Screenwriter needs help

AMVC

[FONT=&quot]Hello my name is Andrew[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This is not your standard thread, but I still need help about bankruptcy...[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am currently rewriting a screenplay about a family annihilator, with many of its elements taken from a case that happened almost decade ago. The contextual spine of the story that all the other themes and sub-plots wrap themselves around is simply about a family man that sells his modestly sized successful nightclub because he has ambition to redevelop and refurbish a deteriorating hotel. He remortgages his house and borrows substantive capital from a lender to fund his new business project. A fire forces the hotel to close and the insurance company refuse to pay out. The property fails to reach its reserve price at auction, and inturn renders a bleak reality of insurmountable debt and worthless assets that are spiralling... Obviously this isn’t what the story is REALLY about because that would be rubbish, but its the central plot, so like any other it must be water-tight. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What I need to know is not just purely insight about the personal woes and strains of bankruptcy from everyday people, but the procedures lenders commence when repayments cannot be met. What types of official letters are sent to you and their names? Do you receive phone calls from the lender and what do they say? Are you summoned to a sit down with the lender to discuss matters, and what is said? Basically, what is the dialogue between borrower and lender?
Additionally, and the reason why I am here rather than speaking to various lenders for understanding, is the emotional repercussions of finding yourself in this position. How it makes you feel as a man to be backed into a financial corner? How it affects family life? Did you keep it a secret until the point of no return? And so forth...[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I am still researching the exact technical terms for loans, mortgages, letters from lenders, etc, so if they could be explained briefly that would be much help.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I would plead with anybody on these boards whose failed business endeavours resulted in financial ruin to please reply, your input would be invaluable.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Forgive my questions if they sound ignorant, but I know practically nothing about bankruptcy.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]... Back to leafing through the threads...[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thank you for your time.[/FONT]

tigerfeet2006

Hi AMVC please can you email adnim and get permission to post your request on this site as it is for commercial gain. Many thanks

AllNancy

I think if you scroll through the hundreds of threads on here and imagine yourself in the place of the people posting then that's all you need. We don't need to tell you. It's all here.


Nancy

k2nga

Hi Andrew,

For me the lenders were great when lending but the moment there is trouble they are on to you. If you miss a payment for just a couple of days you usually get a letter telling you they are charging you at least £12 for late payment.

If you miss payments altogether they tend to put the rudest people on the phone to you. Most people are in serious debt not to pay there bills on time but they seemed to be trained not to care less even though in letters they say they are willing to help but they rarely are.

Before deciding to go BR i looked into an IVA. On talking to the banks about applying for an IVA the would immediately ask for the IVA companies details so they could badger them.

Once i actually went BR the companies call and you tell them that you have gone BR. They say they still need a payment and dont believe you. Even when giving details of the court and the OR they still wont have it and often you have to give in and just put the phone down.

I took nearly 5 years before deciding to BR after nearly 15 years in debt and just like your storyline it was changes in circumstances and bad luck that lead me to where i am today but you always like to think you will find away out.

Hope this helps a bit but feel free to ask loads of questions as most are pretty friendly on here.

k2nga

OK maybe were are not that friendly. he he

Dez-Titute

"Your marriage is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan secured on it."

Sorry to be flippant but try breaking down your questions like your script, sort out the most relevant questions first and as time goes by fill in the gaps or soft facts .

It will be a lot easier to deal with that way.

