“Dear Steve,
I put a buisness in my name for my dad trusting it would do well and trusting my dad, now we are going bankrupt and its all in my name, we havent yet declared bankrupcy but the business is closed and the goods have been sold of but we still owe money to the bank and suppliers but have nothing to sell or give for it now dont kno what to do please help me??
Sarah”
Dear Sarah,
Essentially what we have here is identity theft with permission. It is a sad and unfortunate situation, and not all that uncommon. I just had a similar question last week.
If the loans and contracts are in your name, you are the one that the lenders and others will come after.
Your good name and credit is worth protecting in the future. I think the best that can be learned from this situation now is what not to do again. Never cosign a loan and never allow someone else to make you obligate yourself for contracts.
It sounds like at this point you need to go bankrupt to clean up the mess created by your father. And while you might not get it, you father owes you an apology for placing you in this position.
Evidently his credit was already shot when this business started, otherwise all of this would have been in his name.
The two stages you need to pass through now are bankruptcy and to find some way to allow you and your father to not let this ruin your relationship for the rest of your life. Please forgive him, but never forget the lessons learned here. There is no sense wasting a perfectly good mistake.
You are not alone. I'm here to help. There is no need to suffer in silence. We can get through this. Tomorrow can be better than today. Don't give up.
