In August 1193 i separated from my then husband, I stayed in the matriomonial home and was claiming income support, in july of 1998 i did a moonlight flit from the house and moved in with my now partner, the situation is this, the house i had with my ex husband was bought on shared equity the building society owned 70 percent and the builders the other 30 percent, the house was repossessed in September 1999 ( over a year from when I left it, the situatio i have now is that the council have come after me for the 30 per cent share, I understand that they cannot have any claim on my new partners property because it is in is sole name as is everything else. Thye solicitors acting for the council wrote to me and asked me to fill in an income and expenditure form with details of my incoming and outgoing, i gave them this information and it turned out that i had 14 pounds a month to offer them, they wrote back asking for copies of household bills etc, my wage slips, bank statements etc, rent book, I do not have any of these as the bills are not in my name and my partners asks me for a contribution to our joint living expenses which i pay, but he has said that he is unwiling to disclose any information about the bills because they are in his name and he has nothing to do with the debt.

Yesterday I went to the CAB and was advised that we should put together a joint income and expenditure sheet because apparently we live together they will take his money in to account as well, this does not seem fare to me as how can they touch his money,please can you tell me if they can do this as he has no responsibility for this debt, I have since been advised to hang fire and let them take me to court, i have no assetts and neither does my ex husband.

The man at the CAB told me that they may well do a Public Examination on me (which i a terrified of) but i feel that they should only know about my income and expenditure (I have 3 children 12,10. 8) surely this cannot be the law.

I would be really grateful if you could advise me on this matter, as its causing a lot of ill feeling between myself and my new partner.

-- Sarah Evans (Sevans8102@aol.com), April 16, 2000

Answers

My question would be why the council are chasing you for this 30%. If the House ownership was on a 70-30 share between the building society and the builder, you borrowed money from the building society therefore your debt is with the building society.

I would strongly suggest that you see a solicitor about this, preferably one who has had experience buying and selling percentage shares. Show him/her your paperwork and see where you really stand.

You are correct in that no one can touch your current partners property or his assets. And he is certainly under no obligation to divulge information on his income/outgoings, as far as this debt is concerned, it is nothing to do with him, this is between you, your ex- husband and the creditors.

A public examination is in fact an oral examination. This can only take place after a judgement has been made against you and there is a long long way to go until that happens. An oral examination is only asked for by a lender when they are unsure of the debtor's income, assets and outgoings. All that will happen at this examination is that a court officer will take all the details on a special form (usually provided by the lender) and you will need documentation to back up your outgoings The lender gets the results and then it shows them how much you can or cannot afford and decide then on how they will chase you for the debt (eg attachment of earnings, charging order or garnishee order.)

-- pendle (pendle@amun-ra.demon.co.uk), April 16, 2000.