Serious help needed please

[mark2123]

My wife and her 'friend' entered into a business partnership 6 months ago - they owe £30000 between them. it's all gone belly up and the money is now outstanding with the bank, a van lease and a loan off a lender.

My wife is joint owner of our house, has a car on repayments and together, have have £25000 in savings.

Her business partner, with whom everything is shared 50-50, has a rented home, a company car and not assets.

Please don't give me a lecture about how daft she was accepting a 50-05 deal.

What i need to know, is that if her partner has no money to pay, what will happen? If my wife does not pay it and neither does her partner, how much can we lose - can they touch things in our joint name or only what is in my wife's name?

Can my wife transfer all of her assets over to me, including the house, so that she is equally penniless?

The reason we are taking this stance is that her business partner has made no effort to make the business work and now does not want to have to pay anything back.

Both women have full-time jobs.

I really need some quick asvice here please - what would you do?

Thanks.

[multilingual]

If I were you I would go down to my solicitors at 9:00 am tomorrow and go over the options.

You will get some very good advice in here, but you may also get people who try to help but may end up offering wrong information.

A little information is a dangerous thing.

Best to sit down with a pro.

Best of luck

JB

[ink4-u]

I would say go down to a solicitor as well. They offer free advice as long as they think you may spend some CASH in the long run. Any how even if they did charge you would only need an hour or so and i would say it is money well spent. Good Luck, and let us know how it goes on.

[mark2123]

Thanks, will do.

[Alpha]

Please don't give me a lecture about how daft she was accepting a 50-05 deal.

I will not lecture on the split of the partnership but I would like to use this (yet again) to point out the problems that can be encountered when there is no partnership agreement.

Your wife and her partner will be held joint a severably liable for the debts of the partnership so if one partner cannot pay then the other partner (if they have the capability) will be required to pay

You will certainly need to see a solicitor regarding the partnership and you will also need to see the bank about the loan which you should be able to continue to pay off in installments.

Can my wife transfer all of her assets over to me, including the house, so that she is equally penniless?

She could transfer all of her assets to you but it will make no difference as it wil be easy to prove that it was done in an attempt to get out of paying the loans back!

[mark2123]

We do have a partnership agreement - but it reads 50-50.

If my wife spends all of her money then and cannot pay it all back, would that be acceptable? If she withdrew cash every day and 'spent' it, you cannot pay back what you do not have.

We are seeing a solicitor tomorrow.

[Alpha]

If my wife spends all of her money then and cannot pay it all back, would that be acceptable? If she withdrew cash every day and 'spent' it, you cannot pay back what you do not have.

No it isn't acceptable for the same reason.

However if you have a well written partnership agreement ther should not be a problem with your wife and her partner being liable for 50% of the debt each. As they both work I'm sure that they will be able to pay the debt back in installments.

[bwglaw]

I concur with Alpha on his advice. I would strongly suggest reaching agreements with any creditors where possible.

Get a solicitor on board now and obtain accurate advice

[mark2123]

Thanks.