Question:

We emmigrated to new zealand almost 2 yrs ago now ,we owed approx £72,000 to various creditors in the uk , 1 of these was a secured debt on a house in the uk which was reposessed about 5 yrs ago ,the rest were personal unsecured debt and a couple of car loans which were also reposessed,.i was advised not to bother informing the various creditors of our intention to emmigrate. one of my creditors in the uk has traced me to new zealand this was one of the car loans we had . they are now threatening bankruptcy and thus far i have made no attempt to contact them but letters keep arriving.

My question is: bassiccly we have purchased property in new zealand and whilst i would welcome bankruptcy in the uk (we looked at doing it ourselves before we left the uk) .we are concerned that if made bankrupt in the uk theres a possibilty we could loose our property in new zealand or would be legally forced to sell the property .thus loosing any equity we might have in the property and bassiccly having it reposessed. is this the case ? .

Answer:

In bankruptcy any properties you have regardless of what country they are in are looked at in your bankruptcy.

So if there is equity in the property in New Zealand it would be an issue in bankruptcy.

This is from the government's insolvency web site:

Any asset in any part of the world would be classed as an asset in a
bankruptcy in England and Wales.  

There is now widespread co-operation in
many countries in the world between courts exercising jurisdiction in
relation to insolvency, including all EU countries.  

This means that the OR
or trustee in bankruptcy would be able to sell property abroad that is owned 
by the bankrupt.


Any asset in any part of the world falls into your bankruptcy estate.

However, the trustee may encounter problems selling foreign assets if he is not 'recognised' in a foreign jurisdiction as having the power to sell them.

The trustee may require co-operation from you and also, he may need to apply for a court order in the foreign country to deal with the asset.


I would point out that if the person who is going bankrupt lives permanently
in the EU country (apart from Denmark) in the property and has no financial
 connection with the UK apart from debts, the person would not be able to go
bankrupt in the UK.

Thank you for letting me help you.

Jon

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