Saturday, September 25, 2021

Social Guarantors and bankruptcy

 

Social guarantors and bankruptcy…

 

1.    When a person takes a loan from a bank, it will usually require one or more persons to be guarantors.

2.    If the borrower defaults on the loan, the bank may eventually proceed to take legal action to recover the debt. If it succeeds, it will obtain a judgement order from the courts.

3.    Upon obtaining the judgement order, the bank will proceed to enforce it against the borrower or the guarantor or the both of them. Very often, when it is determined that the borrower is unable to repay the loan, the bank will seek to enforce the judgement against the guarantor.

4.    There are several ways to enforce the judgement and if the debt exceeds the minimum amount of RM 100 000 effective 23rd October 2020 (this is expected to be a year only), (previously RM 50 000 and prior to that RM 30 000), the bank may initiate a creditor’s petition for bankruptcy against the guarantor.

5.    In the past, many individuals were declared bankrupt because of such circumstances. However, after 6th October 2017 when the Bankruptcy Act amendments came into effect, creditors are prohibited from commencing bankruptcy proceedings against “social guarantors”.

6.       Social guarantors are persons who are said not to have profited from the loans taken by borrowers, for which they stood as guarantors including education loans, hire purchase loans for personal or non-business uses, and housing loans for personal dwelling.

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