Query re: not paying creditors and putting money away before BR

Reevesie76

I think I have managed to persuade hubby that BR is the best way for us, our house is the only thing holding him back.

We have decided not to pay any of our bills from now on so that we can save for a rental property. Presumably its ok just to put this amount into a savings account for now? Will this be frowned about with the OR?

We go on holiday (for the last time!) for the last two weeks of January and hubby doesn't want to move until we get back, so we are going to give ourselves 3 months to save our pennies without paying anyone.

What do we tell our creditors, do we tell them that we can't pay and leave it at that, do we tell them we are going BR in February 2009, do we just not speak to them at all? I'm worried that the ones that are currently chasing us as we can't pay them will take us to court, or worse send round a bailiff in the those 3 months

k2nga

I guess you have had some advice from the charities about your BR.

The OR i doubt will worry about you not paying bills up to your BR but the phone calls and letters you are about to get may cause a bit of stress.

I would approach the companies and ask for a payment break or tell them that you cannot pay and ask that they send you a SOA form to prove you cannot pay and then sometimes they come up with a vastly reduced rate. This way you might just get some peace while you wait to go BR.

I got to be honest i am not sure what an OR would think of you going on holiday before going BR? How are you funding the holiday?

Reevesie76

We've spoken to a couple of charities, CCCS being one of them. Their option was to offer a reduced payment, but that would take us 60 years to pay back. They weren't prepared to take us on because of the amount of time it would take to pay it all back.

I appreciate your honesty. The holiday has been paid for for quite a long time. It was flights we couldn't use earlier this year, so we transferred them to January when its cheaper to go. We have a holiday timeshare so thats our accommodation.

peachyprice

Are you sure you want to give up your house before you go BR? Looking at your SoA you can afford to stay.

You don't have to decide before you go BR whether or not you want to stay in the house, you can give it up any time during or after your BR and any shortfall from negative equity would be included, even after you are discharged.

k2nga

Well with a lower payment taking 60 years to pay off i would say you are doing the right thing.

Good news about the holiday i was a little worried that you were using £1000's of credit cards which might upset an OR and get you a BRO.

Peachyprice has some good advice for you too and i wish good luck with it all and do keep in touch.

Reevesie76

Thanks both of you, I appreciate your help with all of this, its so confusing.

Peachyprice - the reason we thought it would be easier to move beforehand is for renting a new place, due to credit checks etc, although I have been thinking that its probably best just to be honest with the new landlord (if we can get one). Also we would need to stop paying the mortgage and SL to be able to put money away to afford rental and BR fees.

I presumed that if we don't pay Northern Rock our mortgage they will chase us and repo it anyway in a couple of months, rather than us doing vol repo instead.

peachyprice

You can stop paying the mortgage at any time throughout your BR and will still be allowed to keep the money to save for a deposit, if staying in the house doesn't work out.

Sorry, I would just hate to see you give up your house if you really don't need to.

Reevesie76

Thanks Peachyprice, we love our house, but there is a lot of money tied to it with two secured loans. We don't feel we could afford to pay the mortgage and both secured loans on the house until we go bankrupt and even after that its a lot of money.

I think I just want a fresh new start someone else to be honest.