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| mattyw |
Posted - 04 January 2012 : 21:32:41
Hi,
My partner of 40 years ( not married ) was forced into bankruptcy about 2 years ago.
Basically, after raising our 3 children she went into business but ran into trouble and accumulated a large Inland Revenue debt which eventually led to the bankruptcy.
Her debts are approx. £94,000
In the last month the Trustee has declared he is going to force a sale of our house unless we can find £85,000 as 50% of her beneficial interest in our home.
I have 2 questions
1) Is there a legal challenge to say she actually doesn’t own 50% of our house. We bought the house for £30,000, 25 years ago in joint names. It was an old house and we lived with relatives while I provided the money to fix the house up and actually physically spent months doing the house up, sacrificing holidays to basically rebuild the whole house. She wasn’t working so all the financial contributions towards the household came from me.
Also, she didn’t take really any wages from her business, it all went on her employees, and in the final months it was me who actually ended up paying a lot of the weekly wages from my own pocket as she fought to keep the business alive. Even now, I have been paying £400 per month for the last 2 years on an extra mortgage of £20,000 which was put into her business. This was never declared in the bankruptcy as was part of our mortgage.
They have now valued the house at £200,000, we owe £50,000 so they want £75,000 plus some extra costs.
2) She is convinced the Inland Revenue bill is totally incorrect, but in the final months the Revenue just confused her even more. She had made a payment plan and put some lump sums down over a period .She is convinced there is approx £30,000 not accounted for in the Revenue debt, that she has paid.
So my second question is, can she still investigate the Inland Revenue debt and prove the amount they made her bankrupt for was inaccurate, and can this come off the amount the Trustee requires.
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| 2 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Blackie |
Posted - 05 January 2012 : 11:47:18
Happy New Year mattyw and welcome,
There is no legal challenge to the equity in the home and the OR and Trustee will accept 50% as a rule. However it is worth discussing the matter with the Trustee and if you have proof that you spent a lot of money on the house, you MAY be able to reduce this percentage. I would not suggest that you go down the legal route as, believe me, the OR and Trustee can make your life a misery.
As far as the quantum of the debt owed to to Inland Revenue is concerned, you may have problems as the bankruptcy was 2 years ago and I would suggest that she has been discharged and therefore a late query of the debt may not, at this stage, be acceptable. This is something that should have been undertaken early on in the bankruptcy.
All the very best.
John Blackadder
Bankruptcy365
For help and advice on the easiest and most effective way to a debt free future, please go to www.bankruptcy365.co.uk. |
| dkcjm |
Posted - 04 January 2012 : 23:11:00
Hi Mattyw,
In respect of your first point I may be able to shed some light from personal experience.
I was in a somewhat similar situation in that a business I ran failed, ultimately resulting in my personal bankruptcy 2 years ago. In order to inject money into the company, we re-mortgaged the the family home, however my wife had no involvement with the business.
We challenged the OR under Equity Of Exoneration rules which effectively meant that at my BR, my share in the family home was reduced by the amount of the money injected into the business. The outcome was rather bizarre in that between the OR and the Trustee they lost all the paperwork relating to this and in order to bring the matter to a close they accepted a nominal offer for the BI as they accepted from what records they had we had a strong case.
In your case it will be down to you to demonstrate that through your personal efforts in the restoration of the property you have a greater share of any equity, particularly so given the additional financial support you provided in the months leading up to the business failure and beyond.
I would strongly advise you to speak to one of the forum experts without delay to get some professional advice - as I did.
Good Luck.
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