Debt Relief Orders (DRO) - Information & help thread

wba31

Orville wrote: »

Agreed, i did say in one of my posts further up you have to factor the expenses for baby. I suppose it depends on how much she earns.

the other thing is if you can manage on the benefit income, why rush back to work? why not enjoy the first year of your child's life while the DRO finishes?

SingleMumOf2_3

My DRO was accepted on 21st Feb. I am looking at moving into the property I lived at where was married and accumilated most of my debt (private rented). is there anything to stop me from doing this? rent is same as where i live now..so no change in finances.

also.. I have had meters fitted where i am now.. because i had arrears with them. when i move.. do i just apply to who ever for gas and electric? do the do credit checks?

fatbelly

SingleMumOf2 wrote: »

My DRO was accepted on 21st Feb. I am looking at moving into the property I lived at where was married and accumilated most of my debt (private rented). is there anything to stop me from doing this? rent is same as where i live now..so no change in finances.

Just inform the DRO Unit about your new address. No problems.

Not sure about your second question but I wouldn't think there would be a problem.

Just_Peachy

wba31 wrote: »

the other thing is if you can manage on the benefit income, why rush back to work? why not enjoy the first year of your child's life while the DRO finishes?

It would be nice, but I will have to see how i am coping financially when the Maternity Allowence finshes (after 39 weeks) if i did go back to work, it would only be part time so i don't think it would pay me much more than what the maternity allowence was, so there shouldn't be much change financially.

I have another query, I live with my partner and he has a mortgage on the house, I am not on the mortgage or financially linked to him at all but would me taking out a DRO while living there affect his credit rating or his mortgage? Also, would they take into account his earnings when considering the DRO? The debt is all mine and we have an agreement at the moment that he pays the mortgage and all the bills each month and i give him £300 per month and I pay for the food shopping plus my phone bill and internet bill (this has been our arrangement since I moved in with him)

How would they take this when applying for the DRO? Would they accept that the above are my out goings and how would I prove that they are, as obviously I do not have rent agreement with my partner, I just transfer the £300 to his bank when i get paid and i pay for all the shopping from my wages.

I hope the above makes sense and thanks in advance for any advice.

wba31

Just_Peachy wrote: »

It would be nice, but I will have to see how i am coping financially when the Maternity Allowence finshes (after 39 weeks) if i did go back to work, it would only be part time so i don't think it would pay me much more than what the maternity allowence was, so there shouldn't be much change financially.

I have another query, I live with my partner and he has a mortgage on the house, I am not on the mortgage or financially linked to him at all but would me taking out a DRO while living there affect his credit rating or his mortgage? Also, would they take into account his earnings when considering the DRO? The debt is all mine and we have an agreement at the moment that he pays the mortgage and all the bills each month and i give him £300 per month and I pay for the food shopping plus my phone bill and internet bill (this has been our arrangement since I moved in with him)

How would they take this when applying for the DRO? Would they accept that the above are my out goings and how would I prove that they are, as obviously I do not have rent agreement with my partner, I just transfer the £300 to his bank when i get paid and i pay for all the shopping from my wages.

I hope the above makes sense and thanks in advance for any advice.

The only potential issue may be "beneficial interest" in the property. Is your name on any of the deeds? have you donated to the deposit on the property? have you ever contribute to improvements on the property. The insolvency service have said if you answer no to those 3 questions and you are not paying the mortgage then you should not have beneficial interest in the eyes of the OR, but i fully recommend you have an appointment with CCCS, NDL or CAB and discuss with them and let them give their opinion by seeing a finalised I&E summary

BrianV_2

hi , Everyone , Im new here after being advised it might be a good place to start about possible DRO or bancruptcy.

Im finding it all a bit confusing and Im in a bit of a mess finacially so trying to work out what is best for me to do.
Ive sort of thought that the debt relief order might be a route I should take but not sure if I qualify .
Any help would be appreciated so a little background.

Basicly I fell ill about 18 months back and lost my job eventually because of it , not thinking straight anyway at the time due to medication for a sort of breakdown , anyway to cut a long story short I am now well enough in that respect but whilst not thinking straight Ive been really stupid and because I am now still unemployed but madly looking to keep paying my credit cards the only way I could do that was to pay bills with the cards and pay the minimum amount hoping Id get back into work but that hasnt happened.
I now have spent any savings I had and just get job seekers allowance and its getting impossible to live and pay the credit cards and I now am going to be facing some big utility bills somebody isnt going to get paid and Im stuck as to how to try and sort it.

