Protecting myself from son with serious debts

My 28 year old son, lives with my wife and I, and is in serious financial difficulties.

Without wishing to sound callous (which I am not – and could type pages on the practical steps I have taken myself to help him) – I am less concerned about his financial predicament, which he has brought on himself, and is doing very little to adequately address.
I am, however, concerned about my own position as a householder.

My son uses our home address for all correspondence etc. I am concerned that when his debtors (HMRC etc) seek legal remedies – would they have any right of access to our property in pursuit of their (rightful) claims?
are there any other steps I should be taking to protect myself?

Comments

  • Wywth
    Wywth Posts: 5,079 Forumite
    edited 10 December 2012 at 2:34PM
    Jeff_Astle wrote: »
    My 28 year old son, lives with my wife and I, and is in serious financial difficulties.

    Without wishing to sound callous (which I am not – and could type pages on the practical steps I have taken myself to help him) – I am less concerned about his financial predicament, which he has brought on himself, and is doing very little to adequately address.
    I am, however, concerned about my own position as a householder.

    My son uses our home address for all correspondence etc. I am concerned that when his debtors (HMRC etc) seek legal remedies – would they have any right of access to our property in pursuit of their (rightful) claims?
    are there any other steps I should be taking to protect myself?

    I think not paying one's taxes is morally repugnant ... and from what I hear I am not alone in that opinion. Your son is presumably working (else why does he have a tax bill). Why is he using your address still? Not a council tax dodge I hope!


    Google 'financially disassociate' and see what comes up.
  • Debts are personal and if the house is not his asset it cannot be used to repay his debts.
    Thinking critically since 1996....
  • CAB_Swansea_Bay_representative
    CAB_Swansea_Bay_representative Posts: 287 Organisation Representative
    Hi Jeff Astle, thank you for your query regarding protecting yourself from son's debt
    As long as you were not a guarantor for any of his debts you cannot be held financially liable in any enforcement action his creditors take but if a creditor does start county court action it may be worth you drawing up an inventory of the contents of your home to show what belongs to you and what belongs to your son as if bailiffs got involved they could only take goods belonging solely or jointly to your son and any proof you have such as receipts would also be useful if the situation got to that point. You can find more information about county court enforcement at https://www.adviceguide.org.uk.
    Hope this is of asssistance
    Official CAB Representative
    I am an official representative of CAB. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to questions on the CAB Board. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. If you believe I’ve broken any rules please report my post to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com as usual"
  • Thank you very much for the helpful responses. That's a big help to me.
  • Wywth wrote: »
    I think not paying one's taxes is morally repugnant ... and from what I hear I am not alone in that opinion. Your son is presumably working (else why does he have a tax bill). Why is he using your address still? Not a council tax dodge I hope!


    Google 'financially disassociate' and see what comes up.

    I love this comment 'morally repugnant' to not pay taxes. Firstly, I think you should start educating yourself as to what your taxes are actually spent on, however, such things include highly oppressive foreign policies, numerous illegal invasions of other countries, bailing out numerous banking institutions and paying for membership of a economic and political union that serves to benefit the very few at the cost of the very many.

    Aside from this, you will find that a very small proportion of taxation is actually spent on health care, roads, education etc.

    You could also argue that morality itself is an illusion. At the very least to be moral or immoral is certainly a subjective term. One persons morality is another persons immorality.

    You know, we are all human's that are put on this earth as equals. Just because a collective of self-important individuals decide that we need to pay taxation does not make you morally superior because you comply. It is so frustrating to see that as a race we are headed for disaster at the hands of governments around the world acting on behalf of the power elite (who actually pay next to no tax) and yet people like you are happy to be repeatedly abused by government and feel happy about it because you believe you are doing what is 'morally' right.

    Neither morality nor taxation are woven in to the fabric of nature, they are both man made by the few, for the few and to the detriment of the many.

    As a final comment, taxation originally came about to pay for a war!!!

    The original OP posted asking for help with a difficult situation he is experiencing. Your response was to imply how superior you are because you pay your taxes. Well, I hope my comments give you the chance to think about you wrote from a different perspective...
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