Living in Limbo

Griswold

We are currently living under the threat of a bankcruptcy order being petitioned against my OH.
An old supplier of my OH has issued a Statutory Demand on 31st May where the deadline has passed now. We offered lots of things for them to set it asided like charging order on the house or selling the house so we could pay them more etc but they were not having it.

So we are in Limbo. The last letter we had was over a week ago saying the would be petitioning for bankcruptcy. How long can this take if someone is doing it to you?

My husband is still running his business but feels like packing it all in at this moment as it will be stopped anyway. Should he stop trading or carry on until bankcruptcy and then wait to be told to stop by OR?

If he stops trading he has no income so I don't want him to do this until the last minute.

He has a small business with just 2 staff but we have read that he may be able to keep enough just for himself to do. Do you know if this is the case? As I know you won't be able to keep staff on.

We don't really want to tell all our current suppliers that he is going bankcrupt as they will stop supplying him and it may not happen.

We are still paying this company in our DMP as CCCS reckon we should carry on paying something until it definatly happens. But I don't want to throw more money at them when they are going to make him bankcrupt anyway.

I have rang our mortgage company to see if we can reduce payments and they said we can temporarily go on interest only for 6 mths but only when we have evidence of being in difficulty. Do you think they would go for this if OH goes bankcrupt. Has anyone else been able to do this?

Im not bothered about the house going but thought it may give us a chance to sell it while we are on lower incomne if it happens.

I am trying to prepare us for the worse as in my heart I know if the company does not make him bankcrupt then within the year he will have to do it himself as the debt is so large for his business and as he is a sole trader its all in his name.

I do feel we are living on hold now as this has been going on forever. We have worked hours and hours trying to get more money to pay this company and its making us ill.

I don't want anything to get him in trouble for anything he does now.

Any suggestions about dos and don't for us in the meantime would be a help.

GettingHopeful

Just to say, though I haven't any practical advise - too inexperienced - I do feel for you in your predicament, know all about the slow down in business, and wish you all the best.

Am sure the more experienced people on this forum will say ring the debit charities for advise and/or see the CAB (who were wonderful as far as I was concerned)

We're all with you here.

So_Sad_Angel

Evening Griswold (or rather Morning!!)

I can appreciate your situation...its tough all round in business at the moment. I know you are dealing with CCCS but try Nat Debtline/business debtline...you need specialist advice on business issues.

In terms of the personal stuff...have you asked the mtge Co for a payment holiday?...say 3-6 months to get yourselves throu` this....worth asking!! (please note though that the interest still gets added to the mtge balance).

As you say if this supplier makes him BR then really `so be it` he can still trade as sole trader & earn an income. At the end of the day its far more important to preserve your health & wellbeing.

Try & relax & look at your situation objectively...make a plan of action & work through it.

BTW...great to meet you & keep posting....your experiences really will help others who are reading this.

HUGS....Angexxx

dalip

Try sending a private message to richard_s hes pretty good with this type of thing.

Oh and welcome to the forum:D

Griswold

Well another day has come and gone. Is there a time limit from the statutory demand 21 days to the petitioning for bankcruptcy. As it was almost 2 weeks ago.

I hope its not 6 mths or something as I couldn't face that.

I think my OH is going to seek advice from somewhere else tomorrow. I personally don't think there is much else we can do as an IVA would be impossible for us.

tigerfeet2006

Richard on this board had this happen to him. I will PM him and ask him to look at this thread for you.

Welcome to the board and please try not to let this get you down. ((hug))

Richard_S

Hi Griswold,

I've only got time for a quick post and we've got a family birthday this afternoon and evening so I probably won't get on line later.

It's possible but unlikely that the supplier will petition for your O.H's bankruptcy, and there's no problem with continuing to trade, providing your O.H doesn't purchase any unusually large amounts of stock on credit.

Even if the bankruptcy petition is served you have the option of going to Court and making a reasonable offer to repay the debt, and the chances are if it's a realistic proposal, that the Judge will accept it and the petition will not be enforced.

If you're considering bankruptcy anyway, then it may be a blessing in disguise, but first things first; don't get unduly concerned about threats of bankruptcy, continue to trade, and see what happens.

I'll be on line tomorrow, when I'm a little more sober.:beer::beer:

Regards

Richard

Griswold

Thanks for your post Richard.

I didn't know you could make an offer of payment. Its not feasable at the moment to pay any more than the £235 a mth we are paying to these people but if we got rid of the car and the house then the amount would be more like £1200 a mth.

At the moment my oh has 4 weeks credit with his suppliers so its quiet a lot of money but if he kept a smaller part of the business he would need to pay about £400 a week for stock and get this money back at the end of each week. So it could be feasable.

My OH has got into quiet a bit of a mess with the business over the past 2 years, keeping the problems from me, not opening letters etc. He has built up debt of over £120K for the business. From May I have helped him do his books, weve started a dmp and everything was turning round. We were paying all of our suppliers and had even set up a payment schedule to the tax man for £16K of tax that hadn't been paid. So he was really trying.
We have gained new customers in this time too so business is looking up.

Then we live in the fear of this petition. I don't think they are bluffing but I could be wrong.

I think knowing he can carry on trading after is making us feel better as otherwise he would be without a job.

Right Im going to stop worrying now.

Griswold

Well yet another day has passed.

We did think that we might get it today as the statutory demand was served on a Saturday. I don't know if a bankcrupty petition will be served on my oh or be delivered via normal post.

Anyway we have decided to be proactive and seek proffessional advice on Monday. It might be better if oh went into voluntary liquidation as we might have more control. Thats if it doesn't happen to OH first. Its better to do something than sit round worrying.

I am going to use this as a diary of our everyday happenings if no-one minds. It might be something we can look back on in a few months and see were are ok.

tigerfeet2006

Well done on taking steps to get your life back into your control Griswold ((hugs))

The number and link for Busine.naturess Debtline is in my signature.

debt_doctor

Hi Griswold, I seem to remember you posting on this before ?

Did you ever apply to the court to set aside the stat demand or did you just try to negotiate with the creditor ?

You have to remember that unless you applied to the court to have it set aside then the court do not know anything of the existence of this stat demand, so unless the creditor goes ahead and pays the costs ( about £ 1200 ) to place a creditors petiton in front of the court, which then must be served on you personally,then the court will never, ever contact you as they know nothing about it.

There is no time limit between stat demand and petition. I feel that you should try your best to carry on in the way you have been doing. Why worry every day about a piece of paper that has never been near a court, and cost them nothing to serve.

I would start to make reasonable payments to this creditor, in a manner you can afford and deal with a creditors petition if it turns up. You will still be able to use the same arguments as you would of at the stat demand stage.

Best

DD