I worked for a company as a PA for 2 years and my boss asked me to sign as a witness for him. I left when the company got into financial trouble and it soon went bump. I found out that I had signed as a personal garentor for nearly 200k of leasing equipment and they are all trying to slap charging orders on my house and make me bankrupt etc. I am fighting them all in court but I am tired of fighting and am starting to think bankruptcy. I have a 3bed semi in my name alone rough value 120k, have a 95k mortgage but will be fined 5k if I leave early, have 2 secured loans amountint to about 20k and 6 k of unsecured which is with a debt management company at the mo as I am struggling to make ends meet. I am temping and get roughly 280 per week afer tax but after loans and bills only have 30 to live on, my boyfriend has had to move in as I could not afford to pay mortage and he is now paying it which is 600 per month. Shall I put my house up for sale now and then file for bankrupcy when I am sold or just stop paying my mortgage and get it repossesed and file for bR at the same time? Thanks
With the £200k of leasing equipment as well as your other debt chances are BR is the only way out unless you can win the case are would no longer be liable for this debt.
Even if there is a slim chance of winning you should try to continue to fight it as BR is only a last resort.
If there isn't a chance of winning or you don't want to carry on fighting the issue then there isn't much point in having the hassle of selling the house. Any equity would be used to pay off the mortgage and secured loans and then anything left over would be distributed by the OR.
Even if you sold it yourself you would have to make sure that you didn't show any favouritism and made sure that you paid the mortgage/secured loans off and then distributed any remaining funds on a pro-rata basis to the remaining creditors. If this wasn't done correctly then it could cause you problems with the OR.
The big thing is the £200k debt. If you won this case and weren't liable then you could sell your house for £120k, which would allow you to pay the mortgage, fine for leaving early and 2 secured loans. This would leave you with the £6k debt, which you may be able to manage to pay or if not could apply for a DRO rather than BR.
Usually guarantors have to do more than sign a piece of paper, my Grandma guaranteed my mortgage quite a while ago & had to provide proof of assets & income etc.
I worked for a company as a PA for 2 years
Posted - 15 June 2009 : 20:02:42
