Your thoughts needed...

shirleymarye

fiveyearplan wrote: »

You have to pay the day you go to court to declare yourself bankrupt.

So how long does it normally take from filling in forms to going to court ?

Just trying to guage how long I have to find the money !

fiveyearplan

First of all you need to identify what court you will be going to then find out what system they operate. Some you need an appointment (you then take your filled in forms and money on that date then you are declared BR) other courts have a walk in service so you'd take you filled in forms and money in when you're ready and deed done.

shirleymarye

fiveyearplan wrote: »

First of all you need to identify what court you will be going to then find out what system they operate. Some you need an appointment (you then take your filled in forms and money on that date then you are declared BR) other courts have a walk in service so you'd take you filled in forms and money in when you're ready and deed done.

Think it may be Dumbarton but I will check with CAB next Monday and then will have to work it out from that !

skylight

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/GetLeaflet.do?court_leaflets_id=264

This is the link to the remissions forms and what you need to do to claim it - plus the application form.

fiveyearplan

You can also find out what court you need to go to from that link.

shirleymarye

fiveyearplan wrote: »

You can also find out what court you need to go to from that link.

Forgot to mention that I am in Scotland so it doesn't tell you about that.

DON79

coolcait is probably the best person to give you some advice if she happens to be about, I believe she is one of ones who knows about the scottish side of things as it does differ.

coolcait

Hiya Shirley

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a rough time of it right now.

As people have said, the Scottish bankruptcy system is different from the English one. That means that there's some good news for you, and one particular difficulty - which it may be possible to finesse.

The good news is:

- you don't have to go to court to make yourself bankrupt - you send your application to the Accountant in Bankruptcy (a Scottish Government Agency), and they take the decision;

- it 'only' costs £100. That's it. It's non-negotiable, and it's non-refundable. But it's less than you've been quoted. I've also heard it said that you can actually pay in instalments - you still have to have paid the whole £100 upfront before putting in your application. I'm not entirely sure about that one, but it's worth giving the AiB a ring and asking about, if you think it would be an idea for you. You'll get them on 0845 762 6171.

The bad news is that you have to meet certain conditions before you go bankrupt. This document covers the basics, plus general info on going bankrupt: http://www.aib.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/4/0000541.pdf

The difficulty I can see for you is that none of your creditors (as far as you have mentioned) have served you with a Charge for Payment. It's a formal legal document, issued after your creditor has been to court, and it would be served on you by Sheriff Officers. It's not just one of the letters which creditors send to you, threatening you with court action. I suspect that you would have mentioned if if you'd received one.

If you don't have a Charge for Payment, you'd have to look at applying for bankruptcy because you meet the Low Income Low Asset (LILA) conditions. It looks like you do pretty much meet those conditions - your income per week is less than the minimum wage; you receive housing benefit; you don't own your home.

The problem is your car. You can't apply under LILA if you have an asset worth over £1000. However, have you checked what it's actually valued at? Also, if it needs repairs, how much would they cost? Do you have a friendly mechanic who could give you an idea of what it's worth when the cost of repairs is taken into account? Would he be willing to put that in writing? If you can answer 'yes' to those questions, it might be worth calling AiB anonymously and asking them if they'd accept that as a valuation for your car.

I'd really strongly recomend that you go and have a word with your local CAB before you do anything. If you apply under LILA without sorting out the car question, you'll probably get refused, and lose your £100. :eek:

If you've got any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. You might also want to have a read of the information available on www.aib.gov.uk.

Good luck!!

shirleymarye

I haven't had a Charge for Payment as have only just stopped making payments in December.
I suspect that my car is probably worth about £2500 now.
It needs the brakes relining.
I hope I am able to keep the car as I have difficulty walking now because I have osteo arthritis. If I have to sell it then I would still have to get another one even a "cheapie" to get me into town and back for shopping.
Of course the phone has not stopped ringing the last 2 weeks because of non payments but I can just ignore it or unplug it !
Don't know if I should write to them or not ?
More importantly what to say to them really ?
I think it was my phone bill and gas and electricity plus Xmas tipped me over the edge with everything but now can't see a way out really.

Maybe I should get the car sorted first and send letters, does that sound reasonable ?

shirleymarye

After reading up on Lila I am wondering if I should try the debt payment one first, I still have the Abbey account to get settled which means I can write to them regarding same which may cause one of them to do a Payment Charge. I agree I need to speak to someone about this as it's driving me nuts ! I would have done so before now but Xmas and New Year got in the way !