Hope that helps DEz

Dez-Titute

PS can you put me forward for the lead role,First pay day June 2009

Again Many Many Many Thanx DEz


Sorry was that a bit OTT on the grovelling

Purplekylie22

Once things get bad, the debt basically consumes your life. first off - relationships get strained. With friends, they want to go out, share meals e.t.c you ant have them to yours because you have to buy the cheap food and drinks, you cant go out with them because the bill gets too expensive, you cant go to theirs because you cant afford an expensive bottle of plonk to take, you start to loathe them because they don’t have to think twice about splashing the cash and expensive holidays. Things break down with your partner because you both blame each other no matter how much you try not to. There is always that one thing they brought that you wouldn’t have. And it might only be a few pounds, but is still weighs on your mind and one of you thinks the other is wasting money.
Once you have started down to slippery slope, there is no going back. If you don’t have money in your account, you get charged every two minutes of the day, I got charged by the bank £3K in the space of 3 months. You end up writing cheques that you know will bounce and you will get another charge for just so that you can pay the bills.

Every time you open the post you get letters “this matter is being transferred to our legal team” “ we will be taking this matter to court” “you have 7 days to respond or we will have no choice but to send out local representative to your home” “we will be seeking legal fees on top of the original debt should you not respond within the next 14 days” My worst debtor is Scott and Co who deal with council tax in Aberdeen. They phone you all the time one woman rang me at work, on my work phone, I tried to ask for her number and said I would call her back, she said that they have not been paid for months and this matter needed to be dealt with NOW. She refused to give me her number unless I told her what time I would ring, I said I didn’t know, she started asking “what time do you finish work” What other numbers can we contact you on” “when will you phone us” over and over for 5 minutes when my boss was in the room. Also, just about every letter you get says that you will loose your home as a result of non payment.

I get stressed out constantly, I find my self in tears for no reason, I feel a failure to myself and my children. The lenders make you feel like you are the worst person alive and that you are worthless.

This was all for personnel bankruptcy, for business, I would imagine instead of my boss in the room it would be a client. Writing cheques that wouldn’t clear would be the equivalent of pretending things are okay to staff when I know they won’t get paid. Until you have been in this situation, it is hard to understand. People don’t tend to tell people until they can see a light at the end of the tunnel and even then only those that need to know. Bankruptcy feels like a witch hunt. No body thinks you are a normal person – your just this idiot that doesn’t want to pay their bills.

SuziQ

duplicate post

debt_doctor

Hi Andrew,

When people fall in to debt it is often a first time experience for them and can be brought about by illness, redundancy, short time working, relationship breakdown, etc etc and they usually go to their bank / credit card co for help.

The 'help' they get is to be slapped with £35 for a returned DD, £ 35 for unauthorised overdraft and then £ 50 for a letter telling them they are overdrawn. This plunges the account in to chaos and a spiral of unpaid DD's as a result, which in turn ends up with your salary ( if you have one ) being swallowed up in charges and with the person in debt probably unable to withdraw cash to feed their family.

So hopefully you get advice to open a new account with no debt and have your money paid in to it and to pay to creditors what you can afford.

The result is that it is passed to debt collecting agents who have no powers whatsover, but pretend they are almighty, bullying people in to paying more than they can afford, often at the expense of eating properly, and making wholy unfounded threats that they will send the bailiffs round or have them arrested !

Ive heard so many threats made by debt collectors in my job, but yet they never say them to me !! - client missunderstood apparently !
IVe had an old partitally sighted lady threatened with 'them' coming round to 'seize' her pet dog unless she pays £ 50 immediately out of her pension credit or the client who was told after burying her partner 2 weeks earlier " if you can afford a funeral you can afford to pay us "

Whilst these two examples are extremes, lying and bullying amongst debt collectors is rife, which is wht it is often not the amount of money owed that leads to bankruptcy, but the relentless pressure on people who did nothing wrong but fall on hard times and asked those for help who had previously lavished offers of money upon them.

Bankruptcy is often the only way to bring some sanity back to their lives, these people perhaps only 6 months before never for one moment felt they could ever be in such a position.

Rant over !

Good luck with your research.

DD

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say Andrew realised he should have checked with us first and emailed to ask. As his aims are the same as the site, and would give a wider audience an idea of what being in debt and bankruptcy is all about then we're happy to re-instate this thread.

Good luck with it Andrew, let us know how it goes!

Andrea