Hubby's potential Insolvency / bankruptcy

[Goldlady]

Hi red, interested to hear your story - we are in similar situation and I was advised to go BR over 18 months ago due to business related debts also. I have held back and made arrangements with creditors so far, because i do not want to lose my home. OH and I have between 10 and 30K of equity depending on whose valuation you take. We have always thought that receiver would base valuation on forced sale value which is substantially less than true market value. I have talked to lucky people who have gone BR and the house has never even been asked about. But I wish you every success and am interested to hear what does happen. My IP friend didn't seem to think it would be a problem. I seriously think though that the half of the equity you need to buy out should be based on how much you would get if OR auctioned it rather than if you put it on market with smell of fresh coffee and bread baking in the oven.

 

Linda

[Goldlady]

Hi Red, My IP friend said I didn't have enough income to set up iva and advised me to go BR. But my OH did lots of negotiating with creditors and got all but one (Clydesdale) to freeze interest and accept substantially reduced payments on the basis that it was better than nothing. That was about 18 months ago - I have now asked them all to accept £1 each short term on advice of CAB as our secured loan (GE Money - NASTY people) was in arrears - still negotiating on that one. IP also said credit card people don't like IVAs as most of money goes to IP and they don't actually get their money until the end of the IVA.

 

I am sure you can talk to OR about the house - I would be interested to know how they value it. Do they just take your word for it? Another thing I have just learned which applies in my case is that when we bought house OH had a 9K grant from council on right to buy which means he owns more of the equity in the house than I do - I have spoken to solicitor about this and she says we can set up a trust which means if I do go BR I only own 2/3 of the equity and not half.

 

My house smells of tobacco too!

 

Linda

[Goldlady]

Have found out from a friend who had IVA that they got three independent valuations of his house and took the lowest figure.

[Goldlady]

Red, unless it is a Ferrari they can;'t take the tools of your trade. Even if car is registered in hubby's name he is not necessarily legal owner. If it is going to stop you earning a living - or make it difficult you should be able to do something about this. If it is a normal sort of car I think you should question this.

[Goldlady]

Red I wonder if they are trying to work out who paid the original deposit. If you had paid it (please let this be the case) then you would own proportionally more of the equity than him and it wouldn't be worth them respossessing. (It's all to do with trust law). Like say the house cost 50K and you paid a deposit of 10K out of your own money then you would own the house at a ratio of 30:20 - or 60% of the equity would be yours and 40% his.

[Goldlady]

If it wasn't in your favour you just wouldn't mention it, but if for example you had paid it then you could argue it. My OH had a £9000 grant towards buying our house and we were told we could use that to say he owned more equity (as I was contemplating bankruptcy at the time), however the grant was eventually put in our joint names because the mortgage lender insisted on it, so that argument went out of the window.

 

There is another issue - if you have paid the mortgage payments out of your earnings this could affect your share as well.

[Goldlady]

I suspect the tenants in common thing could be errr back dated:p

[Goldlady]

Haha, that would be pushing it I think. They also need to value your house at forced sale value so I understand.

[Goldlady]

Most of the caselaw I know about involves houses that were owned by the husband only (from the bad old days:D) where the wife was able to claim part of the equity because she had contributed to the deposit/paid the mortgage etc, or even done major building work!! But it is worth arguing that your salary, if it was a lot more than his, paid a larger chunk of the mortgage and that you therefore have more of a claim on the house than 50%. I think like the car you can put up a fight - I certainly would.

[Goldlady]

Red I stand to be corrected but think the courts can order a variation from the assumed position if there is evidence to show that the equity should have been apportioned differently. Having learned about all this recently I was amazed that when OH and I bought our house the conveyancing solicitor registered the house in our joint names without discussing anything with us (we aren't married). Which is standard practice no doubt. But I think (and again i could be wrong) that if you were able to present an argument that you owned more than 50% of the equity in a court hearing you might succeed - and this might be enough to put the IP off.

[Goldlady]

I was representing my friend in repossession hearing and I was quite confident I thought. However we had to go down the stairs in the court and my legs went really wobbly - is it the effect courts have on us?

[Goldlady]

I was talking to a client who has been 'inside' about something I had heard whereby if someone is guilty they sleep like a baby in the cells the night before the trial, whereas innocent people pace the floor all night. He reckons that is true, cos if you know it's a fair 'cop' you are relaxed about it .

 

Red is the IP sort of on your side/trying to help, or is he/she just an extension of the OR?

[Goldlady]

I have heard that in many cases they leave your house alone. I don't quite understand how some people do lose their home and some are OK - but hopefully you will be one of the ones who survive:p As you say though it is going to be hanging over your head - this is one of the concerns we had when I was considering bankruptcy. How did the IP decide he had no beneficial interest by the way?

[Goldlady]

No longer the Inland Revenue:D They have lost their priority status.

[Goldlady]

Weird - I am the same red - only trusted people get my mobile number. I changed it after Abbey got me to agree to a payment I couldn't afford while I was driving:mad:.

[Goldlady]

I doubt you will ever know - unless of course they call you again. I would think they would have to disclose where they got your number from even if you use the data protection act.

 

My OH has a cunning plan which is paying off with our business callers. When he registered our details with Yell he gave them a false name. You would be amazed how many time wasters ring and ask for that person - so we know exactly who has sold our information on.....