Newbie Q's: Welcome Finance - Bankruptcy Fee - Pets

GettingHopeful

All the very very best Blue, and congratulations on taking the first step, nothing really to add except that it is all a lot less painless than 10 months of suffering and worry. We're all with you, love GH xxxx

eselt

Hi again Blue

Well done for taking the plunge:T :T :T

Just a quick one, it might help with setting aside money for your fees- now you are definately going for bankrupcy you should try and make some arrangement to pay priority debts- these include utilities, council tax, inland revenue and CCJ's, if you can't pay them make a repayment offer (I offered £1 and they all accepted-if they don't accept you have it on record that you made an attempt to repay and this is looked on more favourably), non-priority debts eg. credit cards, bank loans, will try and contact you all the time and try and convince you with all sorts of comments like "if you don't repay this will seriously affect your future credit rating" (but you already know that when you go BR this happens anyway!!!) that their debt is more important BUT IT IS NOT- once again you might like to make them an offer of £1 but chucking your money at them is not going to help your situation now, when you could be saving that cash for your fees- don't be intimidated by these people, they'll never let you have credit with them again as soon as you go bankrupt anyway so giving them money now will not benefit you in any way.

The OR will freeze your bank accounts from the day you are made bankrupt, but don't worry, both the Postoffice and Coop will let you open a new bank account with them straight away although they will only be the basic money in money out type. Once your bankrupcy is 'discharged' a few other high street banks will consider you too. Think seriously about using any 'savings' you have for 'essential living costs' (and keep receipts like supermarket etc to prove this) asap because access to these will be frozen by OR too.


Great to hear you are in a more positive frame of mind about this, with any luck it should all be done and dusted by the new year. Cheers Eselt

Purplekylie22

shadowdragon wrote: »

Im sure there was a post on the boards recently where if your a council tenant rent arrears are included in BC, and the Council just reset your balance to 0, and you start again with them.

Hey, it was me that did that post, the council have to be lienient as half of their tennants are their tennants as they cant afford to / Dont have credit history to go private. but OP is in a housing assosication - I dont know if they are the same.

Blue, TBH I would betempted to ring them and ask. That is what I had to do with the council and I was a nervous wreck, but the woman i spoke to was really helpful.

You should maybe get an application in with the council now to see if they can find you something and then you dont ned to worry about the arrears and it will be included without problems.

tigerfeet2006

Kylie in some areas (ours is one of them.) the council have nothing to do with the housing. Ours just passes cases over to our HA and they hold the list. Some HA seem to be quite understanding of arrears, some are a lot more harsh. I seem to remember a case last year though where a poster had arrears ans the HA would have evicted them if they had had their arrears written off in BR so the OR allowed them to make small payment on top of the normal rent to clear the arrears. Hopefully one of the more experianced can clarify this.

mazzatee

Hi Blueopal5577

Re your rent arrears you really need to contact your HA for some advice and see how they would view your rent arrears going into the bankruptcy. Even council rent arrears are not automatically included in BR as can affect tenancy and give council/HA grounds for eviction as you are deemed to have breached your tenancy agreement through non-payment of rent. As I previously explained most ORs will allow you to continue nominal payments towards the arrears as they do not want to see you lose your home.


By the way eselt said "The OR will freeze your bank accounts from the day you are made bankrupt." Just to let you both know it is actually the bank that freezes the account & not the OR. They should release the account back to you once the OR says they have no interest, unless of course they are one of your creditors. And eselt is spot on when she says Co-op & Barclays are great for opening a new account for undischarged bankrupts.

Best of luck!

blueopal5577

Thanks everyone. Before reading this Ive just done a new post. The fee is the stinger, I dont qualify for a fee waive and dont have £485. I'm not paying creditors and still only just make it to the end of the month doing overtime, night shifts in between days and so on. Low paid job. I know the loan issue is a difficult one with the OR and i obviously dont want to upset them, or abuse the process but ive made the decision to go BR for 10 months and am just not getting anywhere saving. I live alone and my expenses - bills and a very basic housekeeping allowance are just covered by working 50+ hrs a week + night shifts in between. I'm even looking after 2 strangers dogs in exchange for money, while doing these shifts, in 1 bedroom flat, to cover my council tax. In 10 months i havent managed to save, its like i save a bit, then something breaks. I havent had a bed for 8 months.

God i sound whiney! Its not meant that way, email doesnt protray tone. It just feels completely hopeless. Even not paying creditors, I'm getting nowhere. I only have 1 family member who cant afford to help me out and my friends cant either. The only way i can see would be to get a loan, but then im screwed with OR. May just get the loan and what will be will be. Hopefully when I get to talk face to face to the OR (from past experience of dealing with council tax arrears etc) i'll probably be in tears having a panic attack and possibly with a mental health team support worker to help me so hopefully they'll see I would be too scared to do something to **** them off unless it was a dire situation lol. Maybe im being too optimistic. In any case the worst that can happen is i get longer restrictions. Lol... note i go down... hopeless / rock bottom... I try to find solutions... nope, no solutions... ok, I bury my head in the sand, dont care! ostrich! lol

I'm not being flippant I'm just at the end of my tether. Tried all the way through to do the right thing with creditors, writing to them before i even missed the first payment all those moons ago. I called, the CAB called, i wrote, the CAB wrote, i cried, i begged, i got called at midnight and harrassed. I got my CC charges read out of the phone "well why did u need XYZ?" Blahh. I know everyone has the same experiences. Im just at the end. I tried, I failed.

get_me_out

Have you a credit union near you??

I ask as they would prob do you a loan to pay your rent arrears. Then you can save rent money for BR fees.

Most Credit unions keep their own files. Don't run credit checks on your credit file. SO in effect the loan can't be found from your credit file.

OK maybe not honest BUT a way to get the fees money. Only thing is you then can't incl this loan in BR. You would have to pay it back. 500 costs a tenner a week for 12 months.

They are good for saving too............

blueopal5577

You are so clever!

I set up a credit union account ages ago and never used it. I know its still running because when sleeping off a night shift last week, someone called to confirm my address is still correct. I remember in their literature they said their first loan is £1000.

Should just borrow the money from them for the BR. Since its not a declared loan, presumably the OR wont be annoyed about it.

Thank you!

mazzatee

Hi

You say you are on a low paid job. Have you tried claiming working tax credit? You don't have to have children to claim this you know.

Give them a ring on 0845-300-3900 and have last year's P60 to hand to see if you qualify.

Rainbow_Butterfly

There is some info here: http://www.payplan.com/weblog/2008/07/14/how-to-get-help-with-bankruptcy-fees/

Water, gas and electricity suppliers often run Trust Funds that are specifically set up to assist customers with their fuel costs, and some will accept applications for help with bankruptcy fees. You can obtain an application form by calling the customer services number on your bill. Once you’ve filled this in and sent it back, it’s up to the company concerned to decide if they can help. If they can, the money is offered as a gift and is not repayable by you. Here are some of the larger utility company Trust Fund websites:
The British Gas Energy Trust
The EDF Energy Trust
The Anglian Water Trust Fund
The EOS Foundation
If your utility company is not represented here, then simply ask a customer service representative from your supplier who will be able to advise you further.



xx