Bankruptcy Advice

[smallbutstrong]

Hi, I would like to ask for some advice regarding bankruptcy.

I think my case may well be complicated but I will try and keep it simple without rambling on.

 

My husband and I had our house reposessed last week,

we did try and fight it,

submitted an N244 etc asking for extra time to sell the property as it has been on the market since June 2013.

 

Unfortunately the judge sided in favour of the lender (Naionwide/UCB).

So we had to get out very quickly, less than 48 hrs to be exact.

 

The council could not help us so we were literally homeless!!.

Fortunately, a good friend has let us move into one of his vacant properties while it is up for sale. We are paying him rent.

 

Our property has approx £140k equity if sold at the asking price,

however, our guess is that we will be lucky to get the mortgage paid off if the house is auctioned off ?

 

We also have £180k business loan (£50k is charges) secured against the property

along with approx £60k unsecured debts from various credit cards, car loans etc.

 

So in any case we will be left with quite a substantial debt to repay. Most of which are in joint names with my husband.

 

I am employed and just about to be promoted, which will include a pay rise and car allowance.

My salary just covers our rent and living expenses, utility bills etc when combined with my husbands forces pension.

 

My husband is not employed at present but does have a couple of interviews pending.

We are considering going bankrupt or may even be made bankrupt by any one of our creditors.

But I am worried that if we go bankrupt I will then not be able to get a car with my car allowance which would be a necessity and part of my contract,

so I would run the risk of losing my job!

 

I am at my wits end and do not know which way to turn.

 

If just my husband goes bankrupt am I right in saying that I would be liable for any joint debts?

 

Also if my husband goes bankrupt whilst unemployed what happens should he be successful in gaining employment a month or so down the line?

 

Sorry for such a long post, but dont know which way to turn and have had so much to deal with this last 2 weeks.

Thank you in advance for any help and advice you can give us.

[citizenB]

Yes, if just one of you enters a B/R plan then the other would be responsible for any joint debt.

 

You might want to consider talking to a BR advisor at National Debtline. It is my understanding they also have a Business section as well.

 

I have posted the links below to Nat Debtline, although I am sure other caggers will pop in during the day.

 

 

 

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/

 

or call National Debtline free on 0808 808 4000

Monday – Friday 9am-9pm

Saturday 9.30am-1pm

 

 

 

Are there any "charges" added to any of the accounts - these can be reclaimed.

 

Was there any Payment Protection Insurance added, if a case could be made for mis selling - this might help reduce any outstanding debt.

 

Do you have any children ? I am quite surprised the Council have been unable to help with rehousing.

[citizenB]

I will send S.O.S in respect of the Business Charges (sorry when I asked the question, I missed that you had said there were quite a lot of these ??)

[smallbutstrong]

Thank you for you reply.

 

There were some PPI plans on some cards/loans

but I have been told by one of the online "No win, No fee" companies that because our accounts are in arrears then there would be no point in claiming?

 

We have a 16 year old daughter who has just started her A Levels at a local grammar school.

 

Our property was on the border of 3 counties but fell into a different county than the school my daughter goes to.

 

The council had nothing available for at least 3 weeks and then they could only get us somewhere 45 miles away from the school

and my place of employment. So we could not even consider that option

[citizenB]

It would definitely not be in the interest of a NWNF company to reclaim PPI on your behalf, purely because any refund (if still with the original creditor) would be offset to the account and they wouldn't be able to take their cut before sending the balance on to you.

 

However, it would definitely be in your interest to reclaim the PPI in order to reduce your overall liability !

 

We do not advocate the use of NWNF companies - it is easy enough to do yourself (with the help of CAG) and all the money will either come to you or your debt.

 

I would also point out that if the creditor were to plan on offsetting - they could only offset against genuine arrears !!

 

If you are interested in DIYing this, then we have a couple of guys who can talk you through the process.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear about the situation with the housing.

 

I have asked someone to look in regarding the Business charges - hopefully he will spot the PPI situation as well

[citizenB]

I see you mention your Husband is ex forces ! We have a couple of retired forces chaps who might be able to suggest some help/advice from organisations set up to help Ex forces personnel. I will ask them to look in as well

[smallbutstrong]

Thank you so much for you avice and yes we would definately look at the DIY option for the PPI's, thanks again and look forward to hopefully hearing from you later.

[ScarletPimpernel]

Thanks to CitizenB for asking me to look at this thread.

 

In terms of help for ex-forces personnel, there are various sources of advice and assistance:

 

The Royal British Legion have an arrangement with CAB which provides for veterans to get priority free advice from a Money Advisor.

 

SSAFA Forces Help can assist with advice and may also be able to help with finding suitable accommodation in the longer term.

 

ABF The Soldiers Charity, the RAF Benevolent Fund and RNRM Charity may be able to help with grants and advice.

