he invested in a business and did his dough and is now virtually worth nothing... what do you want from the guy?
EXACTLY!
I cannot understand how people could condemn someone for going bankrupt. It is just one of those things that happens.
The creditors made the decision to work or lend money to people (in smilyfaces case the ATO) so it really is not smiley faces problem, it is theirs.
After years in the USA of banks writing contracts and milking what they can when now in the recourse states people are declaring bankruptcy (in the no recourse they do not even have to do that!) people condemn them and yet this is their right.
I think good on them for walking / declaring bankruptcy. If the bank was stupid enough to lend them too much money than whos fault is that?'Trev beerslab who thought his house in Florida was worth 450k and is now 250k or the corporate risk managers / treasury departments etc being paid exorbitant salaries to run teh show? I say take the years in the sin bin and then start over. Why work 3 jobs just to pay off a debt that you really do not have to?
Smileyface,
As ausprop says wear it as a badge of honour, take it as a lesson learnt but there is certainly no shame in it. No one except a few faceless people on an internet forum will hold it against you. Anyone who has been in business*, will understand it can and does happen to the best of us.
Also my advice and I am certainlhy not qualified to give any, well apart from being a creditor before myself a number of times being is one of those industries this is my advice to you;
1. Make arrangements for somewhere to live other than your home.
2. Stop paying the mortage (if you can hide a bit of cash do so just a bit each week or buy new clothes and other essentials with it....)
3. Live in the home till you are kicked out.
2. Move out only when they make you and by this stage all your equity will likely be used up.
3. Eventually likely 6 to 12 weeks later the house will go to auction / for sale.
optional 4. Do not mow the lawn in your final weeks at the place let the garden go to rack and ruin, all easy things to fix but things that the bank may not bother with but will effect the sale price. Maybe let a family of rats out in the home and some cockroaches for them to eat...
If you do all this the irony is in many markets of Australia at present I suspect you may get a better deal than you might think on the place. i.e. in the end you may owe less than you do now if your missus has 70k to put toward the purchase. You may get a 30k discount in such a sale anyway to cover your sales tax.
That is the neatest way around it I reckon you (well your wife I should say) are up for sales tax but with a bit of creativity prior to the sale I reckon you can screw that down in the price as the banks are not real clever when it comes to keeping places presentable for sale....
Anyway best of luck with it.
oh one other thing be carefull with the administrator I don't think they are meant to act on your behalf. They work for the creditors. For a business they work to get the business going again but this is again really for the benifit of the creditors not you. If they want your wife to chip in now that sounds liek the craziest idea I have ever heard.
As others have said you can buy it at marekt value but thats stupid buy it under market value when the bank tries to sell it
hey another idea crack a few roof tiles maybe some plaster so it looks liek the joint needs underpinning. If you do this while you still live there legally, everything is above board. If you were willing to risk it, an apparent termite infestation perhaps put a heap of dead ones on your ant caps would make the bank nervous for a sale too....