Hopefully someone can advise.
My husband and I have been married for many many years and owned our own home for more than 20. We ran a LTD company that went bust a year ago.
We had to sell our home to pay off debt for the LTD company we stupidly gave a personal guarantee on.
We were left with some money out of the house sale (enough probably for a very modest house) but again stupidly we also borrowed in my husband’s name on cards and loans to raise money for the business, to the tune of 80K.
Since the business went we have been doing odd jobs while we discuss and think about where to go next. The money left from the sale of the house is in an account in my name, my husband is paying a pound per week to the debts (organised by StepChange), I have no debt in my name at all.
During our discussions my husband has said over and over for the last year that he doesn’t want to live with this debt but go bust and wipe the slate clean otherwise he feels it will be with him for many years, which I agree with as 80K is a lot of money. Also we both feel if we buy a house it would immediately be at risk.
However as you can imagine I’ve done a hell of a lot of reading online in the last year, and I recently came across something very interesting, a CAB page (pasted below) which suggested that if a property is owned solely by you, your partner can go bankrupt without affecting that property.
Well the thing is the house we sold was in my sole ownership for 10 years, so was our previous house for 5, and even the one before that for 4. In other words ONLY my name was ever on the deeds for any of these properties. This wasn’t done for any particular reason, it just seemed to happen that way, I guess because my earnings were enough at that time to do it.
The only concerns I do have are:
1, We lived together in the house at the time my husband’s debts were created so I guess it will be difficult to prove my husband isn't entitled to a legal share of the property even though it wasn't in his name.
2, We aren’t currently talking about a property but money in the bank, although we do have our eye on one that might sell cheap enough to afford it.
3, When these cards or loans in my husband’s name were originally applied for (between 10 and 1 years ago) we may have ticked the HOMEOWNER box on at least some!
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide
Alice
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/de...r-is-bankrupt/
