Bankruptcy help please. Very worried

[myflorentina]

Back story - partner 40, me 46. 5 kids between us(all live with us)
House in my name. Mortgage in my name. All household bills in my name
His ex wife racked up a load of joint debt whilst he was working away. She is an alcoholic and an ex accountant. He foolishly believed her and went along with her

He has just gone bankrupt. He used a company called Invictus to fill out all the forms. He deliberately DIDNT tell them that he had a vehicle. He should have!

When he had his phonecall from the insolvency people, he told them that he had sold it 15 months ago for 4k and used the money to pay off some debts etc. In actual fact he transferred it into my name in April this year.

His divorce solicitor of all people advised him to go BR and in fact advised him to get any assets out of his name.

The insolvency people have written to ask for DVLA proof of new owner etc.
I told him that they put his name, DOB and NI number into their computer and everything about him comes up. You cant hide anything cos you always get found out.
Bit like Big Brother is watching you

What I am concerned about is that they will want to investigate me. I have no debt whatsoever, and never have.
I have wealthy parents(who know nothing about this) and a couple of properties of theirs are in my name. We have nothing in joint names.

He is ringing them today to tell them that he lied to them.
What is likely to happen to him?
Please don't judge me on his actions.

I definatley wont be judging you as i would of transferred as much as i could out of dhs name if he was in the same situation.

Dh was going to go bankrupt afew months ago. After reading up on it, we decided against it, he had too much to lose.

Different people contradicted each other. We sought advice from people who do the bankrupcy process with you and the citizens advice.

One of them said that they couldnt take anything to do with your business or anything that prevents you from earning a living for example a car that you need to work etc.

Another one said that they close your business down and sell off all the assets even if the debt wasnt in the business name.

Another one said that if your vehicle was of high value say £7000 then the insolvency person could decided to take it off you and give you £1000 to buy a cheaper vehicle. But it all depends if the individual person wanted to do that.

I think that any assets that have been transferred into someone elses name within a certain timescale can still be counted as his asset. However i dont know how they can legally get the vehicle off you if its now in your name.

The debt is not yours, therefore there is no way they can touch any of your property.

They can however take assets out of a house he lives in if there is no name on the receipt of things to prove who they belong to.

This is what put us off dh going bankrupt as i didn't keep receipts for anything i bought in the house.

They are not allowed to take items out of a house that is seen as need. For example the bed, washing machine, fridge freezer, blinds or curtains, clothing and shoes.

sorry to hear about your situation, was he advised to hide his assets by this company?
Attempting to hide assets is a criminal offence so he could be prosecuted and get a bankruptcy restriction order which can last upto 15years

Just noticed you asked what would likely happen to him.

I don't know to be honest, they may look into his case a lot more throughly, they may take into consideration that he panicked. If its causing a lot of problems, could you just let them take the vehicle and buy him another one when this has all been finished or buy him one sooner, put it in your name and then transfer it into his once this has all finished?

Its a very stressful time going through this.

His divorce solicitor advised him to transfer stuff over to me before he went BR. Not the company that helped him with the forms.

unfortunately, as you have found that is not very good advice :-(

The OR will overturn the transaction so the car will be dealt with as an asset in your husbands bankruptcy.

The OR or trustee cannot pursue your assets or hold you liable for your husbands debts.

You can find more information on BRO's here - www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/technicalmanual/Ch13-24/Chapter13/part12/part_12.htm

The insolvency service have really cracked down on this type of thing recently, for an idea you can have a read here insolvency.presscentre.com/Press-Releases/Assets-must-not-be-hidden-from-creditors-warns-Insolvency-Service-650c0.aspx

I am sure you property will be safe - all the best this must be a worrying time x

We aren't married!!

Opps sorry my mistake, even if you were unless the OR can prove he has a beneficial interest in your properties they will no go after your assets - which must be good news for you

Thank you x

I just wanted to add: don't panic!! I went bankrupt fairly recently and the best thing to do it be EXTREMELY honest with the OR. Tell them you were badly advised and made a mistake. Yes - you will lose the car (unless you buy his interest in it, perhaps?), but they're really not that likely to take action against him because of it.

Have a look on the bankruptcy boards on money saving expert - they are excellent for advice and support. One thing which comes up again and again (and what I found) is that OR have been subject to the same staff and budget cuts as the rest of the public sector - they focus on getting the serious, proper bad guys, who have deliberately set out to con them. The OR are generally very nice, sensible poeple doing a difficult job, and they understand that BR is the most stressful thing on earth fo some people - and that they will panic and make mistakes. Just be honest.

Keli has given an accurate description of the car situation from your point of view. You can either hand over the car to the OR or offer an amount of money to buy it from the OR - given the cirumstances I would offer the Parkers book value and not try to get it cheap. The fact you are not married is irrelevant.

How much do you earn compared to what he earns? If you can clearly pay the mortgage and the bills from your own earnings, then the house is safe. If however he is effectively paying a lot of the mortgage even though it is in your name, the OR may decide to take a closer look at the situation. This is the real downside of lying about the car - they may decide to turn over every stone and inspect under it... If he is making a substantial contribution to the house then the OR may decide that he has a beneficial interest in it. If the deposit came from you (or your parents) and/or you had already accumulated equity by the time he moved in, this can't be touched by the OR.