DH been made bankrupt. How does it impact me?

[junkfoodforever]

My DH was made bankrupt yesterday for a HMRC debt when he had his own business. He's been a salaried employee for 3years now.
We've been together 7yrs but not married long. The house we live in & mortgage is in my name only but we've had joint bank accounts & finances from the start.

1. We recently took out a joint loan. Will I be able to repay the loan myself?

1. How do they work out what he can repay? Gas, electricity in his name. Joint council tax. Sky & BT in my name. Mortgage my name only. He has a company car. He earns £40k, I earn £10k & after childcare am left with c£200pm. I'm worried he'll be made to pay back so much of his salary that we won't be able to pay most of the bills, which are in my name.

1. Will they try to say he has a beneficial interest in my home? (Meaning I have to sell/remortgage) I couldn't afford to pay solicited for this.

1. Where can I get free legal advice re my position?

1. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

TIA

The Official Reciever allocated to his case will be able to answer all of this.
Usually the person made bankrupt cannot have any agreement for more than £500 unless agreed by OR. For example a reasonable monthly phone bill would be fine.
They would have confirmed all of this with your husband.
Regarding selling of the house/car etc, they can only claim some of this during the first year, after this you are discharged.
Hope this helps.
Citizens advice are good as well

Thanks needs. The OR hasn't been in touch yet & my mind is going crazy about it all. I've read as much as I can online (including CAB site), but just wondered if anyone had any specific knowledge/personal experience

And from what I read they have 3 years to seek to take my property.

We recently took out a joint loan. Will I be able to repay the loan myself

Is this a secure or an unsecure loan. I didn't think you could take out joint unsecured loans, but I may be wrong. Also, I wouldn't have thought he could take out a secured loan on a property he doesn't own, but I might be wrong about that too. He probably should have declared the loan to the OR if he was jointly responsible for paying it back?

How do they work out what he can repay? Gas, electricity in his name. Joint council tax. Sky & BT in my name. Mortgage my name only. He has a company car. He earns £40k, I earn £10k & after childcare am left with c£200pm. I'm worried he'll be made to pay back so much of his salary that we won't be able to pay most of the bills, which are in my name

All household expenses, including childcare, food, travel are joint and as the higher earner, it is reasonable to expect him to pay the majority. The household is allowed to pay all its bills and what is left is available to pay towards bankruptcy, not the other way round.

They shouldn't be able to take your home, it is a legitimate thing in bankruptcy to transfer interest to a relative so the bankrupt person doesn't lose their home. So in effect you have already done this. They would only be interested in your home if you had massive equity, so downsizing to pay the debt off in full would be a reasonable thing to do.

For advice overall, have a look at the Bankruptcy section of the moneysavingexpert forum. Lots of knowledgable amateurs and people in the industry post on there.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=136

Have a look at a few of the threads on there and look out for those about getting a realistic budget in place in preparation for the income payments order.

Barb thanks so much, really helpful. The loan is just with a credit union & unsecured. We haven't had any contact fromOR yet. The bankruptcy proceedings went on for 18months so we lived in limbo for so long, hence the loan.

There's about £80k equity in my house currently but my house is worth less than £200k so mortgage payments are low. This is what I'm most nervous about. Do you honk it'd be worth remortgaging (which I need to do anyway) to a higher monthly amount?

Has the house always been in your name

User yes it has. We met the week before my purchase completed

Of the bills in your name, do you /can you pay them out of your own salary, if not how much does your DH pay towards bills in your name?

Breakfast I'll work this out properly but short answer is no. Even without childcare bills are higher than wages

Has he been paying towards the mortgage?

Red yep. Since early on we pooled our wages into 1 joint account & paid everything from there

I suppose, technically, if he has no interest in the house then he shouldn't be paying towards it, but also the OR/his creditors shouldn't expect him to have zero housing costs, so it should be reasonable if he pays you as if he was a lodger? Or you could argue that you pay the mortgage and he pays everything else, especially as he's the higher earner?

In any case, you have a history of pooling earnings to pay shared costs so if you present your budget to the OR as:

All income goes into a joint account, which then pays all bills (don't forget to account for annual/irregular expenses and a little for contingencies and personal spending - this is all allowed, it's supposed to be a sustainable budget, you're not expected to be on the breadline) and once you have accounted for all your joint expenses, what is left is what is available to pay towards the bankruptcy - I think they make you pay a monthly amount for 3 years and the amount is reviewed annually in case of pay rises or increases in bills etc. But maybe they won't take all the amount as some of it is your share?

It might be worth having a look at the Money Saving Expert website. Lots of advice and threads there from people who have been in this position.