charging orders

[jmarbad]

Hello, i hope someone can help me we have been acting as personal guarantors for a small business that we have had on of the customers went bankrupt on us and as usual the ball starts rolling we have received two finalcharging orders, one of them may request an order for sale as they are asking me to provide not later than 29/02/08 the solicitors with legal owners occupiers and who has the legal benefit/equity the house is mortgaged, the mortgage is of 238000.00 without the redemption which could be another 3000.00 or more the latest sales on this road for similar houses has been june 07 245000.00 july 07 229000.00 august 07 247000.00 is the Court likely to grant an order for sale, I would like to maintain the house for the children and the repercurssion it will have on them with school friends etc my 74 year old Mother also live with us.-

What Can I do

Kind regards
Jacqueline

[themas]

Get 2 or 3 agents to value the house on the basis that you are thinking of putting it on the market. Check the mortgage redemption cost. Don't forget that if they get an order for sale the house will in effect be sold as a repossession & these are normally sold at a lower price than a normal sale.

If you can - from all this - show that they wouldn't get any money (or hardly any) if they went for an order, then it might deter them. Also, if they do still go for an order you would have all the info to give the judge and be able to tell him/her that you had tried to avoid the need for it to come to Court by providing all this to the creditor. That could stand you in good stead in court. It is obviously essential that if they go for an order you object to it & attend court for the hearing.

You also will need to have an income & expenditure analysis and put forward a realistic monthly payment instalment offer to the creditor with the other info. If it goes to court you may then get an order for you to pay that amount each month & that the order for sale cannot go ahead unless you default.

[jmarbad]

Thank you Themas and specially for your knowledge that has put my mind at rest a bit what do you think it would be a realistic offer, I only want to try to keep the house and gain some time until our son at least reaches 18 and finishes school, so it will not be so hard on them, the money they claim is 60000.00 this is a factoring company Close invoice finance, and they have been paid money already from it around 15000.00 from customers so what do you think it will be realistic our income is :

�2950
mortgage 2044
mortgage arrears 100
council tax 140
insurance 35
tv licence 11
phone 17.99
food 500.00
total expenditure 2847.99
i will only have to give around �80.00 per month

let me know what do you think

Kindest regards
Many thanks
Jacqueline

[themas]

2 part post:

I don't know the size of your family, which obviously affects some of the items. Comments are:

1. Is this the total income, including any benefits? Does your mother pay you any rent, or have you included her income (I assume she has a pension or else claims Pension Credit) in the total? It would be normal for you to receive some rent (or at least a contribution to costs such as heating lighting & council tax), & then for your mother to be regarded as a separate household with her expenditure excluded from your figures. On the other hand, if in practice you live together with her as part of the family and therefore include all her expenditure with yours, you should also be including her income.

2. You seem to have omitted any expenditure for gas, electricity, water, travel (car or public transport), health (prescriptions, opticians, dentists etc.), toiletries & cleaning materials, and clothes.

3. The food figure seems quite a bit too high unless the family is very large or there are special expensive dietary needs.

4. Is the �100 for mortgage arrears as a result of a Court order or is it a voluntary arrangement with the lender? If the latter, it might get queried unless you can show the lender would otherwise go for repossession.

5. Phone looks very low, especially as you also presumably have broadband.

[themas]

2nd part:

6. You say there are two charging orders. You also need to allow for an offer to the second one. Also, have you any other debts which are not secured on the house? If so, some nominal payment (probably no more than �1 per month) needs to be allowed for each.

Because of these comments, I can't say what might be a reasonable offer but it will clearly be a relatively low one. I suggest you look at the figures again with the comments in mind.

Also, I assume you have no savings & that you will not get any more money from the business to help with making payments. If there is any possibility of getting any lump sum receipts into the business then you could offer to pay these over as & when they are obtained in addition to regular monthly amounts - but don't offer anything unless you are confident you will be able to do it.