Aren't there contracts in writing between two parties to prevent misunderstandings? Certainly a good attorney would have known.
maybe the houses can be put in wife's name, like they do here, so if the husband owns a business they can't go after the house.
take for example I klnow someone who owned resturant in the early '90's that went under during the recession, they couldn't touch his house if they wanted to.
Also, I want Nic to realize the dire straights of alot of people around the country, take here for example, the last two years the local paper has had three to four pages of forclosures on a daily basis due to Freedie May and Fannie Mac or vice versa, people have lost dairy farms, houses, land that's been in the family for generations, my point here is that Nic is not alone, alot of people are going thru some really trying times.