On the information you have provided I cannot see why your trustee is going down the route of possession and sale at this time. I would immediately write to your trustee, in a big organisation like GT I would mark your letter 'Private & Confidential' and address it personally to the trustee (to be sure he sees it). The main thrust of your letter should be that what he / she is intending to do is not in the best interests of your creditors. That allowing you to stay in the property will most likely mean a better asking price is achieved (emphasise that you will of course be willing to show people around etc.), that it will avoid the costs involved in an application to court for possession and the costs / hassle of the trustee dealing with an empty property. Also as you have stated in your first post if you are required to vacate the property and move to rented premises then you will have no alternative than to cease paying the mortgage. Thus the position of your lender will be prejudiced to a degree by the way this matter is being handled and that you will immediately bring this to their attention. I would ask the trustee to confirm that he / she will not seek possession and sale at this time, that he / she is agreeable to you placing the property on the market (at an agreed price) and that in exchange you will do your best to achieve a sale, continue to pay the mortgage and insurer the property.

Adraid I can't help you in regards the waiver, i'm sure someone will come along with an answer to that. Your other two questions, yes put your former address down but highlight the date you left that address. Regarding the wills question, I would say the answer presently is none, the court and more so the Official Receiver are trying to determine what assets you have that need dealing with when you are made bankrupt. If that question is still nagging you then I would suggest you bring it up in your interview with the Official Receiver after the order is made.

I think you may have gone down the wrong route. If the only change in the way the new company operates is the name and everything else remained the same, particularly if the remaining employees were transferred to the new company then I would have suggested submitting a claim to the Employment Tribunals naming both companies. If the tribunal had found in your favour and that there had been a transfer of undertakings then the new company would be liable for the judgment amount and you could have sought recovery from that new company.

Remember we are in January 2011 already and by the time the trustee has given the 28 days stated, instructed a solicitor, prepared the application and witness statement and got a court date we will most probably be over one year. The OP has not stated but as he is talking about a re-mortgage I can only assume his spouse, a friend or family member cannot raise the money to purchase the beneficial interest. This should be the first and preferred option of the trustee, as it would be the most beneficial to creditors. Assuming there was no willing purchaser of the benefical interest, which should have been established after nine months, the next option should be a voluntary sale of the property with the bankrupt and his spouse remaining in occupation, this would be the next most beneficial for creditors as the market price should be achieved. We do not know if the OP was invited to do this or not and whether they declined. The last resort should be possession and sale, the most costly i.e. solicitors costs, attendence at court costs, changing locks. Plus nine times out of ten a lower sale price would be achieved. Couple of final points, as the spouse is not bankrupt she may be able to obtain a re-mortgage of the property. Secondly if as the OP would appear to indicate this was a creditors petition bankruptcy then the date for a preference would be the petition date and not the order date.

If you wanted to reflect that you have acquired the beneficial interest in the property you could have had drawn up a Declaration of Trust which sets out the share of equity each of you have. That would be registered at Land Registry, so if / when the property is sold in the future and the mortgage is redeemed you would receive any remaining equity. The problem with changing the legal title into your sole name is that the mortgage company would have to be involved and agree to that.

It may be worth mentioning that if an individual stashes away a large sum of money in his / her pension in the run up to bankruptcy (making contributions substantially higher than was the norm) and at a time when debts are increasing, then that sum may be recoverable by the Official Receiver / Trustee.

Promissory notes form part of the US mortgage lending procedure and borrowers are often required to sign them when entering into a mortgage. But as you are in the UK your original post doesn't make much sense. If I have this straight, your husband took out mortgages (joint mortgages in both your names?) on a number of properties (buy to let?). In other words the bank(s) lent him a sum of money that was used to purchase the properties from the previous owners and in exchange the bank took a charge over the properties as security and your husband entered into an agreement to repay (plus interest) the bank over x number of years. Because of a failure to adhere to the agreement(s) i.e. pay the mortgage, the mortgages were defaulted on, the properties were repossessed and then sold. There was a shortfall between the outstanding mortgage amounts and the price the properties were sold for. The bank sought repayment of this shortfall from your husband and you, you could not pay and they either made you both bankrupt or you made yourself bankrupt. So good so far?

Are you in the UK or the US?

On what basis and for what purpose. Throwing good money after bad? They can mediate between the employee and the Company but that needs both parties to co-operate, seems unlikely. Nope, if the Company enters a formal insolvency procedure then the employees can seek to recover monies owed that are considered preferential debts from the National Insurance Fund, this is administered by the Redundancy Payments Directorate of The Insolvency Service and not ACAS. The catch 22 situation here is that the Company does not appear to be intending to go into Voluntary Liquidation and the OP, or any other creditor for that matter, does not want to spend more money placing the company into Compulsory Liquidation with the knowledge that it has few if any assets. Nope, ACAS has no such powers, The Insolvency Service can seek to disqualify a director if they have sufficent evidence to take before court. Of course this won't help the OP get his / her money.

Renton you keep using this phrase 'a legal company'. Companies House only maintain details of incorporated businesses (Limited, PLC, LLP and a few other obscure types). If 'yes the sofa specialists' are a Sole Trader as I understand they maybe then of course you won't find them on Companies House, like most probably you won't find your local butchers or greengrocers. In an earlier post you refer to a 'private' company called ELS registered to the Droitwich address on Companies House. Can you explain what you mean by that term?

