financial settlement

[hellokitty74]

my partner has recently divorced although finances are yet to be settled. we have written to his ex's solicitor to imform them that bankruptcy is iminent if she maintains her stand of not selling the marital home as my partner is unable to meet the demands of creditors to which thereis a large amount of debt which built up throughout the marriage that needs to be settled. she is maintaining that she wishes to stay in the former marital home with her small children although there is around 25,000 in equity that would release their indebtedness. does anyone have any idea how her solicitor will respond as they are surely both likely to lose the home as an asset if bankruptcy is filed. we have also been advised that he would be unable to transfer into her sole name as that would be looked upon as defeating creditors. she is also on benefits and cannot realease him from mortgage as she doesnt earn.

[themas]

I do not think the Insolvency Service is bound by any voluntary agreements or decisions of the divorce courts about division of property on divorce, but I am not certain about this. It is quite normal for any jointly owned home to be taken and sold if one of the owners becomes bankrupt, or for the Official Receiver to offer to sell the bankrupt's beneficial interest in it to the non-bankrupt partner.

The solicitor might argue that your partner's beneficial interest is low (I have known divorce cases where the wife has ended up with well over half the beneficial interest) but the Official Receiver would undoubtedly want to look into this independently.

The solicitor is working your partner's ex, so I guess would be unlikely to advise her to agree to sell unless he was fully convinced there was no alternative. However, from what you say if the house is not sold your partner will have to go on paying the mortgage and this will also be something the Official Receiver could enquire into, because if he was not paying it he could contribute more towards his creditors.

Are all the debts just in your partner's name? If any are joint ones, his ex's liability for them will not be wiped out by his bankruptcy.