Opinion please statement for cause of bankruptcy.

DON79

I apologise in advance that this is so long but I would really like an opinion and also if you think it is too long and too much detail please tell me. Also if you think I should explain anything in more details please tell me. Thank you very much.



"I first realised that I had a problem repaying my creditors in January 2008. At this point, I first contacted National Debtline and eventually the CCCS. The main reasons that I am having financial problems are as follows:

• Starting back in July 2006, we were keen to leave our rented property due to the continued harassment from one neighbour and vandalism carried out on our car and the house we were living in. The Landlord was unsympathetic to the problem and also the Landlord was failing to carry out essential maintenance and repairs to the property. So we took the step of getting a mortgage to buy our own home away from the neighbourhood were we had been having so many problems.
• In July 2006, my first baby was born 4 weeks premature brought on by the stress of our living situation and he struggled for the first few weeks to put on any weight which added to our stress and worries. The neighbour was continually playing loud music at all times of day and night which meant it disturbed our sleep and the baby’s sleep. This is one of the main reasons we felt we had to move house.
• At the same time, we made a decision to trade in our car – a Fiat Punto – for a Renault Megane Scenic. There was no change in the amount of monthly payment for the Hire Purchase but it did greatly increase the amount we owed for the car, there was a greater amount left owing on the Punto due to the damage it had sustained at our former home so we achieved a poor trade in price.
• We moved in October 2006 to our new home and as it required some work to make it liveable, we spent some money I had received from my sister from the transfer of a former mortgage to her name only. I received the sum of approximately £2000 when the mortgage was transferred from the joint names of Donna …… & …………… to …….’s name only. We used this money in order to pay for our removal costs and we had to put carpets into the house. There were also some minor plumbing and gas repairs which had to be carried out to make the property safe to live in.
• I did return to work on a full time basis at the start of January 2007. My son was put into nursery full time. We did not realise how expensive it was and at this time, we started to cover any shortfall in his nursery costs using credit cards and also to cover any unexpected monthly expenditure. I took out a loan in March 2007 in order to clear another loan and a credit card but foolishly did not close the credit card account.
• After I had returned to work, we had a shock to discover that I was pregnant again with my second child which was completely unexpected.
• When I had been back at work for a period of four months, my work informed me that they had been overpaying me since I came back and that I had the sum of nearly £500 to repay. I agreed to repay this at £20 per month as it was all I could afford and my wages also dropped at the same time by over £70 per month. This made it even more difficult to keep covering my son’s nursery fees and I continued to top up the fees each month using my credit cards to cover any shortfall.
• In June/July 2007, we were contacted by ………………….. who were offering a service to replace the fascia and guttering on our home which needed badly done as it was causing dampness to spread through the house through leaking guttering. We agreed to a quote and the salesman offered us finance for it. We fully expected to be turned down for it because by that time we had been trying to get a secured consolidation loan to clear the debts I had accrued and also debts that my husband had from his previous marriage and divorce but had been turned down on three to four occasions. I was surprised that they did approve the finance for this but I believed that between my husband and me, I could manage the payments and we had the work carried out.
• I started my second period of maternity leave in July 2007 and our second son arrived at the start of September 2007. After he arrived, my first son continued to go to nursery 2 days per week and this was more affordable. But in hindsight, we should have cancelled his nursery place as soon as I went off on maternity leave.
• We had to purchase an additional cot and a double pushchair which I foolishly used a credit card for as we had no savings at the time. I continued using the credit cards to cover grocery bills and other expenses.
• My wages continued at the full amount until October 2007. It was at this time I started to receive only statutory maternity pay and I really began to struggle with the credit card and loan repayments. I did balance transfers in order to meet the monthly payments and avoid the accounts falling into arrears. Since I had up until this point had an excellent credit rating, the credit card companies had no problem when I asked to increase the credit limits on the cards.
• I realised I couldn’t keep things going on the way they were, so I contacted National Debtline, and also an employee assistance helpine from my employer. It was recommended I contact CCCS to see if they could help. So I contacted them and initially I wanted to set up a repayment plan to pay reduced payments to my creditors. I did this but could only pay in the sum of £52 per month, some creditors accepted this and froze the interest but other creditors did not completely stop the interest applying and so not all of the debts have been reducing. I have since managed to increase the payments slightly to £64 pounds per month but this is going to be struggle for me as the budget is tight. I reduced the amount spent on food in order to make the increase in payment.
• In March 2008, we terminated the hire purchase agreement on our Renault Megane as we could not continue to afford the payments. The car was handed back to the finance company and sold at auction. A small shortfall was added onto my CCCS DMP.
• I cannot continue with the DMP because our Gas/Electricity payments are due to rise, we were being charged less than we should because of a faulty meter which kept the electricity being charged at lower rate. The costs of food, petrol and clothing having risen recently too.
• At the current rate, the DMP I am on is not due to finish until December 2061 and I am suffering with stress of managing the payments and the long term remaining is causing periods of depression. Even if I were able to afford to double the payments on it, I could not expect to have cleared the debts until January 2036. And not all creditors have completely stopped the interest charges, therefore the debts will not be completely cleared by this date.

My husband and I are working shifts opposite each other in order to share childcare and not have to pay nursery fees for our children. Due to the hours my husband works, I am not able to work any more hours than I currently am doing without having to pay for childcare. We live 2 hours drive from our nearest family, therefore we have no one to help look after the children while we work.

I feel that bankruptcy is the only way that we can move forward and I accept the implications and the effects of bankruptcy."



