Bankrupcy could be answer property in husbands name only though?

[DEDEERICHARDS]

Dear All..

 

I am considering Bankrupcy as I have debts in the region of £60k some personal other debts from failing buisness with a personal gurantee. I thought I would be able to keep working while as much as I did as I became a new mummy, but thats just not the case, I even went back to work 4 days after giving birth and now I am finding just too hard All the debt is in my name only. My main worry is our home. The home is in my husbands name, he brought it when the relationship was quite new 4 years ago and we married last year. It has always been just in his name, I do not contribute to the mortgage or any house hold bills, just food and petrol. Can we still loose our home if I declare myself bankrupt? We also have two cars both in my husbands name can we loose these? I dont want my bankrupcy to effect him really....

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[kurvaface]

My honest non-legal view:)

 

Kids are more important than working your backside off to deal with this stress. I am guessing that only assets in your name are at risk although I don't know how marriage influences this. Perhaps your husband's credit rating could be damaged.

 

Have you determined that all the debts are enforceable or are there any there that you could put into dispute to lessen your liability?

[DEDEERICHARDS]

Thank you very much....yes I agree she is so tiny and its such a special time, and at the same time, I do want to still work, just not to 1am every night to keep this all going! Im running out of steam Thank you for the reply...if anyone out there can give the legal view point on if the house is at risk or not that would be great....tricky to know the best thing to do..as its my own buisness i cant gurantee the income so presume an IVA is not possible.... what do you mean by enforcable? Thanks x

[diamondgirl]

Hi and welcome

 

As far as I know and I have no legal knowledge as the property is not in your name they cannot do anything about it.

The same goes for the cars which are not in your name.

If a car was in your name and you needed it for work then in most circumstance you would not lose it (dependent upon if it was on credit.)

If you are seriously thinking about going down this line then I suggest you have a word with the legal team at CAB who can advise you.

You can ring your local court up and ask them to send you the bankrupcy pack out which costs nothing and does have advice in the pack.

I know something of bankrupcy my son did it last year and should in about a months time be declared a discharge bankrupt.

OK I know your credit rating will be shattered for sometime but I imagin it already is now.

I would also suggest that you check your credit rating out Experian for example have a free trial, you can get a note on your OHs credit rating that he has no financial ties to you so it shouldn't affect his rating.

Any help I can give just ask.

In the end the decision is your.

DG

[kurvaface]

I used this for a credit rating recently and it was exact and it's free:

 

Free Credit Report now and every year - annualcreditreport

 

 

As for enforcable debts:

 

If some of your debts are older you may find that the agreements are incorrect to the point that they cannot be enforced and you may find you can negotiate your way out of them.

 

You do this by doing a CCA request.

[pedross]

Bankruptcy is the last option. I am not suggesting it is not right for you but I am suggesting that you treat it as the last option.

 

What other posters are suggesting is that you look at the individual debts that you have and determine if you can challenge the enforcabily of those debts before making a decision. You will find lots of advice one here.

 

You may find that you can reach the position where there are better options availble without ruining your credit status.

 

Try explaining the debts e.g. credit card -MBNA £12,000 taken out 1998

 

Pedross

[pedross]

P.S. don't be too specific to identify the debt as yours.

[surfaceagentx20]

Dedeer,

 

 

At first blush you have precious little assets and significant liabilities. In those circumstances your bankruptcy would very likely be handled by an Official Receiver rather than a flash suit appointed by your creditors. I say this because, since you have so little in the way of assets there would be nothing for the suit to cream off the top in the way of fees.

 

The legal title to the house is your husbands. Same goes for the cars. The house was bought by him alone some years before you married. You have contributed nothing to the acquisition of the property nor to the household bills. Assuming that to be so it would be difficult for your Official Receiver to advance a claim to have some equitable interest in the house. Your husband could resist those proceedings by denying there had been anything tangible by which you acquired an equitable interest. You would support him upon that case no doubt. Worse from the Receiver’s point of view, without estate assets to prosecute a claim he would probably require some sort of no win no fee arrangement with a lawyer ahead of launching a case. Even worse still, if the receiver lost, he would face the risk of being ordered to personally pay your husband’s legal costs. The risks for the receiver would not be insignificant, suggesting he would wish to obtain insurance cover for protection. That insurance may be prohibitively costly.

