Debt Doctors

Speaking to an experienced money or debt advisor would be our immediate advice in order to assess your current financial position and potential options. This would not deal with your matrimonial or personal situation regarding the breakdown of your relationship other than to establish whether children are involved and/or whether any contributions have been agreed to their maintenance or household bills by your former partner. These would be requested by your mortgage provider as a matter of routine. It would be important to understand from your statement-of-affairs the shortfall in your monthly budget after allowing for reasonable expenditure. We would also need to look at your unsecured debts, both in your name and in joint names. It may be necessary to look at options like selling the property, renting the property (and you renting a smaller place) or finding a tenant to supplement household income, if these options are viable. If the advisor is not able to help directly then they will be able to sign-post you to the right place, which include a meeting with your mortgage provider. Ignoring the problem will not help, but have a strategy in place before talking to your mortgage provider and have all the facts at hand.

I suggest that you contact the Trustee directly to see who is now dealing with the solicitor’s case files.  You can get the Trustee’s details by doing a simply search on the bankruptcy register which can be found on www.insolvency.gov.uk – the Insolvency Service’s website.  It is usual, when a practising solicitor is made bankrupt, that the Law Society will appoint another law firm to intervene in the ongoing case related matters, and the Trustee will be able to tell you who is now dealing with this matter.  The funds should be held in the solicitor’s client account, or even a separate trust account, in your daughter’s name.

Council debts are priority debts and would not be specifically included in the Debt Management Plan (DMP), however, the Debt Adviser should make provision in your income & expenditure (or statement-of-affairs) for both payment of on-going council payments and any arrears on these. If you have sufficient disposable income then a reasonable allowance will be made for a repayment arrangement to the Council and model letters are available to assist you present your circumstances following the visit or call with the debt adviser. If there is disposable income (e.g. over £80) remaining after allowing for any repayment arrangement for priority arrears then a Debt Management Plan may still be suitable to deal with any unsecured creditors you may have. As a guideline, you would have over £3,000 of unsecured debt with more than 2 creditors, otherwise self-management may be a better option with some initial debt advice.