if husband goes bankrupt...what happens to me?

[bumbleandbumble]

Thats it really. we have no assets and no savings and no house....things are really bad. He is working, but barely making enough to survive and has nearly 200K of debt.

Will it affect my credit? My small self employed freelance business?
If in a few years things improve, will I be able to get a mortgage?

I have no legal knowkedge but I think that it will because once married assets/debts are "marital", ie joint my owned.

Jointly owned. Sorry.

I think it would depend on how he got his debts. Has he got a business or is it a personal debt? Do you have anything to do with the debts?

I am no expert and would say that a debt charity like step change would be a good place to get a definite answer but I think it depends on what you have that is joint e.g joint bank account. Then there is a link and it will affect your credit rating but if you have kept everything financial seperate then the impact on you may be less but I am not sure how much less. Good luck x

He has both business and personal debt.

We dont have any joint accounts...but we owe a lot to british gas/thames water....all in his name.

we dont have any assets, joint or on our own

If debts are in his name solely, they won't be able to pursue you for them. They will be dealt with in the bankruptcy. Shouldn't affect your credit record, but will remain on his for 6 years after being discharged from bankruptcy. If he cooperates, then he will be discharged within 12 months max.

is he a sole trader or are any of the business debts linked to companies?

Loo16 is right. I went bankrupt and DH was not affected as all, as we've always had separate finances and none of them were in his name. If you have no shared finances on anything then there's no reason it should affect your credit rating at all. I got discharged after a year and didn't have a payment agreement as my own income was too low. If your DH has surplus income he may have to pay into an agreement for three years.

The only issue with the mortgage in the future is if you need to include your DH's income so it would have to be a joint loan. DH has a single mortgage on our home, based on his income only, and I'm not on the deeds so it hasn't affected us.

As long as the debts are only in his name then it won't affect you. I had to get a debt relief order and DH credit rating wasn't affected. The only way he was affected was our joint account had to be changed to a basic account with no overdraft facility (we never had an overdraft anyway).

If any debts have your name on then I think you'll be liable for them if your DH can't pay them.

Get in touch with step change, they have a debt remedy service which is online at www.cccs.co.uk. It will give you a rough idea of what they will advise over the phone which will likely be bankruptcy with such high debt. They will talk you through the process and help filling in the forms but your DH will have to pay £700 in order to apply for bankruptcy.