Three Bankruptcies, two Insolvency bodies, one load of trouble!

[comebackjimmy]

Hello all

 

I am trying to help a business colleague who has suffered significant business woes as follows:

 

1. The guy ran a transport business (a limited company) with multiple trucks/trailers which was financed by a combination of different loans some of them backed by different personal guarantees by him and his wife.

 

2. The business ran into trouble and was made bankrupt by one of the creditors.

 

3. Subsequently,  in pursuit of the personal guarantees the creditors made both he and his wife SEPARATELY bankrupt via two different Hearings on different dates.  I believe different loan companies were guaranteed by each of them resulting in different petitions to recover the personal guarantee amounts.

 

4. Both have done personal bankruptcy interviews and completed the forms and both have legally entered into bankruptcy.

 

They jointly own a small house valued at around £145,000 with 66K owed to the Mortgage co, 29K owed to Help to buy leaving £22K Equity (these figures rounded up from the Insolvency service letter).

 

The insolvency service is dealing with Him directly but she has a third party Practitioner dealing with her.

 

The Insolvency Service is asking him to make an offer to buy the the £22K equity.

 

FIRST QUESTION: If he is able to buy it does that stop anyone from coming back to get the Equity again (The bankruptcy went down like the titanic with several hundred thousand of debt).

 

5.  She is being pressured by a Private Practitioner who is claiming the same equity and asking for the same thing I.E. an offer to buy the Practitioner's interest in the house/equity, failing which they will attempt a Possession order and subsequent sale.   That practitioner has already forced a house survey by Bairstow Eves for the purposes of valuation

 

SECOND QUESTION: What is the likelihood of getting a Possession Order (As I understand it there is not currently a Charging Order on the house so I assume the Practitioner would go through the route of Interim Order, Final Order and then Application for Possession.

 

THIRD QUESTION:   Is there any traction in trying to get one party to deal with both Bankruptcies?

 

Any comments, suggestions or questions etc welcome.

 

(I might take a while to reply as I have to pass the question on and wait for the answer!)   

[Will Goodfellow]

1. If he pays the £22,000, yes, that prevents any unsecured creditors making a claim on his share of equity in future for any debts accrued at the time the banktruptcy order was granted.

 

2. The practitioner can't apply for a charging order as the wife's equity is vested in the trustee, she no longer owns her share of equity, the official receiver does. That's assuming it's not a secured creditor. She would also need to buy back her share of equity to prevent the OR potentially selling the property.

 

3. No, the bankruptcy orders are separate applications so will be processed individually.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Will Goodfellow