Yeah, as I said, long story. It's true that the debt isn't legally transferrable, but I was left in a situation where I had no choice but to take it on.
Long and the short - kid brother at expensive private boarding school - taking him out wasn't an option, as at the time I was about to go to university, and having a dependent child in my student halls was a non-starter. Therefore, had to keep him at the school - managed to get a bursary (reduction in fees) and amenable credit terms from them, and this little side of things racked up some £60k of debt over the four years I paid for. I also ended up paying for my last two years, as it turned out my parents hadn't, and the school (same school!) kindly decided to sic the bailiffs on me for that, as I was their only traceable contact. In the interests of not having my bro expelled for my delinquency, I stumped up the cash. So far, so good, £80k in the hole.
Some years before this shit all went down, my dad bought a house from my great aunt at a below-market price, which was above the ludicrously below-market price offer they were about to accept from equity-release pirates, so they could continue living there. He dropped this like a hot rock, failed to pay the mortgage, and that entire side of my family came crashing down on me with their ire for not stepping up to the plate to help said elderly great aunt. Sucker here offered to buy the house out from his dad, on the proviso that said aunt would pay a peppercorn rent to help me cover the mortgage, and the ensuing scenario was that I got gouged by my old man to the tune of 3x what he paid for the place not 4 years previously (asshole kicked off a bidding war with a property developer for me, kindly), and the great aunt reneged on her agreement to pay rent, leaving me with a £100k property I didn't want and a nice cash drain in the form of property taxes, maintenance, and all the rest... oh, and a sitting tenant. Who's still there, and still tells her kith and kin that she owns the place. Waiting the old bird out at this point, but at least I've paid off the mortgage these days.
Next up came supporting my mother, who after vanishing for six months resurfaced needing cash in order to not lose her house. Idiot here paid for the remainder of the mortgage on her house, by extending the mortgage on the above house, giving her somewhere to live.
At this point, I'm 18, at university, £200k in the hole, and everything's peachy. Add student debt to that, and by the time I graduated, I had about £250k of debt to my name, not counting all the other shit that my parents dropped which the debt collectors had started chasing me for.
Started the company at 22, while still heavily in debt, but at least making some headway, and "only" about £200k in the hole. Spent another 18 months dodging bailiffs after my parents until I could start going "Statute of limitations" and hanging up on them, and, as of last year, I finally have a net worth > £0.
So, yeah, there's the dismal ditty, which I largely brought upon myself, but, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, and I got two major positives out of the whole experience:
1) The expectation that everyone is out to screw me, and that everyone will renege on every promise they will ever make to you. This leads to one being rather cautious with client and contract dealings, and has saved our bacon more than a few times.
2) Having nothing to lose is one hell of an incentive to take insane risks, like ditching a well-paying job to move into a office-cum-home squat to start a business.