Bankruptcy Help Please!!

outtadebtwannabe33

Hi

I will try and cut a long story short - i am £60,000 in debt, im married and the debts are jointly owned with my husband. We recently had triplets which means i cannot go back to work as the cost of childcare would be more then what i actually earn in a day. Because i cannot go back to work we wont be able to pay our mortgage as well as our numerous debts each month (secured and unsecured) so we are seriously considering going bankrupt.

We have had our house on the market for about 9 months (when i found out i was pregnant) to see if we could pay off most of our debts and make a fresh start but since the housing market has crashed we have lost alot of equity and could probably only raise about £20,000 after the sale.

I have a few questions to ask and would be extremely grateful if anyone could help?

1. Would we lose our car? It is only worth about £2,000 but is an essential with three babies.

2. Is there anyway our friends or family would find out? We would really like to keep it a secret from everyone we know.

3. Would we have to move out of our home straight away? And would they put any kind of notice up outside the property? (really dont want the neighbours to find out as well)

4. Do we have to declare all of our assets other then our home and car e.g. TV, Laptop, jewellery, Ipods etc?

5. Also when do we stop paying our loans etc? IF we know we are going to go bankrupt shall we stop paying them now? We dont actually start loosing my full salary until around April time when my full maternity pay is up.

6. Would the Court need to see our bank statements? Im going to be honest we have squandered alot of money on clothes, eating out and holidays etc so not sure whether the Court will be too pleased with this, although we didnt know that we were going to go bankrupt when we were spending this money,

Thank you very much for looking at this i would be so grateful for any tips or advice!

Scarlett.1974

outtadebtwannabe33 wrote: »

Hi

I will try and cut a long story short - i am £60,000 in debt, im married and the debts are jointly owned with my husband. We recently had triplets which means i cannot go back to work as the cost of childcare would be more then what i actually earn in a day. Because i cannot go back to work we wont be able to pay our mortgage as well as our numerous debts each month (secured and unsecured) so we are seriously considering going bankrupt.

We have had our house on the market for about 9 months (when i found out i was pregnant) to see if we could pay off most of our debts and make a fresh start but since the housing market has crashed we have lost alot of equity and could probably only raise about £20,000 after the sale.

I have a few questions to ask and would be extremely grateful if anyone could help?

1. Would we lose our car? It is only worth about £2,000 but is an essential with three babies. Cars are a grey area I'm afraid and up to the individal ORs - does your husband use it for work? That would certainly help if he did. The thing with cars is you need to convince the OR that it is "essential" and not just "convenient".

2. Is there anyway our friends or family would find out? We would really like to keep it a secret from everyone we know. The notice goes in your local paper, but it's usually right at the back among the er.... personal ads so unless your friends/family check those out on a regular basis, you might be okay! It also goes on the insolvency website.

3. Would we have to move out of our home straight away? And would they put any kind of notice up outside the property? (really dont want the neighbours to find out as well) That depends on your intentions - if you have little or no equity in your house you might not have to lose it. You would need to able to keep up with your mortgage/SL payments though. If you do decide you can't afford / don't want to keep your house then the mortgage co. will reposess - this can take months and months, so no you wouldn't have to move out right away. Re the notice - if your house gets reposessed, then yes, a notice goes in the window.


4. Do we have to declare all of our assets other then our home and car e.g. TV, Laptop, jewellery, Ipods etc? No, unless you own any items of great re-sale value, such as top of the range plasma TVs - they're not interested in everyday items


5. Also when do we stop paying our loans etc? IF we know we are going to go bankrupt shall we stop paying them now? We dont actually start loosing my full salary until around April time when my full maternity pay is up. Once you make the decision to go BR you stop paying ALL your creditors straight away (apart from your mortgage IF you want to keep your house).

6. Would the Court need to see our bank statements? Im going to be honest we have squandered alot of money on clothes, eating out and holidays etc so not sure whether the Court will be too pleased with this, although we didnt know that we were going to go bankrupt when we were spending this money, The Court doesn't no, but the OR will. You won't be the first to have been a little reckless and you certainly won't be the last


Thank you very much for looking at this i would be so grateful for any tips or advice!

Hi and welcome

I've answered some of your points above - I hope it helps. Shout up with any other questions you have

Have you taken any professional advice? This is an absolute MUST. I would recommend you contact CCCS as soon as you can and if they advise that BR is the best option for you then we will help you every step of the way.

Scarlett xx

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome to the board.

Can't really add anything to Scarlett's post, but would like to re-iterate her advice about contacting one of the debt charities. There are links and numbers in my sig. and more in the Bankruptcy Help sticky at the top of the board (would strongly recommend you read this as there is lots of useful links and info in it.) Please be aware that the charities are extremely busy at the moment so be very patient, some posters have reported it taking half an hour with their fingers doing constant redial.

Anything else you need to know don't hesitate to ask.