Hi worriedandconfused,

Welcome to the Scottish Trust Deed forum.

I'm very sorry to hear that you are both experiencing such a difficult time personally and with the business.

Due to your husbands potential liability to the business, the uncertainty about business's prospects, the significant amount of equity and your understandably strong desire to retain your home your case is more significantly complex than usual.

Mark or Kevin will be able to answer some of the points online but I think it would be in your interests to have a general chat with an expert so that your husband and yourself can plan around the options/routes open to you.

Insolvency experts pride themselves on helping businesses to recover as well as assisting individuals worried about their debts and this perhaps is another area of opportunity if you can find the right support. The two areas seem to go hand in hand for you currently.

Hi W&C

Without a clear listing of creditors and income, it is difficult to comment with a huge degree of accuracy, however I have listed some points which will hopefully help:

There would be nothing to stop you entering a TD just now as the business is a separate issue.

Any personal debts arising from the liquidation of the business would be contingent debts and therefore would be included even if these did not crystalise (become due) till later.

Is there an option for your husband to look at a TD and not you. This of course depends on the split of the debts, however this would safeguard your half of the equity.

A third party could purchase your husband's half of the equity and is simply a payment equal to the valuation less the redemption figure for the mortgage ie what would be required to pay off the mortgage including early settlement penalties etc. Once you have that figure, divide it by 2. (Hope this makes sense!)

One final point is that you would need to be confident that the TD is the best option as your circumstances may change depending on the position with the company.

Hope this helps.

Mark

Thank you both for your advice.

Our heads are just all messed up just now, it's such an emotional rollercoaster! In the last day we have had a possible solution to the business problems, but it could be another few weeks before we know if it will come good.

If my hubby did decide to go for the TD on his own, how would that affect the joint loan. Would the loan payment be taken into account when he does the income and expenditure as just one of the outgoings, as I couldn't afford to pay this on my own as I only work part time, or would that mean that I also had to enter the TD?. Hope this makes sense.

Thanks again!

Hi there,

Sounds encouraging about the business; fingers crossed for you.

If your husband (only) entered a Scottish Trust Deed the joint loan would be included as a debt for him. Therefore the usual monthly payment would not enter into his outgoings.

As a joint debt it's likely that you will have "joint and several" liability. That means the lender could then seek payment of the full monthly amount and the full balance from you (minus any contribution made to the debt from the Trust Deed).

This might mean that it would be sensible to give consideration to you both taking action of some sort if this payment would not be manageable.

Ok thank you for that.

Yes, that's something I will take into consideration then if/when the time comes.

Thanks again for all the help.