Ok please stay with me here, sorry it's a bit longwinded but i'm praying someone might be able to help.
I live in France with my 2 sons. My husband returned to the UK to find work last year when we started having financial difficulties. Luckily he found work but at the minimum wage so life is a struggle. We have run up debts on 2 UK credit cards which we are paying on a reduced rate. I also have a Natwest bank loan on which i have defaulted. We also have a mortgage with a french bank and are 3 months behind with the repayments. I've spoken to the bank but unfortunately unlike UK banks they are unwilling to offer help. No payment holidays or interest only payments! So we have to sell our home. The valuation came in at 20,000 less than we paid for it 3 years ago so we'll make no money there and also it's not unusual for houses here to take 2 years to sell. I know we won't be able to make up the missed payments and keep up while we wait for the house to sell so i'm afraid they will repossess it, sell it for next to nothing and we get lumbered with another massive debt. We are now considering bankruptcy. We have tried so hard over the last 18 months to avoid this but it seems to be the only option. This is where i am struggling to find answers. Bankruptcy in France is SO complicated, we all know how they love paperwork! Does anyone know if it would be possible to declare ourselves bankrupt in England and include our french mortgage or would it be better to let the house be repossessed and then declare ourselves bankrupt once we're all together again in the UK and would we then be able to include any outstanding payment owed to the french bank.
I really don't know what to do so if anyone can help i would truly appreciate it.
I think the best thing to do would be to make yourself bankrupt once you are resident in the UK - you have to have lived here 6 months I think, but there are a few posts on here regarding residents abroad, and others on here are probably better placed to advise
The problem you may have is convincing the court that you are a UK resident. If you are residing in an EU country (other than Denmark) then you would need to declare BR in that country. This is know as the Centre Of Main Interests (COMI).
If you could prove your COMI was in the UK then ALL debts (French and UK) would be included in the BR but it really depends on where the UK courts would consider your COMI.
The issue of COMI 'could' be a problem as the UK courts are cracking down on people from other EU countries coming to the UK to take advantage of less stringent BR laws. This means that even if you returned to the UK for 6-12 months you may have to 'prove' that you resided in the UK permanently rather than returned here to take advantage of the BR laws.
I would recommend having a quick initial chat with RevivaUK (http://www.revivauk.com) to see what they say about your residency status and whether it would be possible to declare BR in the UK. They have a lot of experience of dealing with people who reside outside of the UK but wish to declare BR in the UK.
It also depends on how long ago you left the UK to live in France. If it is more than 3 years ago then you couldn't declare BR in the UK.
Edited by - gettingoutofdebt on 26 March 2010 22:03:19
Alone in France and needing advice
Posted - 26 March 2010 : 12:02:33