 

Weighing things up in the balance on the brief particulars of your post, my money is on the house ownership remaining exactly as it is right now.

 

 

x20

[debtinfo]

hi just thought i would put my two pence worth in. What the Official Receiver(OR) is looking for is to see if you have a quired a beneficial interest in the property since you started ling there. There are several ways you could have done this.

1) Did you help towards the deposit for the house

2) Have you contributed towards the mortgage. For instance if you and your husband had both been earning £1000pm and he paid £800 to the mortgage and you paid £800 towards the bills and shopping it could be said that in effect you HAVE contributed towards the mortgage. On the other hand if you earnt £1000pm and your husband earnt £2000pm and he paid £800pm to the mortgage and £600 towards the bills whilst you paid just £200 towards food then it could be said that you HAVE NOT contributed towards the mortgage.

3) Have you bought or contributed with work towards impoving the house. For instance have you paid for or built an extension to the property. If yu can answer no to all these then you should not have a problem.

Its the same with the cars, if they were bought solely out of his income then they wont be included in your bankruptcy

[toddle2u]

Surface is spot on with his advice. I have just been through exactly the same scenario and the OR wasn't interested in the house. I could prove that the house was bought from the proceeds of the equity in my wife's previous house and therefore they couldn't/wouldn't touch it.

[DEDEERICHARDS]

I cant thank you all enough and will do my best to answer the bits in the posts....

 

Ok I have never contributed towards the mortgage I only put £200 into a joint account for food and petrol the mortgage actualtly comes out another account in my husbands name. I paid no deposit and I have paid no refurb costs its all been him. I think thet would find it very hard to establish an interest, as in between us marrying i was not even living in the property for a year of that either...

 

My debts are in the region of the following :-

HSBC personal loan taken out roughly 5 years ago £11k

HSBC Flexi loan taken out roughly 5 years £5k

Barclays £6k 18months ago

Busniess loan and overdraft with personal gurantee £18k 2 years ago

 

In addition I think i will owe under a directors gurantee when we close the buisness I think roughly £10k

 

Couple of store cards £1k in total

 

Can anyone give advice on unenforceable debt??

x

[kurvaface]

From my limited experience, store cards are probably the most likely to be unenforceable.

[pedross]

Hi Dedee

 

Looking at the debts you have I don't think that dealing with any unenforceable debt will resolve the matter.

 

Basically, it appears to me that you have 3 options however, other posters may disagree with me and say just go bankrupt it is easy. I have already stated that I believe bankruptcy is the last option and I stick with my opinion so these are my 3 options:

 

1. (if you can afford) When you close the business make a list of all the debts you owe, contact all your creditors and offer them 10% of what you owe each one as a full and final settlement of the debt. Make it clear that they must all agree and explain that your only other option is to pay them nothing or bankrupcy. Also provide a list of your assets and liabilties (A & L)to support your claim.

 

2. When you close the business write to all of your creditors and explain that you have no money. Send a list of (A & L) and say you are very sorry but you will not be able to pay them. Ask them if they would like you to go Bankrupt to prove your point and as a punishment for the way you have handled your money. Explain you have a young baby and the whole thing is a nightmare for you.

 

3. Go Bankrupt - you are getting good advice if you decide on this route and they are right it may be the easiest but probably not the best.

 

You could try option 2 first if you wanted and if it failed try option 1 and finally option 3.

 

Bit like a dating agency really.

 

Pedross

[The GodMother]

u could also CCA all ur creditora as they fall under the CCa except for the directors liability thing.

[toddle2u]

You need to think practically here. If you go the unenforceable route even if you prove they are unenforceable you will still get Deafults against you which are very difficult to get removed. These will be on your credit file for 6 years making it very difficult for you to obtain any credit for these six years. At the moment banks will do deals on business loans backed up by PG's. They will take payment plans or full and final offers. On the payment plans they want the sum owed paid off in about 3 years.

 

So you will be making payments for at least 3 years on approx £28k owed on business loans. You will still have Defaults against your name during this time so therefore no credit for six years or so.

 

Say in about 2 years time something happens and you are unable to keep up the repayments on the business loans. They could then make you bankrupt and you will have that on your credit file for a further 6 years even though you have been paying them for 2 years. Money wasted

 

If you go bankrupt now you repay nothing and have a clean credit file in 6 years time and you haven't had to pay back the £28k.