Bankruptcy!

So a little while ago I posted looking for people in the same situation as us with our damaged CHCH house.

Further to the story, the bank HAVE stopped paying rent insurance as of the 26th of October and will NOT pay out anymore because it's over the $11,000 cap. Now, when I spoke to the very helpful girl on the phone at the insurance place yesterday, she told us to 'not worry about it' and wait to see what EQC are going to do. Well in that time that we'll be waiting (EQC told me expect them to call late jan next year), we will most likely have had to declare bankruptcy. Because of that house being such a drain on us ($2240 a month that we DONT have) We're probably just going to walk away from it all.

What I want to know, is have you done this before? I need to know what the bank will take. What can I get out now before we start doing things? Will this effect ME personally (apart from a fresh start) because my name isnt on anything - everything is under my husbands name. Will they take the car even tho I have small children that I need to get from a to b? (I know I cant change it to my name because they check these things and would take it anyway).
We are going to get legal advice, but I thought I'd put the feelers out there and see what you lot know!

Yea, we just have to wait til monday for that :)

I know someone who went bankrupt and it does have massive effects, more than they let on. He was unaware of how it would and does continue to impact on his life.

Basically, they will take what they can take. If your name isn't on anything, they can't take anything that belongs to you. So if you don't want to lose your car, get the ownership in your name, because they will take it otherwise. I don't think they consider circumstances, they will just take what they can take. Check out the insolvency website.

What you need to be aware of it once your husband goes bankrupt, it's with him for a long long time. He will have trouble getting jobs/houses, will have no way of getting any loans or finance for a very long time (it takes 3 years to be discharged, but 7 years for your credit record to be wiped and in that time people are very unlikely to give him a loan, so he will not be able to get a mortgage, or any kind of help at all). Can you live without access to any credit at all?

My advice is if there is any way you can avoid this, please do because it's not really a fresh start, it has its own consequences. Unless your credit is good and you have a job (I dont know your circumstances), you won't be able to get credit to offset the fact that he can't, so that will cause a lot of stress if you evewr find yourself needing it. It's a fresh start away from this problem, but not a fresh start. They may also still make you pay some of it back depending on how they assess your situation.

I would strongly advise not to if there's anything else you can do, as I have seen someone go through this and even though it happened 5 years ago it's still impacting them now and they just want to move on.

I would look into all other options, loan from other people, mortgage holiday, whatever you have to do, before you do this. See it as a last resort.

Feel free to PM me and I can talk in a less vague way just wana respect the person's privacy that Im talking about

We've had mortgage holidays, they wont give us anymore. It seems that a LOT of people are in the same situation that we are. Hubby has a really good job and an awesome boss who he's discussed this with - his job is secure.
We dont have any problems budgetting or anything like that - although our weekly food budget has halved, which is fine as we were spending way too much anyway :P
We dont need to get finance for anything and wont. Apparently the monthly payments that we'll be made to pay are under half of what the mortgage payments were anyway, so that's fine.
I cant change the car into my name or anyone elses - they'll look at when that was done and will take it anyway - no cash can be exchanged for it - plus if there was cash exchanged, they'd take that.
Its a whole big bullsh*t mess and to be honest, if we could have lived by keeping money under the matress instead of the bank, then we would.
Damn you earthquakes for screwing us over and damn you bank for not being sympathetic.

Not alot to say but big hugs

is moragee sale an opiton, can someone lend you the money till you talk with eqc? tho i'm certain you have thought about all parts of this?

Campbell live? I'm sure he would love to get his hands on this ... and i bet eqc will be around to "talk" the next day?

What is happening is just terrible - but like someone said above b/c is so bad at the time but its the impacts in the future? having to declare it for new jobs etc?

Is there anyone that can say - 'buy your car' for an amoutn that you can pay to the bank and then put the car in their name and let you drive it? aghh I don't know i would be thinkign so hard what to do .. i would also get rid of anything of sentimental/ vaule to you .. anything like a newish tv send that to mum and dads and put the spare in your house, je cos they will try and to take whatever they can to recop costs.

Sorry don't know anything about this & I don't know your living situation but take it this is a rental property. If you are living in another house any chance of renting that out & living with family so you can pay the mortgage.

I'm really confused - has it been zoned redzone?

They are allowed to turn up to your house at any time and take any furniture that is over a set value (around $1000 I think). Pretty much its the LAST thing you should ever do, and only if you have absoloutley no chance of it being resolved then I would go down that track. Have you tried calling EQC again and again and again???? Hugs, I hope you can work something out :)

My partner went bankrupt he still owned a car, had a debit card and used internet banking. You cant work for yourself, get any credit, leave the country without their consent. It ddnt really seam to impact us too much tho and he has been discharged for 2 years now and now has the power and phone in his name, they had no issue giving putting them in his name

So is it deemed a rebuild?

I was just speaking to my best friend who's a lawyer and she said it just doesn't sound right and there a ways around it - the last thing you want to do is go bankrupt over it.

Have you got lawyers advice?