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Posted by sjobs12 on October 31, 2007, 11:34 am
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My wife is starting a business with a friend of hers. Both us and her
friend and friend's husband, own homes. However, since we are in
Texas, the homes are in our combined names, i.e, our home is in mine
and my wife's name and same is for her friend. My wife is taking a
bank loan for the business. If her business fails, can the bank come
after our house since my wife's name is on the house? What if her
business is a class C corporation? Can they still do that?
I would really appreciate a response.
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Posted by Paul Thomas, CPA on October 31, 2007, 12:12 pm
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> My wife is starting a business with a friend of hers. Both us and her
> friend and friend's husband, own homes. However, since we are in
> Texas, the homes are in our combined names, i.e, our home is in mine
> and my wife's name and same is for her friend. My wife is taking a
> bank loan for the business. If her business fails, can the bank come
> after our house since my wife's name is on the house? What if her
> business is a class C corporation? Can they still do that?
If she is required to sign personally (ie: provide a personal guarantee),
and not as an officer of the company (ie: for the company), then yes, any
and all of her assets are at risk. This is true regardless of the entity
structure. Lenders are not keen on new businesses without personal
guarantees and the resulting collateral to guarantee the loan, if the amount
requires that. That being said, the home is (probably) mortgaged, and
they'd fall in at lease second place, if not farther down the road if/when
that time comes.
The thing to do is to be absolutely sure that everyone understands the legal
implications of signing any document. If they don't have an attorney, get
them to find one to review the documents if they aren't sure what they are
signing or where they stand with the liability. They may also need the
attorney down the road for other legal matters, so it's quite helpful to
have someone "on-board" from an early point.
--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
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Posted by A Nonny Moose on October 31, 2007, 2:32 pm
Please log in for more thread options As a former commercial loan officer at a major bank, we NEVER loaned money
to a small business without the personal guarantee of the owners of the
business. Often, the personal guarantee was included in the note as a
second signature, but many were handled with a separate document of Personal
Guarantee, signed by those that owned the corporation. It is the rule, not
the exception, that principals of each business are all required to
guarantee the corporation's debt when using institutional debt. For
example, my company has a merchant account (a credit card processing
account), but I had to personally guarantee repayment of chargebacks should
our checking account not have adequate balances to cover a chargeback.
Here is the rule: If there is a way for the bank to reduce its risk, it
will take it. If risk is too high, the loan will be declined. Collateral,
joint property ownership, joint and several guarantees, personal guarantees,
assignments of receivables, notes, inventory, etc. are all ways that banks
reduce their risk. When risk is reduced, interest rates are lowered because
interest charges include the "credit risk" of each loan. Were this not the
case, all notes would be "signature notes" only and the interest rates would
be much higher because the risk is higher. It's simple and logical.
Good luck in your enterprise
Anonymous
> My wife is starting a business with a friend of hers. Both us and her
> friend and friend's husband, own homes. However, since we are in
> Texas, the homes are in our combined names, i.e, our home is in mine
> and my wife's name and same is for her friend. My wife is taking a
> bank loan for the business. If her business fails, can the bank come
> after our house since my wife's name is on the house? What if her
> business is a class C corporation? Can they still do that?
>
> I would really appreciate a response.
>
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Posted by Ron Todd on October 31, 2007, 7:08 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:34:11 -0700, sjobs12@yahoo.com wrote:
>My wife is starting a business with a friend of hers. Both us and her
>friend and friend's husband, own homes. However, since we are in
>Texas, the homes are in our combined names, i.e, our home is in mine
>and my wife's name and same is for her friend. My wife is taking a
>bank loan for the business. If her business fails, can the bank come
>after our house since my wife's name is on the house? What if her
>business is a class C corporation? Can they still do that?
>
>I would really appreciate a response.
FWIW. TEXAS is one of the nine community property states. So, it
would be in your best interests to discuss this situation with a
competent Texas attorney.
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Posted by sjobs12 on November 1, 2007, 12:58 pm
Please log in for more thread options > FWIW. TEXAS is one of the nine community property states. So, it
> would be in your best interests to discuss this situation with a
> competent Texas attorney.
I have 2 questions:
1) Is it possible to take my wife's name out of my the deed/title of
my house? She is willing to give me the power of attorney to do that.
2) Does "community property state" mean that both husband and wife
should jointly own a residential property?
Thanks.
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