Hi inovermyhead,

Welcome to the forum.

If there is no realisable equity in your house I don't think it will be affected in bankruptcy. In bankruptcy homes tend to sell at considerably lower prices than selling conventionally through an estate agent. For this reason I don't think the home would be seen as an asset in bankruptcy based on the numbers you have provided.

Most creditors aren't especially quick to start legal recovery action. This is especially the case where the borrower explains their situation to the lender and also pays what they can afford. Making reduced but affordable payments on these debts can often buy you time.

Having said that legal action would remain a possibility and a Protected Trust Deed would obviously offer you protection against that. It takes five weeks for a Trust Deed to become protected so it may be in your interests to move forwards quickly if you do decide that a Trust Deed will be right for you.

I hope this is a helpful starting point but please let us know if you'd like more information.

Hi inovermyhead

If you were to sign the TD prior to the sale, the Trustee would sign the disposition on your behalf. I see no reason why the sale would not continue as normal.

You should remember that if the house is in joint names, then he/she can have NO interest in your partner's share of the property.

In summary, I see no real reason for delaying matters as they wold run their normal course.

Hope this helps

Mark

Hi
Thanks for your replies
This has helped me greatly and I will be getting on the case next week as it has really been stressing me out.
Can I ask? say my house sells for ?ú3000 over my outstanding mortgage, would I have to give my half of that the TD? My estate agent fees will be at least ?ú1400, which they take before any cheque is issued, would this be taken into consideration??

Hi all

The answer, very generally, is yes. The Trustee would be entitled to your part of the equity. The estate agent is slightly more complicated, in theory the Trustee cold take the equity and the Estate Agents could be creditors, but this is all in the timing.

If you signed today and the Trustee was in charge of any future sale, the he/she would be obliged to pay the fees I suspect. However if there was a sale and it was just about to be concluded, the Estate Agents may rank as a creditor.

Mark

Oh no, that sounds very confusing.
Dont fully understand what you mean, say I signed the trust deed now, then 3 months later the house sold, my estate agent fees will be about ?ú1400, lawyers ?ú500, half of which is my responsibilty so say ?ú950. That would eat up any profit that I am due, so what would happen here? Dont want my ex dragged into this as well!!

Hi there

In the circumstances you describe, the fees for the sale would probably equal the equity and therefore the Trustee would have no funds to take.

If you sold the house, the fees would be paid from the money left over and if there was anything left, your Trustee could/would claim half of any balance. He has no right to your partners half share.

Hope this helps

Mark

Thats a bit clearer thanks, just one other thing. I own my car outright but its only worth about ?ú3000, if that, will my trustee have an interest in that too?

In the guidance we work with, if the car is required for work, you would use it as normal on the basis that the contribution is maintained. At the end of the TD period we look at the value and if it's less than ?ú1,000, then there is no interest in it. If it values over ?ú1,000 then you would pay the difference (ie ?ú1,200, you would pay ?ú200)

I hope this helps.

Mark