Bankruptcy, is it the answer ???!!!

tigerfeet2006

mr-p wrote: »

Prob worth around £3500-4000. I know I am legal owner, but what I dont want to do is have my dad listed as a creditor and leave him with the loan. Could I pay it to him discreatly after going bankrupt. (oh, I pay £254 pm, loan finishes in Feb next year).

Yes you could pay him quietly, if you think you can find the money each month out of your SOA.

The vehicle would be classed as a tool of the trade so should be safe in bankruptcy.

tigerfeet2006

mr-p wrote: »

Not sure about the payment holiday, but I do like the idea of paying him discreately. I want to be honest with the OR as dont want any problems. The wife was totally upfront with them and has had no problems and has had a letter a month ago saying they are considering discharging her but dont know when. She went BR in July 08.

Well if you tell the OR he will class your Dad as a creditor, so it is up to you.

Did the letter your wife had have a new SOA to fill in? ED is never a given even when started as if the OR gets busy they are put to the bottom of the pile.

From a post by Philnicandamy

The OR will firstly send 'report to creditors' this is normally done within 8 weeks of the making of the bankruptcy order (your appearance at court etc). It's the initial report from the OR that tells creditors (amongst other things) the reasons for the insolvency and the likelihood of creditors receiving any payments from the estate.

The OR's office must then wait 3 months before they can consider starting the ED process if they feel it is appropriate.

For the ED, you have 14+7 days to return the IPOQ (I&E questionnaire..this is sent to you from the OR office if your considered for ED) after which the OR can write to the creditors to say that they will be applying for the ED and request any objections.

The OR's office must then wait 28 +7 days to allow creditors to reply. Then if no valid objections have been received, the ED notice can be submitted to the court.

So the quickest the ED could happen (in theory) is 56-57 days after the you get the ED/IPOQ letter.
it often takes longer and can even be shelved at any stage if the office is too busy with new cases as ED is NEVER a guarantee...

smilernpb

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be wary. I'll explain in a sec...

It sounds like BR may be your only option. As your wife went BR all joing debts have passed onto yourself.

Re: your business. My hubby was/is self employed. We both went BR in April 2008 (discharged Nov 2008). He is a motorcycle instructor who owned a number of very cheap, very dented motorcycles for trainees to use. And two instructor vehicles and a van. We were told by CCCS that these would more than likely be treated as 'tools of the trade' and not be touched, in fact we were pretty much sure of this, hence we went ahead with BR. Then, we are told that EVERYTHING is to be taken apart from one instructor bike, which would be exempt as my husband's vehicle to and from work (I was exempted our car worth approx £600). We were stunned. They expected him to continue to trade with no bikes (their argument - people could train using their own bike) anyway, to cut a long story short, we had to borrow £3000 off a family member to buy back the bikes that he needed to allow him to continue to trade. Which is now sorted. But the OR were prepared to empty his unit of everything apart from a tool box of tools (tools of the trade). I had a very symapthic person working on behalf of OR who I spoke to in tears for most of the day while she arranged that we could 'buy back' everything in the unit for the nominal fee of £50. It was crazy.

I'm not trying to scare you, but being self employed does bring about a few more things to think about. In many cases CCCS should not have told us that they would be exempted, if they didn't know for definate. Every BR is different. My hubby says had he have known, he wouldn't have agreed to go ahead with the BR, but that's a different matter (and to be honest, wouldn't have been possible).

Good luck whatever you decide.

mr-p

Thankyou these are all such great comments to consider.
Because I fit Kitchens and Bathrooms I would still need a van to transport my tools and materials to the job, also I do need specialist tools to complete the job and the customer would not have these to hand.
Because the van is over £2000 (£3500-£4000) would they make me sell it ?

tigerfeet2006

Bloomin' 'eck Smile that was very harsh. I must say I would have agred with CCCS and said they were tools of the trade.

The problem is the 'rules' are just guidelines and individual OR's interpet the guidelines in a different manner :mad:

tigerfeet2006

mr-p wrote: »

Thankyou these are all such great comments to consider.
Because I fit Kitchens and Bathrooms I would still need a van to transport my tools and materials to the job, also I do need specialist tools to complete the job and the customer would not have these to hand.
Because the van is over £2000 (£3500-£4000) would they make me sell it ?

As it is a tool of the trade it 'should' be safe and we have certainly seen vehicles like this being kept by bankruptees. But please make sure you take advice from some one like BDL.

smilernpb

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Bloomin' 'eck Smile that was very harsh. I must say I would have agred with CCCS and said they were tools of the trade.

The problem is the 'rules' are just guidelines and individual OR's interpet the guidelines in a different manner :mad:

TELL ME ABOUT IT!!!!

My hubby was on his way to Ireland on a fishing trip with his Dad and I was left sorting it all out myself. I was so upset/fuming I couldn't think straight. I really thought that was my lowest point - EVER. Still all over now. We lived to fight another day.

tigerfeet2006

Mr-p has any one answered your question about changing the name you trade under after you go BR? Would be very interested to see what the answer is.

smilernpb

mr-p wrote: »

Thankyou these are all such great comments to consider.
Because I fit Kitchens and Bathrooms I would still need a van to transport my tools and materials to the job, also I do need specialist tools to complete the job and the customer would not have these to hand.
Because the van is over £2000 (£3500-£4000) would they make me sell it ?

Depends. If they think you can get a cheaper one, they may. The thing is, as my story proved is that while all OR's are supposed to work to the same guidelines what one says and does another might not. This is not fair, I know but sadly a way of life.

Can you not get away with saying it belongs to whoever lent you the money for it, but for insurance purposes it was registered to you. Just because it is registered to you does not mean you have to own it, and get whoever 'owns' it (your dad?) to write a statement or something along the lines of 'I own this van, I brought it blah blah but X is allowed to use it for work purposes'?? Would that cover you?

tigerfeet2006

smilernpb wrote: »

TELL ME ABOUT IT!!!!

My hubby was on his way to Ireland on a fishing trip with his Dad and I was left sorting it all out myself. I was so upset/fuming I couldn't think straight. I really thought that was my lowest point - EVER. Still all over now. We lived to fight another day.

Well done on getting it done, I really admire you. Shame you didn't have the support of somewhere like here.