3,303
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    renegadefm wrote: »
    But hang on, its not like the both of them are partners in crime here and we're trying to be clever. Its the husbands debt, not the wife's, but she will be equally affected by this, which to me there must be something to prevent this. ...

    Nope - there is nothing to prevent it - the OR has a legal duty to recover what they can for the creditors. The wife will indeed suffer - equally if it had been the wife that had gone BR the husband would suffer. That's the rules and the price of having a large debt wiped out and a clean slate.
    The family have had over 2 years to find alternative accommodation or find a way to buy the husbands share back from the OR. The fact that the hubby in this case appears to have acted so irresponsibly in not getting advice and planning this properly (equally, the wife should maybe have taken a bit more notice of what was going on) mean they are going to lose the house and all the money they paid in mortgage payments for the last 2 years to boot unless they start negotiating with the OR and can buy the interest back. .
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