My understanding is that the business in Droitwich to which you are referring, now called 'Yes the Sofa Specialists' previously traded as 'Exclusive Lounge Sofas' hence ELS. A quick check using your preferred search engine will confirm this. No doubt the name was changed because of the very poor reputation of Exclusive Leather Sofas Ltd (ELS) and confusion between the businesses. It does however raise the question why the proprietor of 'Yes the Sofa Specialists' thought it was a good idea to open a new shop in Birmingham at premises previously occupied by ELS Ltd?

You can of course report the matter to the Police as well it won't do any harm. However, in view of the fact the gentleman is about to be declared bankrupt you may find the Police won't be hugely enthusiastic as they often have the view that the Official Receivers are the experts and who can if necessary instigate criminal proceedings. Bear in mind that even if a criminal offence has taken place, a conviction is obtained and you feel justice has been done it won't necessarily mean there will be any more money available to pay creditors such as yourself.

Not unless the Company or he has sufficent assets that can be realised to pay creditors. All you can do at this stage is notify the Liquidator of the Company and Official Receiver, who will initially be dealing with the bankruptcy, of your claim and then wait to hear.

Fully agree with Buzby. The OP does need urgent and specialist legal advice, this is not a case for DIY. Looking for a loophole in the agreement could be one avenue of attack by a legal representative. For example were the individuals invited to obtain their own legal advice before signing the agreement and was that detailed in the agreement or elsewhere? Of course there is the danger that the 'missing' director is the one who benefits from a loophole not the OP's husband. If the OP had not said that they were struggling financially with other debts prior to the receipt of the Stat Demand I would have suggested negotiating with the bank. The bank are only interested in getting back as much money as they can. Therefore any offer in excess of what would be expected to be realised in a bankruptcy would be looked on favourably. But as there are other debts and few assets then bankruptcy may be the way to go and of course the bank gets to pay for it as well.

All the indications are that this was a factoring / invoice discounting fraud on the bank. The bank are the 'victims' and it would have been for them to report the matter to the police, however for reputational reasons they alway very reticent to do so. Instead in an effort to recover their losses they rely on guarantees given by the directors when the factoring / invoice discounting agreement was entered into. Assuming both directors signed the agreement (which is not clear) then they would be jointly and severally liable for the debt. The OP should seek urgent advise ideally from an insolvency specialist solicitor or failing that an Insolvency Practitioner.

It is not so much that the old contract should have carried on it is more that by the continuance of your employment, with all the similarities you quote, the new company may be deemed to have adopted your contract under TUPE and the ongoing liability for redundancy etc. I would be contacting the Liquidators and asking them what their understanding was regarding the employees of the company in Liquidation. It would have been a matter they would have discussed with the directors when they were first instructed. If, as I suspect, they are / were under the impression that the 'new' company had taken over responsibility for the employees then get in writing. I would also ask the Liquidators to send you a form RP1 which is a claim form for redundancy payments. You will then have a decision(s) to make, you can complete and return the RP1 form to the Liquidator. This will then be forwarded to the Redundancy Payments Service and if they pay you then that will be a line in the sand and you move forward with the new company. Bear in mind the Redundancy Payments Service would pay you the statutory minimum and without details of your salary and the redundancy entitlement under your old contract I cannot say how much you would be losing out on. However, the Redundancy Payments Service may reject your claim if they believe there is a continuing contract with the new company. Then you will have to decide if you are willing to take the loss and move on under the new contract with the new company or leave and make a claim through the Employment Tribunal Service against the new company for redundancy etc and maybe constructive dismissal.

Have you tried speaking to the Liquidator, that should be your first port of call?

I have read your posts on the other thread and I'm somewhat confused and not convinced it is the same company. You stated that you went into the shop yesterday, but Exclusive Leather Sofas Ltd (which traded as ELS) ceased trading in August and entered Complusory Liquidation on 20 September 2010. What is the address of the shop you are dealing with?

Give The Insolvency Service (0121 698 4102) or the Accountant in Bankruptcy (0300 200 2600) a call and ask.

Suggest you have a look under publications on The Insolvency Service website at leaflets called 'When will my bankruptcy end' and 'Individual Insolvecy Register' they should answer your questions. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Because ELS no doubt told them you have got the goods and of course that triggered a payment by Creation to ELS, accordingly Creation are out of pocket. You have done the right thing cancelling the DD as you are always in a stronger position if you are the one with the money rather than them. I would (if you have not already) write to Creation at their Belfast head office, rather than the muppets in Soiihull:- Creation Consumer Finance Ltd Sixth Floor, Royston House, Belfast, BT1 6FX Tell them the tale, emphasise that you have not received the goods, that you are aware that they are aware of the Liquidation and the many other people who despite what ELS have told them have not received the goods. Advise that you have no intention of paying any money for something they have not received and request written confirmation that the finance agreement has been torn up and that that is the end of the matter. Send it Recorded Delivery.

Harsh but not necessarily true. If the customer paid with a Visa Debit card (most seem to be nowadays) then there is a little thing called Visa Chargeback that may come to the rescue. There are a number of threads about it on this forum. Wrong again! A trade creditor with more money than sense.

We are only in November now doh! The OP is referring to Exclusive Leather Sofas Ltd (check his other post(s)) that went down towards the end of September 2010. Worry lots as there won't be a dividend to any class of creditors in this one! Good idea, it will remind the OP every time he gets a letter not to pay for expensive goods by cash! Neither, it was a Compulsory Liquidation so the directors don't even have to pay to liquidate the Company. Would be quite hard to identify them as they were never ordered from the manufacturer let alone made or shipped.

I wouldn't bother wasting either the ink or the cost of a stamp as there won't be any return to creditors in this Liquidation. If you want to write something I would suggest 100 lines of "I will not be as stupid as to pay for expensive goods I order by cash in advance ever again"