Bankruptcy Petition for Sept

Griswold

I posted on here a while ago that my OH had had a statutory demand issued on 31st May. Well finally after 5 weeks of living in limbo wondering what the creditor will do he has been served with a bankcruptcy petiton for Sept 8th.

Now should we get more advise as to what to do now. He owns his own business and employs people so we don't know whether he should just stop work now and tell his employees or to carry on till the death and wait for an OR to tell him what to do.
The trouble with the business he is in is that there are no assets only a couple of old vans and the rest is goodwill. So if he stops supplying people tomorrow then his customers will simply go somewhere else by the next day.

But if he doesn't carry on he won't have a job.
Should he be on the look out now for a job and if he gets one just walk away from the business.

Can we put the house up for sale now as we have 5 weeks until the date or do we have to wait?

I have so many questions and Im really scared.

The other thing is if I earn more than him post BK will they take that into account when setting up an ipa or deciding if we can keep the house as Im not going BK. ( We have no equity in the house but the mortgage is £1260 and the secured loan is £535 ) I can see them wanting us to rent a cheaper house. But if I was earning alot more than him ( due to him loosing his business )and I could afford the payments would I be forced to sell up. I currently work part time but if he looses his job I could go full time in my job and earn alot more and he could then work part time and look after the kids too. Instead of us paying childcare. Its what we do now but the other way around.

With this bankcruoptcy petition there is no instructions with it as to what you can and can't do now so how do you know if you are doing something wrong.

fiveyearplan

Hi Griswold and welcome back. The first thing you need to do tomorrow is start ringing the debt charities - CCCS, National Debtline, Business Debtline and CAB to get some advice.

Regarding the IPA they will only take into account what he earns and what share of household expenses he pays - of course even if he's earning less than you he will be paying half!

Good luck - i'm sure others will reply with more knowledge but at least get the contact numbers ready and phone them tomorrow morning. You will feel much better once you know your options.

debt_doctor

Hi,

I remember this from earlier. First thing to ask yourself is do you want to avoid BR ?

If you do then you must file a notice with the court at least 7 days before the hearing that you wish to challenge the making of the order. This can be done by letter ( recorded delivery or handed in personally with receipt ) The district judge has descretion not to grant the BR order and one of the main descretions used is 'did the creditor refuse reasonable offer of payment by instalments' From what I remember that was what happened in your case.

Youj should also talk to the creditor and remind them that if your husband has little asetts then they will receive nothing in BR and remind the DJ of this too.

DD

Griswold

Hi,

Yes we have still been paying this creditor all along and they have formed part of our DMP. We have been paying them £235 out of our excess of £400 for the past 3 months. We offered to try to sell our house and car so in a few months we could pay £1300 a month which they refused. Obviously we can't pay this until we sell the house and it could take forever to sell it but this way we could of paid them back in 5 years. So I don't know if that counts? We had been paying £2000 a month until April when we could no longer afford it but we had already paid them over £50K. We should of saved our money...

We would of disputed the amount but we have no proof. My oH has made a mess of his books for the past 2 years and not got receipts etc but thats another story.

To be honest we have taken advise and because my oh still owes this huge sum of £72K to this creditor and then his other suppliers will get added to his debt so in total his debt is way over £140K. We have been advised that BK is his best option. I have been doing his books since I found out about the mess so we have figures from May and it is a profitable business so we could of turned this around.

They have got the total owing on the petition as over £900 more than he actually owes too.

I do believe he could still be self employed and Bankcrupt so he could still keep a very small part of the business. Just enough so he didn't have to have credit.

I will ring the CCCS tomorrow and see what they say.

fiveyearplan

Yes, he could still run his businss if he is a sole trader and doesn't rely on credit.

Griswold

Im probably going to ask loads of questions now as I think of them if everyone doesn't mind.

Our car is on hire purchase and is in OH name only. We know this will probably have to go in Sept and as we currently pay £300 a mth for it we thought we would stop paying now. Then the company can take the car back in a few months or whenever. Will any shortfall be included in the bankcruptcy?

Ok I need a car for work and my Mum has offered to loan me money to buy one. If I get a car in my name is that ok or should my Mum buy the car in her name and me just use it. Im not going BK its my other half so will the OR want things in my name as we are married?

Debt_Monkey_3

Your OH can continue to trade as a sole trader, as long as his business doesnt rely on credit.

If you want to sell your house, you can place it on the market whenever you want, now if you like.

Car shortfall is a debt of the bankruptcy

The OR can not touch your car or your personal assets even if you are married and your OH is bankrupt.

Griswold

Thanks for that Debt Monkey.

I have been scared that they would want to look through my stuff too.

I am asking these questions on my behalf as well as my hubbys.

I have spoken to the cccs bankcrupty team this morning and feel much beter now. They said its for the best and if this creditor wasn't petitioning for bk they would be advising that OH does it himself.

They told me what could happen to the house. Im not bothered about the house as its a huge chain round our necks but if it was repossed and there was a shortfall then I would be liable which if we sell it ourselves we would only have to break even to avoid this.

fiveyearplan

As debt monkey said if you are not going BR they cannot touch your stuff. Regarding the car, I was in court today, my car was repossessed. To give you an idea I had not made a payment on it since June last year and the car is still sitting in my driveway - not for long though. So, if you cannot afford the car I would recommend stopping payments from now.
Does OH need a car for his business?

Griswold

My hubby has 4 vans he uses for work. He employs 2 people too. Now they are really old and clapped out so I wouldn't of thought the value on any of these would be more than £300 each. Now Im hoping he can keep one for work or if I could buy one off him ( Mum might have to come in handy again)now for the full amount if we get it valued. Then he could have the one to use. Im pretty sure he won't be able to keep staff for his business so it will have to be really scaled down what he does now so he'd only need one van.

Its just whether we could live on what he would earn just having himself. Mind he used to just work on his own and its only when he went bigger that things started going wrong.

It seems like such a long time to get the car repossed over a year. Was it alright going to court today. I hope it was ok for you.

fiveyearplan

I was driving the car until tax ran out at the end of February, then I knew I was going BR and either I wouldn't be able to keep it or it would be repossessed so I didn't bother to tax it and it hasn't been driven since then.

Court wasn't much fun! It all happened so quickly I had to ask questions because Ididn't understand the implications of what they were saying.