I owe 3 credit cards the one I havent paid last 4 months as it was impossible , the other 2 Ive been meeting payments minimum and then by by using them for very very cheap shopping online , Im existing on value tins and pasta , I dont go out and only luxury I have is phone and internet which Ive kept going to try and find work..
I know that due to estimates on an electric meter Im going to be looking at a £300 plus bill for that and heating and thats worrying the hell out of me .
Ive thought that things are not going to get better quickly now as last 3 interviews I have had have come to nothing and all jsa is going on the cards near enough .
So Im single with debts of about £5,000 all in on 3 credit cards really really stupid plus these utility bills coming in , but Im unsure of if I can go debt relief order being unemployed on JSA and housing benefits.
I have an overdraft facility at LLyods but not used it , if I stop paying my LLoyds card then I expect that they will take it out of my overdraft and then Im paying interest on that too , Ive sort of forward planned a little by opening up a co-op basic account the cashminder one so that if things get really really bad now at least I could transfer my JSA to that account and still eat and pay water etc but its worrying the hell out of me stopping paying cards and LLoyds taking it out anyway when I cant afford to pay both utility bills and credit cards.

Will LLoyds take money anyway as I have 1 card wity them as well as a bank account .

Any help appreciated I know its my all own fault but my mind has been haggled with some crazy pills the doctor put me on , I cant believe I got into this mess , Im just trying to work out a way to get the fee together If DRO seems an option .

Sorry for going on but Im just hoping someone may have been in similar circumstances ,single on JSA and cant pay credit cards , I have insurance on the cards which is useless as I wasnt covered because of walking out on a job that I could no longer do at the time and Ive been frightened to even call them to stop that in case they then freeze the card which means then I still pay and cant use the bit that isnt interest for shopping that takes it back up to the max. .

Would I qualify for a dro and would I have to come up with the fee and pay my bills which seems an impossible task , I just dont know who not to pay

redmel1621

Hello

I have asked over on the main board as was pointed over here.

I am just wondering how a dro would work for me. I have no car (my husband has a motorbike worth 1500) and we are currently living on JSA, CTC, HB, CB. As such I don't really have an individual income, everything is pretty much a joint claim so how would they work out MY income and also how would they go about splitting houshold bills, and finally, would they take dh's motorbike into consideration if it is just me making an application.

TIA

Mel x

immoral_angeluk

redmel1621 wrote: »

Hello

I have asked over on the main board as was pointed over here.

I am just wondering how a dro would work for me. I have no car (my husband has a motorbike worth 1500) and we are currently living on JSA, CTC, HB, CB. As such I don't really have an individual income, everything is pretty much a joint claim so how would they work out MY income and also how would they go about splitting houshold bills, and finally, would they take dh's motorbike into consideration if it is just me making an application.

TIA

Mel x

On your financial statement it would be easier to put all household income and then all household bills. They wouldn't neccesarily be split it's all dependant on your circumstances really. Assets will only could towards your DRO if they are legally yours, so your DH's motorbike wouldn't be an issue.

immoral_angeluk

BrianV wrote: »

....

What income you are on is irrelevant as the only thing that matters is if you have disposable income of over £50pm.
As for lloyds you ideally should open a new bank account away from any creditor you have debt, as if you were to go for a DRO and include an overdraft debt to that bank they would be likely to close your account anyway. As you've said, Lloyds may, and are allowed to, use an overdraft to clear arrears on other debt with them so you are best moving bank account really.
The fee is £90 and you should not be paying any creditor if you are any unable to pay them all the same really as this could be seen as preferencing and possibly lead to a DRO being rejected. In some circumstances you may be able to receive a grant towards your DRO fee, and the first step is to approach a free advice charity who has a Approved intermediary for full assessment of your eligibility and advice about ALL of your debt options.

sunwind

Hi all - this is my first post, but wanted to say thank you for all the great advice I've read on this thread so far.

After reading this thread I think I'm reasonably well informed about DRO's now. I was disallowed on pension grounds before, but thankfully that will change come April.

I still have a couple of questions so I'll start with one of them.

I've valued my car at the Parkers site using the free valuation tool. and its worth is £1465.

However, with mileage adjustment its value drops down to £795.

From what I've read intermediary's only use the free valuation tool, but if that's the case I still wouldn't qualify, even though my car is well under the limit...!

Does anyone know if intermediaries can take mileage into account - if they can't it seems a bit daft to me:(

Any insights on this please...?