After its research revealed people’s levels of indebtedness can more than double following formal bankruptcy, Glow Mortgages, in tandem with the Bankruptcy Protection Fund, has launched a scheme to work with a bankrupt homeowner to arrange for all their unsecured debts to be paid off.
When this has been done the court can annul the bankruptcy order, if all unsecured debts are dealt with, striking the individuals bankruptcy off the record. Following this, the individual is able to arrange a remortgage on the basis that by the end of the process the individual will no longer be bankrupt, allowing themselves to get a deal where the original bankruptcy is ignored for mortgage purposes, so that they can start to edge their way back to prime status.
Commenting on the launch, Wayne Smethurst, director of Glow Mortgages, said: “This straightforward and transparent service offers substantial benefits to bankrupts. They don’t have to lose their home, their situation is resolved at a much lower cost, they no longer have the stigma of having been a bankrupt and they have a much quicker route back to being a ‘prime’ credit risk.”
Mike Pendergast, IFA at Zen Financial Services, said the deal made good sense for people who had been classified as bankrupt. He said: “The Glow product looks like a good solution for genuine cases. It depends on lending policy, as we don’t want individuals taking bankruptcy as an easy option as this could affect lending policy generally and could lead to increased borrowing costs, but for genuine cases it seems to fill a gap in the market.”
