Hi MrTee83 and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear that your wife has been made redundant. I'm sure this has put a strain on household finances.

With £34,000 of debts you have taken the right decision to look for advice and help.

Can you tell me if any of the £34,000 of debt is joint with your wife?

Also, your property is this jointly owned?

You have a number of options available to help you deal with your debts. These include a Debt Arrangement Scheme, Sequestration or a Trust Deed. All thee have different pros and cons.

A Debt Arrangement Scheme is a plan whereby you repay your debts in full. It doesn't take into account any assets which you have I.e. Equity in your property. The timescale is determined by your monthly payment. If for example you could pay £200 per month then the plan would take 14 years approx to clear the debt.

You could also consider a Trust Deed or Sequestration. Both of these plans take into account the equity in your house and normally last between 4-5 years. You pay. Proportion of your debts back and the remainder is written off.

In all three of these plans your payment to them is all based on a very thorough income and expenditure so the payment should be affordable and less than your current credit commitments.

The best thing to do is speak with an Expert about your circumstances. They will carry out a full financial assessment, look at your assets to establish exactly how much equity you have and then provide you on your options. Kevin or I the two Experts on the forum would be happy to assist you with this.

The positive thing is that you do have solutions to help you deal with your debts and you will receive plenty of support and advice on the forum.

Hi David

The debts are all mine i took a £15k loan six months ago to try and consolidate some debts but after the unexpected redundancy it's not possible to maintain the payments for all the debts

The property is jointly owed.

I have spoke to someone for advice and they have advice that because I am unable to make a monthly payment then my best option would be bankruptcy but I'm worried about the risk to my house and the possibly of losing it.

Thanks for sharing some further information with us.

Did you go through a very thorough income and expenditure with that person?

Ultimately your options are reduced and limited if you can't pay a payment per month to a plan.

Sequestration (Bankruptcy) is an option but you need to be confident about the level of equity in your house. In a Sequestration a Trustee will obtain a valuation of your house along with a settlement figure for your mortgage. If you have equity then you will be asked to pay this over. The less equity you have the less risk to your house.

If you do have a lot of equity in your house then I wouldn't suggest Sequestration as a good option.

Short term you could explain your circumstances to the creditors, ask for the interest to be out on hold and offer them token payment offers. This could buy you enough time that your wife is able to secure employment and then you could afford a payment per month to a plan.

Is your wife actively looking for employment?

Also, how accurate do you think your suggestion of £18k equity is? Have you had someone value your house?

Morning MrTee83 and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear of your wife's situation, it must be very difficult for you both just now. However, I wouldn't rush into anything. In particular, sequestration would be a very risky option for you if your priority is not to lose your house, so you should certainly be very careful.

My first thought on reading your posts was how long is this situation likely to last? £34000 is a lot of debt to cope with, and it sounds like you maybe would have benefitted from some advice even before your circumstances changed for the worse, but if your wife was to find other work quickly then the extra income could really open up your options.

If you cannot afford to pay anything just now then your best bet may be just to seek to make a token payment arrangement with your creditors, as David suggested - where you offer to pay even just £1pm to each of them as a gesture of goodwill. They are likely to be willing to put a hold on any recovery action in return for a period, maybe 6 months or so, by which time hopefully your situation may have improved and the various options can be considered.

First thing to do would be to go through your budget with an expert as this is always an important calculation in determining what your best option might be.

I have spoken to the CAB over the phone and they took a lot of information from me that's were I got the bankruptcy option from.

She advised that it would be an option if I had a third party to pay my share of the equity which my wifes parents may be prepared to do.

The valuation of my property was given to me by my mortgage company when I recent remortgaged.

My wife is looking for work but she has some restrictions due to ill health which her previous employer was happy to work round, she is worried about securing a job that will affect her health with I don't expect her to do for my debt

If you have a third party to pay in to your share of the equity then either a bankruptcy or a Trust Deed could be options. Either way you would be best to speak to an insolvency practitioner first to nail down the amount that would be required before signing anything.
We would ways do a valuation up front in order that the figures are confirmed and you know exactly what the deal will be, before you sign up. You wouldn't have that assurance in advance if you applied for bankruptcy without speaking to an IP.

Thank you very much for advice.

Your welcome MrTee83.

Like Kevin has advised its important you speak with an Insolvency Practitioner as if it is a Trust Deed or Sequestration the main point will relate to your property and the equity it could have.

Quite quickly an IP can establish the equity and confirm equity how things would work which might help to put your mind at ease a little.

Thanks David

Do you know what costs might be involved to confirm my equity position?

I'm not sure about other firms but with my firm there is no cost to do this for the client. We do it as part of our free consultation. I would think most firms would be the same as mine but like I say I can't be sure.

We would arrange and pay for a chartered surveyor to value your house and you would provide the settlement figure for the mortgage. We would then be able to confirm the equity and exactly how a Trust Deed or Sequestration would work for you.

Sorry, I should have made that clear, that would also be the case with my firm, Grant Thornton, too. You would not have to pay for the valuation and can decide not to go ahead with anything if you wish without any charge falling on you.