dont know if anyone will be much help but wondered what you thought.

my oh is head chef in a restuarant in city centre. the manager is the owners cousin and hes approached my oh to let him know the the owner is about to go bankrupt - this information is very vague though and the reasons he is going bankrupt is unknown. being the manager and my oh being head chef they know the business does well and they know that they make about 4-5k profit a month after everything has been deducted. they both think its because of this guys lifestyle and maybe he isnt paying his bills but then that could run over to the business end of it too if hes not paying suppliers etc.

anyway hes basically said that his cousin is going to sell the lease of the business to him for 1p so thats not taken when he goes bankrupt - what your thoughts on this for starters?

right so obviously (I dont know much about this so apologies if im wrong) he will need a set amount to go in a business account for costs and for some sort of license im sure? and he seems to think the amount needed is £15k and he only has 10. so hes asked me and oh to invest the other 5k and become partners and continue running the business.

Im so confused by it and obviously we are not silly and wont part with any money until we know the deal inside out. my oh has requested the books and accounts from when the restuarant was opened.
do you have any thoughts on this or any advice?

x

Stay well clear Transferring assets to avoid them being taken can be classed as fraud and both the seller and buyer could go to prison if they are aware of it, the reciever also has the right to reverse the transaction or reclaim the value from the new owner, so please do not do anything without seeking legal advice first x

excellent! yeh we were going to seek legal advice anyway. but to be honest its one of those things that was tempting but we have saved so so hard to buy our first home. was just interested to see what some people thought.

thank you
x

I agree, stay out of it.

If you dispose of assets, knowing that you are going to go banrupt, is illegal (99% sure) and can cause a lot of trouble for your OH.

x

Deffo what Mandy said, stear well clear. I think it's illegal to sell a business for so much less than it's market value under these circumstances too.

they are refusing to hand over any books anyway so its very dodgy by the sounds of things x