My Bankruptcy Story

aproblemshared

Started about 2 months ago really, have been use to quite a good standard of living and then for reasons I don't want to make public it all went wrong. We had to first wind up our company which is a trauma in itself. Anyway total unsecured debt about 70k between two of us secured debt of 140k, (including business PG's) and a mortgage of 185k on a house worth 165k if I am lucky now. No job no hope of one only one solution left to us BR.

I rang the court and made the appointment that was scarey in itself because you are actually admitting you have a problem. Got a date for 2 weeks later 12/12. And started doing research.

Phoned the debt lines they could not help us because of the amounts and lack of income so there advice was bankruptcy was our only solution.

We saw an insolvency practioner who confirmed the same to us and after taking 4 days to fill the forms out we went down to the court with our money. Our appointment was for 2pm we got there and the clerk was at lunch so we waited and waited and waited she arrived back at 2.15 no apology nothing. Me I hate lateness its is the one thing that can really get my back up. When she finally called us over and did not even apologise I said to her as a prompt wasn't our meeting at 2pm. She very coyly explained that she had been in court all morning and was entitled to a lunch break! I wonder if I would have got the same courtesy extended to me if I had been late!!!

Anyway she took our money had us sign the forms. We were taken straight round to the judge. We went in together but OH did the talking. The judge asked us if we were aware of the implications of bankruptcy and why we felt this was our only way out of our situation. Had we explored other things etc etc. My husband was very clear and concise with the answers and after about 5 minutes he said ok I am going to make you bankrupt at the same time I hope that does not cause a problem. I am sorry to hear about you predicament and I hope it goes well for you...

It was at this point I felt physically sick because we have worked really hard to build up what we had 10 years ago my husband and I were in a pickle we had left our respective partners he was paying an awful lot of maintenance to his ex. I had my 3 children with me and no job. He got stuffed in court with costs etc etc and at that point he was going to go bankrupt but we got through it a built a good life for ourselves and I just thought that bit of paper has put a stop to everything we have built up over the last 10 years.

We went out to the clerk again gave her the papers as she had to type them up and fax them to the OR. We had a brief conversation with the OR's office who asked us to conform our names, DOB's etc and then asked if we had anything that needed to be dealt with immediately we said no, asked if we had any bank accounts with money in them. We said just our post bankruptcy account which had £1000 in for us to live on over Christmas she asked what type of account it was and checked we had no credit facilities with this account. All confirmed she said someone would be contact with us and that was it. We left the court building at 15.45.

I have since then had some stressful phone calls from various credit card companies etc. So following someone advice on here I wrote to the all enclosed copies of our orders and cut up cards and sent them out yesterday. Hopefully that will stop the CC calls. Now just have to deal with house and secured loan company. I have decided I am going to send the keys back. Going to finish moving out of house (still not got everything out) over the weekend and send the keys to them by recorded delivery on monday.

I feel positive about the future it is not going to be easy I know that, I think learning to live using cash all the time is going to be strange but I have done that before. Hubby is struggling with that concept!! My husband has been offered a job so financially we will be ok but we may need to move nearer to his work as its a long haul every day. That has other implications because it means my son will have to change schools and he is very settled in his school its a good school (which are few and far between these days) and I don't want him to move. He only has 3 years left at primary so if we can hang it out until he moves up to the senior school we will. He has good potential and we have been told he will get into Grammer school and we don't want to upset the apple cart for him.

Thats my tale of woe for anyone who is interested. What I have learnt from this forum is there are an awful lot of people out there just like me and in just as much trouble as I was in. I have gleaned lots of useful information from here and hope that I can give some information to others in my predicament. I am positive about the future and not worrying about how we will pay this bill, that card, robbing peter to pay paul and all that stuff. To us this is a fresh start, to a debt free live. :j

LilyBart

Many thanks for writing that. It's a really clear and accurate description and will help lots of people. Hope you get the school situation sorted out to your satisfaction. That's one thing that really worried us too, though the upside of renting is it means you can consider a wider range of schools at 11 and move into another catchment if necessary. Nerve-wracking though, as it always is when you want the best for your children.
Lily

completemess

Thanks for posting aproblemshared. It always make me feel better that there are others in my situation and i'm not the only one. One of my biggest concerns is also my sons school (he's only in preschool at the minute but very happy there), we're hoping to find a rented property locally so we do not have to upset him x

clanbailey

hiya aproblemshared thanks for sharing your story. It is a bit similar to mine as my husband had 2 companies but fell ill 2 years ago and they struggled to stay good - he didnt pay himself for 2 years and in the end everything went tits up (that is the technical term for it) so a few months ago had to cease trading and we had to deal with a lot of angry customers even though we made sure they didnt loose anything! they were just miffed that we were ceasing trading and they had to move companies - no feeling to what we may have been going through. We lost our house to repossession in September - a house that we worked all hours god sends to get 5 years ago and a house that my children loved as was near their friends and school. Now in a smaller house further away, but have made it our home and settled in. In the process of the companies demise we have run up debts of £120k between us but no silly spending - we havent been on holiday for 4 years and unfortunately dont wear designer clothes - socialising is a no go with kids and companies to run had no time. So have felt like what the hell was all that worth? working so hard for so many years - doing the right thing and trying to keep our heads above water - no what do we have WELL each other but nothing we worked for! We just try to make sure the kids are not affected by all of this but now got my hearing date feel there is an end to is all coming and we can start living again! hopefully :O)