Thank you!

chelseabun_3

Hi Donna,
Gosh, that's detailed;)! I think it's a bit too long, but I bet it was therapeutic writing it all down! The OR will want to know all the detail at some point so it's good you've got it written out already.

I would suggest trying to make the main bullet points shorter and more to the point, but keep a copy of this one as you can use it to fill the OR in at your interview. My OH's statement was really short, but that means he'll need to give more info at the interview.

It's really up to you how much info you put, these are only suggestions and you need to put what you're comfy with. Good luck! CBx:D

tommo20

Hi DON79,

Sorry for the tough time you've had.

Good advice from chelseabun.
Are you completing the forms online? If so -
You are allowed 4000 characters on the online form which includes spaces and punctuation.
Good luck

DON79

Hi CB, strangely enough I remembered a lot, I thought I had blanked a lot of it out but it is obviously still in there somewhere. Thanks for the advice, will try to cut it down and make it more to the point. I will work on it and probably post on this one again with a revised one at some point. Thank you. :T

Do you think the OR will ask for much more detail? To be honest, I can't really remember things like exact dates when loans were taken out or that or even have anything really to show for the credit card bills. It just seems we used it to live, beyond our means obviously which was stupid.

Hi Tommo, I have started to fill the forms out online but I will see how it goes. Am not sure whether to do it online or get the paper forms. Thanks very much for the advice tho. :T

DON79

just another quick question. I don't want the OR to think I am playing for sympathy as this situation is my fault. So should I not mention any personal problems or should I leave them in as a contributing factor to my situation? Thanks.

sententia_2

Hi,
I think full is ok, but i tend to operate on the basis of the more rope you give yourself.....
as a note to self so you have all your thought gathered together i think that works as you've done it.
personally i went short and sweet at the end of the day. Mine read:

"I am petitioning for bankruptcy because my income cannot service my debt and i see no realistic prospoect of repayment.

As I have significant mental health problem a letter from my GP is attached to this form as is a letter from my citizens advice bureau."

Judge didnt bat an eyelid at that and he just said fine your BR.

I think the long story type you've done here is probably best suited to the OR angle when they want to do their "examination".

just my tuppenceworth.

DON79

Hi Sententia,

thanks for that, think will keep it to myself for the OR interview and shorten it down for the forms and for the Judge. Realistically I am not going to be able to clear this debt for many many years and I don't want it hanging over my head for decades to come.

Thanks for the advice. :T

Sunk

They couldn't ask for more DON, you have been very honest & indepth.:beer:


On my form I wrote:
Cost of living goes up & up & wages stagnate.

DON79

Thank you Sunk.:D

I will scale it down a bit probably but I kind of hope maybe the more they get on paper the less questions they will have to ask me. But I don't know.

Thanks for the advice. :A

DON79

Ok, have had a rather large :beer: , well, glass of baileys! after kids been put to bed and have revised my rather large statement above into a smaller (ish) statement below. Any comments on this one? Thanks! Well, when I said small, I meant that it does fall below the 4000 character limit for the oline forms now that I have revised it!


"I realised in December 2007 that I had a problem repaying my creditors. My income cannot service my debts and I can see no realistic prospects for repayment, the main reason I have financial problems are as follows:

We moved house in September 2006 to get away from harassment and anti social behaviour directed at us in our former rental property. We incurred moving costs and home repair costs of about £2000 at this time. When I returned to work after my first period of maternity leave in January 2007, I put my son into full time nursery. While I had been on maternity leave, I had struggled with basic living expenses and had used credit cards to support us during this time. However as I had planned to return to work on a full time basis, I anticipated no problems in being able to fully repay what I had used on credit cards.

Upon my return to work, I found that the nursery costs were more expensive than I had budgeted for, so again I did use the credit cards to cover the shortfall each month. I tried taking out a loan to consolidate some credit cards and loans however this only improved the situation over a short period of time. Shortly after my return to work, two things happened which did not improve the outlook, the first was that I discovered I had fallen pregnant again unexpectedly which came as a shock, the second was that my work had been overpaying me in error since I returned. As I had been overpaid, my wages dropped by about £60 pounds per month and I had to make repayments to them monthly for the amount overpaid which reduced my monthly income. Shortly after this, we had to arrange for a larger house repair which we obtained finance for.

In July 2007, I started my second period of maternity leave, we had to purchase a second cot and a double pushchair. In October 2007, I began to struggle to maintain my creditor payments and foolishly began transferring balances between cards and loans to maintain payments and avoid arrears.

I realised that I could not continue in this way and I contacted National Debtline and CCCS as well as an employee debt advice helpline provided by my employer. Initially I wanted to set a repayment plan to try and repay what I owed and as a way of stopping the ten or more phonecalls I was getting each day about arrears. Unfortunately not all of the creditors have stopped charging interest so it is difficult for me to see how I can repay all the debt owed. I have since managed to increase the payments up to £64 per month.

However this is now becoming more of a struggle as our budget is tight and the bills have gone up since I agreed to pay £64 per month. The gas and electricity have increased, along with our food, clothes and petrol costs. I cannot continue with the Debt Management Plan and the fact that it is expected to take me a further 50 years to clear my debts is causing me stress and periods of depression. My husband and I work shifts opposite each other in order to share childcare and avoid childcare fees which are too expensive for two children. We have no family locally who are able to help with childcare while we work.

I feel that bankruptcy is the only way that I can move on from our current situation and I accept and understand the implications and effects of bankruptcy."


Thanks for your opinions!

neverindebtagain

I am trying to do mine at the moment, does it have to be very long or does it look bad if its brief, used credit to pay credit for so long I have just lost track when and how