 

The Regular Forces Employment Association is much better than it used to be and might be of use to your husband.

[sequenci]

Hello there.

 

if you are seriously considering bankruptcy please think twice about reclaiming PPI - as the official reciever will want to know what you've done with the money. It *could* cause a few difficulties (although using the money for general, reasonable, day-to-day expenses and the bankruptcy fees should be ok!).

 

The £50k in charges - do you mean a legal charge against the property - or do you mean charges that have been applied to you by your various creditors.

[dx100uk]

hi CB asked me to pop in

 

the more you can tell us about anything the better.

 

PPI, PENALTY charges, anything.

 

if you wish to scan up statements then please do. [esp the business loan stuff]

PLEASE make sure you redact the docs properly or ask me for an email to post them too]

 

I notice its not as such been directly mentioned

but what kind of PENALTY fees did the mortgage attract.

 

sadly, again like yourself

I got involved after a house repo last year

 

dissecting the UBC statements,

it transpired that they had levied over £45k in PENALTY charges + the interest they resulted in.

 

this was a large mortgage, however they got them and a whole lot more back.

 

sadly due to conf agreement I can say more.

 

PLEASE let us have the info.

set your default scan page size to A4 less than 300DPI [150 will do]

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets - as a picture[jpg] file

don't forget you can use a mobile phone or a digital camera too!!

'

BUT......

ENSURE: remove all pers info inc. barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all monetary figures and dates.

*********************************************************

{DO NOT USE A BIRO OR PEN OR USE SEE THRU TAPE OR LABELS]

try www.pdfescape.com TO BLANK STUFF,

*************************************************************

or

DO IT IN MSPAINT.EXE or any photo editing program

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites ...

http://freejpgtopdf.com/

..

if you have multiple scans/pics

put them in a word doc FIRST and convert that to PDF

or use www.pdfmerge.com

 

convert existing PC files to PDF [office has an installable print to PDF option]

..

 

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf if

you have many images too rather than many single pdfs

.

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

try and logically name your file so people know what it is.

though dont use full bank names or CAG in the title

i'e Default notice dd-mm-yyyy TSB

.

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

.

dx

[smallbutstrong]

Hi thank you for coming back to me. My husband now has an appointment with a rep from the British Legion next week, so we will see if they can help in any way.

 

Regarding the other points raised above, it maybe easier and quicker if I can scan and send the documents to an email address if that is ok ?

 

HSBC, which was the business loan now also includes our business overdraft, business credit cards etc, they insisted that we put everyting into one account and then slapped a 2nd charge on the property!!! Nice.

UCB I am sure will add lots of charges on if they have not already done so. Did you say that you got some of these charges back from UCB, or are you not allowed to comment?

 

If I can get an email address to send the docs to that would be great. Thanks once again.

[slick132]

Hi SBS,

 

Any default charges added to a loan a/c or a credit card a/c can be reclaimed in full as unlawful penalties.

 

Default charges on a current a/c or overdraft cannot be reclaimed, in general terms.

 

But you need to consider the bigger picture here.

 

See what the BL rep says and also consider getting advice from other sources about your options. There's little point in going through the process of reclaiming charges if you're still left owning huge amounts that you can't pay.

 

[smallbutstrong]

Hi Slick,

Yes I think your right, may be a case of a lot of work for no reward.

I will make contact with some of the suggested agencies regarding bankruptcy and then hopefully be able to a more educated decision. It's just the fact that I have good job that is bothering me and if my husband gets any of the roles he has gone for, would they let us go bankrupt or would they just deduct the majority of our disposable income for the foreseeable future??

[smallbutstrong]

Hi

My husband has had a meeting with the BL and they have been extremely helpful and very kind indeed. They have advised that we both go bankrupt, especially after we have just found out that UCB Homes (Nationwide) have put our house on the market for £399k when its realistic market value is £560k!!! Our mortgage was £390k and we were hoping that equity would pay off our business loan and other creditors, but there is no chance of that now

We just have to wait before filing for bankruptcy to see how much they sell our house for as we don't want them chasing us for any shortfall.

 

I do have a question though, does anyone know if there is any particular formula for working out how our surplus is split. As I understand 66% of any surplus is split between the creditors, that is as long as each creditor will receive a minimum of £50 each. Is that correct?

If so, then if I have 10 creditors I would need to have £1000 surplus to give each creditor £50 each.

Am I making sense??

 

Thanks in advance for help or advice that you can offer.

 

P.S. The BL have told us that they will pay for our bankruptcy, which is a massive weight off our shoulders

[sequenci]

The surplus is split based upon how much you each creditor. It's simply based on a percentage of the total debt, so if your total debt is £20k and one creditor is £5k - they will get 25% of the surplus.