About To Go Bankrupt Advice Please

Hi Andy

I was a single mum over a year ago, and when my son's father and I split up 12 years ago, he stayed in the house, he didnt pay the mortgage for roughly 6 years before they repossesed the house. My name was still on the mortgage so although when I had left there was no arrears, I was still liable. The debt for the building society was just over £29k. Then my husband after and I got a loan out for a car from the bank for £10k, and we split up too (yeah, I dont have much luck lol), he disapeared off the face of the earth and he hadnt been paying little bills like rent (!), water etc etc... Anyway as I was claiming Income Support, all the people that was owed money knew where I was, so they hounded me for 12 years and kept adding their interest on. I went to a debt agency place called Christians Againts Poverty (CAP) they had run an advert on the local paper about helping people in debt. After seeing them, we set up a budget plan, and they helped me manage my money. We saw that it was going to take something like 133 years to pay off the £46K that had built up, so basically it was never going to happen, so we took the option of going bankrupt.

The laws have changed recently so it is now a lot more straight forward and quicker. I paid something like £450 to the courts. I filled in loads of forms with CAP, and we arranged a hearing at the county court one morning. Took my fee and paperwork, saw the judge, explained how it all came about and he granted the bankruptcy order. I am under the order for 12 months, but this can be reduced to 9 months in some circumstances. I cannot do certain things like be a director of a company and things like that, but you will get given a lot of bumf telling you all about it. I felt such relief when I walked out of court that morning. I cried because it was all over.

Oh yeah, when you leave court the official reciever either arranges a visit or in my case he rang. I found a quiet place at work and spent nearly 2 hours talking to him, we went throuh the forms together, and he told me that I wouldnt pay tax on my wage for the duration of the order, this would be clawed back by the official reciever to pay his fees. (He never did ask for that, so I dont know what went on there). I found it hard to get a bank account and my existing ones were frozen, never to be touched again.

Anyway hope this long winded account helps of my experience, if you would like to know more, please PM. Sorry for going on lol.

Teresa