Lost court case and bankruptcy

[DCASTLE]

Hello all

I wonder if I can get some advice here please.

Very briefly, I was dragged into a petition claim that I was accused of something which I did not do. The judge dismissed the claim and ordered the petitioner to pay my legal fees (£150k).

The petitioner now claims he has no money to pay the full amount of my legal fees, he offers to pay 40% of my fees or he will go bankrupt.

I do not agree to the offer. Please tell me if there are any ways that I can recover all or most of my fees from the petitioner.

Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated.

Thank you!

[atticus]

What do you know about this person and his/her assets?

Start by getting Land Registry title details for where they live.

[DCASTLE]

The petitioner owns a property with his wife with no mortgage. He 'claims' he only has a leased car, that's all.

One thing I am not sure, is it true that the wife will get a half of the money once their property is sold?

I read an article from the Gazette, it only says 'assets owned solely by a non-bankrupt member of a couple cannot be taken to pay for their spouse’s debts', but what happens to the jointly owned assets?

[atticus]

If the property is jointly owned, the co-owner has a share in the equity. Is there a mortgage?

The guy going bankrupt is very unlikely to produce a good return for you.

[DCASTLE]

The petitioner claims there is no mortgage to the property.

[atticus]

Have you actually done what I suggested in my first post in this thread?

After that, what is your estimate of the value of the property?

[DCASTLE]

Yes, I obtained a copy of the property's title register from Land Registry.

The petitioner says his property is worth around £300K but I don't know where he got the figure from.

Just did a house price index from the Nationwide website, it says the valuation of the property is £390K, a lot more than what the petitioner says.

[atticus]

In that case you will know who the registered proprietor(s) is/are, and whether there are any registered charges.

Reading your other threads, there are pointers to other things you can investigate. Is this person the majority shareholder in any companies, for example? Does he own a car that he won't want bailiffs to take?

[DCASTLE]

Thanks for the response. I see the registered proprietors are the Petitioner and his wife.

In the title register, there are 3 entries under the 'B: Proprietorship Register'.
Entry 1: The two names (the Petitioner and his wife) and the property's address
Entry 2: The purchase price and date
Entry 3: it says, 'the transfer to the proprietor contains a covenant to observe and perform the covenants referred to in the Charges Register and of indemnity in respect thereof.'

The next page is details of the previous owners.

As far as I know, the Petitioner is not a shareholder of any other companies. In his settlement offer, he claims he doesn't own a car, he uses a leased car instead.

[DCASTLE]

I guess the first problem I have got here is I don't know what assets the Petitioner owns.

For his own benefit, he will just claim he has nothing apart from the property. Is there a way or a system to trace all the assets that the Petitioner owns in the UK?

I even suspect the Petitioner may own some assets (a property) overseas but I simply cannot trace them.

[JK2054]

Well your situation certaintly isn't easy but its not complex either but you'll need to decide what to do, I've set out some options below

1) If you know his bank account you can apply for a debt order to get all the money he owns to be paid to you. He says he has 40% so clearly can get some money
2) You can send in HCEO to take whatever he has, and quite frankly they will empty his house, it's up to you how you feel about doing this.
3) You can apply for a charge on the property, but theres no guarantee you'll get your money doing this.

[DCASTLE]

Thanks for the advice.

I don't know the guy's bank accounts. All I want is the guy pays for my legal fees, especially when he decided to drag me into his case while I have nothing to do with it.

It seems to me the option two is probably the best. Is there anything that I should be aware of with HCEO please?

[JK2054]

uh not really other than they will struggle to get 150k worth of stuff from someone. They might be able to take stuff from a house, but there isn't much more they can do. If they have cars HCEO will take them, but even then it will struggle to reach 150k. It's a shame you can't work out his bank details. Do you even know the bank name? If he's paid you at all most banks will give you the name and you can apply for a debt order with that so long as you know his address.

[DCASTLE]

I see, maybe HCEO is not quite a good idea after all.

Going back to the guy's bank accounts, is there any ways I can find out all his bank accounts via legal professionals such as a solicitor?

I was thinking about the whole thing again last night after your message. The guy has no mortgage in his property. To me, he probably has been saving some of his earnings. I wonder if the credit search agencies are able to help.

[JK2054]

no you cant get them via a solicitor.

the only thing you can do is if you know the bank name he banks with, you can get the court to order that the bank freeze the money