My wife has about 40k in debts and is thinking about going bankrupt. The house is in my name only and we are worried about beneficial risk.

The house was purchased before we got married and I paid the mortgage off 2 years after marriage with my own money. My wife has paid nothing to the upkeep of the house and improvements since marriage.

My will leaves the property to my daughter

Is there any risk to our house due to beneficial risk do you think?

No

But why go bk?

Can you list her debts please

Debts are 7 credit cards ranging from £500 to £9000.

Most have been bought by debt collection.

Some have got CCJ's already.

I have thought about offering a token payment of £1 but this maybe a struggle as we are on low incomes.

Other than that bankruptcy seems like the only option.

I could borrow the £680 free from family.

There is no hope of being able pay them off in full due to increased income due to long term illness.

The thoughts of loosing the house due to beneficial interest is causing me sleepless nights

i.e. due to them getting a charging order or my wife declaring bankruptcy and the OR issues a sale order.

Joint owners

The equity is transferred to your trustee.

A ‘Form J restriction’ is added to your property’s entry in the land register. This means your trustee will be told of any dealings connected with your home, for example if you try to sell it.

It can be removed if you can prove you (as the bankrupt) don’t have a share in the property, for example if your partner owns the property. The owner has to send HM Land Registry a signed statement saying they aren’t the bankrupt person and an application for the cancellation of a Form J restriction.

https://www.gov.uk/bankruptcy/your-home

Regards

Andy

Debts are 7 credit cards ranging from £500 to £9000.

Most have been bought by debt collection.

Some have got CCJ's already.

 

I have thought about offering a token payment of £1 but this maybe a struggle as we are on low incomes.

Other than that bankruptcy seems like the only option.

I could borrow the £680 free from family.

There is no hope of being able pay them off in full due to increased income due to long term illness.

 

The thoughts of loosing the house due to beneficial interest is causing me sleepless nights

i.e. due to them getting a charging order or my wife declaring bankruptcy and the OR issues a sale order.

cant see the point for only 7 debts of going BK?

are you paying anything on any of them to date?

Have not paid anything for years. So you think it is pretty safe to leave it for the moment and try and pay something if circumstances are improved? Or will paying a token payment of £1 per month keep them off our back.

I understand that the creditor or receiver has to prove beneficial interest in the property by proving that the debtor has contributed financially i.e. to the mortgage, deposit, improvements and general upkeep of the building. Is that correct? And just being married is not sufficient on it's own to prove beneficial interest?

I have the original receipts to prove that I paid all the purchase value of the house 14 years ago and my wife has paid almost nothing since then. Plus my will leaves our house to my daughter.

So do you think proving that my wife has a beneficial interest is difficult?

you don't need to pay anyone anything.

it will make no diff.

have you looked at her credit file?

what is the defaulted date for each debt?

the date of each CCJ?

I have looked at my wife's credit file. First default is 2012. CCJ's started last year just before statute barred.

If she does not pay anything just avoid/ignore bailiffs. Should I be worrying about beneficial interest and them coming after the house? Title deeds are in my name only and my credit score is outstanding.

they cant come after the house - read what andy has written.

if no-one is chasing her then don't poke the hornets nest

Thanks dx100uk. That has really eased my mind. Should be able to sleep tonight. Thanks Andy.

Will let come back with any updates.

how are you gauging SB date?

sb date 6 years from last payment or action on account.

good.

why didn't the ccj's get defended?

I did do some work with this to see if it was possible.

I compared other cases on your site to check the credit agreements and if the debts were correctly assigned and defaulted.

I did a CCA, SAR request and I checked with the credit report and everything seemed to have been done correctly and she doesn't dispute the debts.

So rather than try to delay the inevitable just waited for judgment by default.

well that was a tad stupid

there are 1001 things other might have spotted

what were the debts and who did you let get the CCJ's?

I don't understand. If the credit agreements were good, correctly defaulted and assigned what else can be used for a defence?

name names

who said they were correct?