Welcome to the forum k13vnr1981.

The key point about your home is that you're not on the title deeds (rather than the mortgage). Presumably that's the case given that the home was purchased before you got together?

Your credit files and credit ratings are separate. In some instances, where they have joint financial arrangements, the credit records of a couple can become linked. You've said that isn't the case so there should be no issue there either.

Any trust deed provider should be able to inform you if they have a particular concern about getting your creditors, or a single creditor, to agree to your trust deed becoming protected. The general acceptance criteria for the major banks and credit card companies are pretty clear.

Your wife will not be expected to contribute towards your debts. However, it's reasonable that each of you are deemed to pay your fair share of the joint household costs, at least in terms of the paper exercise of working out how much you should pay to the creditors each month.

So, if you earned roughly similar amounts, you might expect for a roughly similar share of the joint household expenditure being assigned to you when working out your trust deed payment. Your wife's surplus income would obviously be hers to spend as she chooses.

Hi k13vnr1981

As TDA mentioned above, there will be no interest in the property if this was and is held in your wife's name.

It's a slightly unusual situation concerning transfers as there would be an obligation to check transfers of assets, but not really anything on transfer of debts. However that said, the creditors would need to decide whether to look into this further.

The vast majority of creditors are dealt with one of 2 main companies and they would make the decision on the Trust Deed. Personally i have never has a Trust Deed proposed where there has been a transfer which has been rejected.

Mark

Hi k13vnr1981,

Well done on taking positive steps to try and deal with a large amount of unsecured debt. To have struggled and maintained payments until this point must have been extremely difficult.

The first thing to focus on is that you have solutions to help you deal with the debts. These solutions will provide you with fixed payment per month and a light at the end of the tunnel.

In order to work out what options you have available the first thing to do should be working through a very thorough income and expenditure with a qualified advisor. By doing this you will be able to work out how much you can pay towards a plan and you can then decide what plan you feel best suits your circumstances.

You could consider a Debt Arrangement Scheme, Trust Deed or Sequestration. Each of the options have different pros and cons and payment timescales. It's important to cover all of the options so you can make an informed decision.

What do you feel that you could afford to pay per month to a plan k13vnr1981?

I doubt there will be any significant problems posed by the issues you have highlighted, k13vnr1981.

The best thing to do is to go through your budget with an expert. There are pretty clear protocols that most creditors look to have been followed when assessing Trust Deed proposals. This does usually include disclosing your partner's income too so that it can be shown that you are paying a fair share of the joint household bills. However, as Trust Deed Assistant says, this does not mean that your wife will end up paying your debts (regardless of whether they were her debts previously).

The key thing is to work out what you would have to pay and this would then tell us whether a trust deed is indeed a suitable option , and whether you may have other options you could consider too.

thanks for the replies i really appreciate it. one question is how will they work out my disposable income? im under the impression that as me and my wife have the different wages then my household bills would be split pro rata such as 65/35?? also do they take our combined household disposable income and split that 65/35 and i pay mines to trust deed or do they simply use my disposable income only even if my wife has a lot more due to her 65% ratio??

Hi again k13vnr1981.

These are really good questions. Unfortunately the water has become a little muddy in terms of the answers to sharing household expenditure in recent times. This is due to a change in the applicable rules and somewhat contradictory creditor expectations.

The "apportioning" system you describe is certainly one method of calculating this on a fair basis. It's one of the ways to go about this task. Firms that go about it slightly differently will probably arrive at a result that is similar to the one you'd get from this method in any case.

Because it's just one of you proposing to enter a debt solution, it would only be their fair share (however that has been calculated) of the joint disposable income that would usually be required to be paid over.

Thanks again for the reply however my wife has 2 credit cards and a private loan to her mum that she pays monthly that has nothing to do with me so would they take that into account with her outgoings even though the trust deed is for me! what im saying is will they deduct these sums from her disposable income after household bills? i just dont want my wife ending up paying for my mistakes in a roundabout way du to the creditor spliting both the disposable incomes rather than just concentrating on mines

Hi k13vnr1981.

The specifics would have to be agreed with any trust deed provider that you were contemplating using.

However you'd likely arrive at a point where your spare cash was going towards your debts (one way or another) and your wife had spare cash to service hers.

Any trustee would need to be mindful that a sustainable plan would need to take into account that your wife has debts to service. So long as this isn't happening to the detriment of your creditors there should be no issue with this.

I have a car as my only asset which is worth around 10000 as of now. what would happen to this as myself and my wife use it for children etc?

Hi k13vnr1981

All firms are required to use the MAT form in a trust deed proposal. Generally when you input details of the number of adults, children cars etc, then it will allocate blocks of expenditure which creditors will accept as long as it's within the guidelines.

Consideration would require to be give to your wife's on debts when calculating this, although like anything, this would be subject to individual reviews to ensure the payments were not excessive. Very generally the pro rat split you mention is correct.

On the subject of the car, the general guidance is that you are allowed up to £3000 and would require to make payment of the difference at an agreed figure. This would normally be by third party or an extension.

Hope this helps.

Mark

The car would be looked at as an asset and you would need to agree with the Trustee on how this would be looked at and what value of the vehicle you could be asked to pay over. its extremely unlikely that you would lose the vehicle. I assume its not on any kind of finance?

A budget will be worked out with you using a standard set of expenditure guideline figures. Your contribution should come from your disposable income and not from a combination of both you and your wife's. As long as the budget isn't exsessive then there shouldn't be a problem.

It's only by speaking with a qualified advisor and working through this will you have a better idea over things. its always advisable to speak with a couple of advisors to work out exactly how a Trust Deed will work with that firm as how firms deal with assets for example can vary from firm to firm.

Don't rush, take your time, browse the forum and if you do that your Trust Deed should be straight forward and without any problems.

Is the car on HP or some kind of PCP deal?

Your wife's debts wouldn't be included as a household expense, but she would have her pro-rata share of the household disposable income with which to pay these debts, which I guess will be more than enough.

The car was bought cash 6 months ago for 10k. I was told that the creditors wouldn't be interested in it as such a low value car by an advisor over the phone? Am I picking this up correctly? The household expenditure is is split pro rate with both our income and whatever is left over is disposable? So that joint disposable income is spilt and my wife has to pay her debts with that??? That's not really fair to her as she will end up out of pocket if I do this as she will end up with less than me after paying these??

So if I have a disposable income of 300 by month end and my wife has 500 then they will say I have 800 total??? I understand the 800 will be split pro rata but then my wife has to pay her loans out that and will be left with next to nothing!!