Petition for bankuptcy fees

mad_despot · 10 May 2017 at 12:55PM

In order to get a debtor to pay it looks like I'm going to have to petition her for bankruptcy. Just to be clear, the debtor is a fraudster, she has the means to pay, but won't; the Sheriffs have been unable to do anything, her cars are not registered in her name and she won't answer the door to them. She has property in Spain as well as here, and the money I'm owed was stolen - she was my letting agent, she stole my tenants' rent and the tenants' deposit. Currently the Police are investigating her (finally), as evidently I'm not the only victim. The amount owed is over £5k.

So, my question concerns the fees that I have to pay to petition for her bankruptcy (I expect she'll pay once petitioned). Does the bankrupt have to pay them? There is a £280 court fee, and a £990 petition deposit. In respect of the deposit gov.uk says "If the court dismisses your petition, you’ll get your petition deposit back minus a £50 fee".

Does that mean that if the court makes the bankruptcy order I won't get any of the petition deposit back? Will these fees be added to what she has to pay me? Assuming she pays once the petition is made, and before it gets to a hearing, what about the court fee and £50 deposit cost?

silvercar · 10 May 2017 at 4:00PM

You could try sending her a "Letter Before Action" requiring payment to be made within 10 working days. Enclose a copy of the completed, but not submitted, bankruptcy forms to focus her mind.

That has the advantage that (a) you won't have to pay the court costs (b) you may get your money sooner (c) she may pay you to go away and hope the other people don't chase her.

peterkay369 · 10 May 2017 at 6:14PM

If you're petitioning for her bankruptcy and (on paper) she has no way to pay, what do you aim to get back from her?

AFAIK you wont get the bankruptcy fees back.

I would say better course of action is to go via Small Claims Court, sending a letter before action as silvercar says above. That way you might actually get something back.

mwarby · 10 May 2017 at 7:42PM

Could you use high court enforcement officers ? If TV is to believed they have quite a bit more power than sherriffs (your not in Scotland by any chance, sounds a Scottish term)

MEM62 · 11 May 2017 at 9:15AM

If she has been that robust in resisting attempts to collect monies from her up to this point I doubt that the threat of BR will add any additional pressure.

silvercar · 11 May 2017 at 11:58AM

mwarby wrote: »

Could you use high court enforcement officers ? If TV is to believed they have quite a bit more power than sherriffs (your not in Scotland by any chance, sounds a Scottish term)

You do need a CCJ before you can send in the HCEOs.

mad_despot · 11 May 2017 at 12:24PM

peterkay369 wrote: »

If you're petitioning for her bankruptcy and (on paper) she has no way to pay, what do you aim to get back from her?

AFAIK you wont get the bankruptcy fees back.

I would say better course of action is to go via Small Claims Court, sending a letter before action as silvercar says above. That way you might actually get something back.

Thanks, I've got a CCJ against her, and the Sheriffs have not been able to get anything out of her. She can pay, she just refuses.

And yes, I've determined that I'm going to have to pay for the bankruptcy, which will actually cost about £1300.

It's not a fair system for the victims of these people.

fatbelly · 11 May 2017 at 12:48PM

It costs nothing to issue a statutory demand. Have you done that?

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-demands/overview

Petition for bankuptcy fees

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