Ask a CCCS counsellor a bankruptcy question

System

kizzywoop wrote: »

Hi, I really need some help.

My husband and I have decided to separate. We have approx £42k of unsecured debts, mostly credit cards and overdrafts and a loan (a previous attempt to manage debt) with around £8k remaining on it.

The £8k loan is joint, and the o/d and cc are split approx £24k in my name and the remaining £10k in his.

Due to my husband's job (government) he cannot go bankrupt- after vague enquiries it has been made clear it would severely hamper his promotion ability and also risk his current job due to the projects he currently works on.

I am in receipt of DLA and longterm incapacity benefit and cannot work. If he leaves I have checked I will be entitled to fully paid rent (have social landlord) and council tax.

Neither of us have any assets- house is council rented, my car is owned by Motability, husband's car is worth less than £1k and necessary for work.

My question is this; if we are separating anyway, can I go bankrupt and can he then take over the loan and the £10k cc in his name and roll them together and pay them off? We would both be happy with this.

Although the bulk is in my name, I cannot afford anywhere near the repayments without my husband's wages, and I understand this is my fault but I never lied about my income or asked for a rise of credit on my cc or o/d and was just given more and more credit over the least ten years. I have never missed a payment and although it has been getting more difficult, we have afforded the repayments but the credit has run out, we cannot afford the repayments (although we have still not missed any yet) and also to pay living expenses without that credit and our marriage has broken down irrepairably.

My husband thinks he could probably just about afford to pay off the £18k if rolled into a loan, as well as obviously having to find somewhere new to live etc. It would also give me a fresh start, albeit with a terrible credit rating and no access to credit, I think it would do me good to have no choice but to learn to live with what I have and start again.

If we can do this, in what order should we do things? I don't want my credit rating from bankruptcy to affect his ability to get a loan etc- we still remain friends, just don't want to be married anymore, and the stress of this debt has certainly not helped us and has severely affected his health.

Thank you and apologies for the long involved post!

Hi kizzywoop and welcome to the forum.

We received your email as well as this post and we have replied to the email.

If you need anymore help please get in touch.

Kind regards

Mat

System

brightonman123 wrote: »

is there a minimum amount someone can sue for, via a statutory demand?

despite failing to supply a cca / statements etc, capquest have just sent me an SD for alleged debt of £930 (most of which I fear are their pumped up charges..)

last i heard about this was their 'agents', mackenzie hall, who confirmed by email that actions were on hold, pending info..

Hi Brightonman123 and thanks for you post.

There is no minimum amount but the statutory demand may be a scare tactic rather than a genuine attempt to pursue the debt through the courts, particularly if you have yet to receive a CCJ on this debt.

If the case is currently on hold I recommend that you speak to the creditor and see if you can make a payment arrangement that is satisfactory for both of you.

I hope this helps

Kind regards
Mat

dmmsta

CCCS_Mat wrote: »

Hi Adam and thanks for your post.

The official receiver will have no material interest in your partner’s vehicle as you don’t own it and it’s not your asset.

However, they will consider if your motorbike is strictly necessary in the light of you having the use of another car.

As you say it’s correct not to omit any information but you may be asked to provide evidence that you need your motorbike when the other vehicle is available to you.

I hope this helps

Kind regards
Mat

Thanks for the info Matt.

My partner uses her car to get to work, so I would hope that the OR would see the need. I would get the train, but that costs nearly 2x as much...gotta love Public Transport

out_of_cash

hi,

just thought i would update you with my situation as you advised/help me some months back.

well i am still unemployed 2 yrs on and its now been 2 yrs and 4mths since my br date,go away with no ipa thank god but have been put in a position or should i say offered a deal by the OR in august 2010 to put our home on the market via the normal route of which i have done last month.it sold within 2 days:(

the new buyers have had all there paper work done and mortgaged approved and are anxious to move in and will be wanting to agree a completion date anytime now,my s2bx wants out of here asap so she can get her cash,its been a total emotional drawn out nightmare for me as i never wanted to go always thought we would retire here,however now looks like i will be working til i am 73.


do you know if i can be evicted from here without a court order? as there was a bankruptcy involved the solicitors dealing with the sale know i wont be fooled into signing any docs as i dont want any legal libailty with fees etc.i am just real anxious now as to my options to stay:(

would be greatful for any advice you maybe able to give

regards

out of cash

flower_fairy_7

Hi Iam going through Bankruptcy in Scotland just now and i am wondering if anyone knows whether or not the bank i owe money to can take the money from or close my daughters trust funds. They have a couple of thousand pounds in each one as ive paid into them since they were born, unfortunately their trust funds are with the bank i have had trouble with and they have now closed my accounts but i havent recieved anything regarding their trust funds. Im hoping that my daughters can keep their money and i can transfer it to a different bank. If anyone has any info on this it would be much appreciated.

System

out_of_cash wrote: »

hi,

just thought i would update you with my situation as you advised/help me some months back.

well i am still unemployed 2 yrs on and its now been 2 yrs and 4mths since my br date,go away with no ipa thank god but have been put in a position or should i say offered a deal by the OR in august 2010 to put our home on the market via the normal route of which i have done last month.it sold within 2 days:(

the new buyers have had all there paper work done and mortgaged approved and are anxious to move in and will be wanting to agree a completion date anytime now,my s2bx wants out of here asap so she can get her cash,its been a total emotional drawn out nightmare for me as i never wanted to go always thought we would retire here,however now looks like i will be working til i am 73.


do you know if i can be evicted from here without a court order? as there was a bankruptcy involved the solicitors dealing with the sale know i wont be fooled into signing any docs as i dont want any legal libailty with fees etc.i am just real anxious now as to my options to stay:(

would be greatful for any advice you maybe able to give

regards

out of cash

Hi out of cash and thanks for your post.

It’s difficult to give advice on your question without knowing the full situation.

It does seem that you had agreed on a deal with the Official Receiver which you now don’t want to go ahead with.

In this matter I would recommend that you speak to the OR sooner rather than later to know what action they may take against you should you not go ahead with the agreed course of action.

You may also need to take legal advice once you have spoken to the OR.

I hope this helps

Kind regards
Mat

System

flower_fairy_7 wrote: »

Hi Iam going through Bankruptcy in Scotland just now and i am wondering if anyone knows whether or not the bank i owe money to can take the money from or close my daughters trust funds. They have a couple of thousand pounds in each one as ive paid into them since they were born, unfortunately their trust funds are with the bank i have had trouble with and they have now closed my accounts but i havent recieved anything regarding their trust funds. Im hoping that my daughters can keep their money and i can transfer it to a different bank. If anyone has any info on this it would be much appreciated.

Hi flower fairy 7 and thanks for your post.

There is no clear answer to your question.

I recommend that you discuss both accounts with your trustee as otherwise this would be seen as a failure to disclose assets and could have consequences for your bankruptcy.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards
Mat

System

The CCCS MoneyAware team are now out of the office for Easter until Tuesday 26th April. Please accept our apologies for any delay in replying to your question.

In the meantime you can still get debt counselling through our online service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu), 24 hours a day.

Regards,

CCCS_Mat

Stinkyfeet

Hi All

Firstly, thank you for letting me be apart of the forum.

Im looking for a bit of assistance if possible and will keep it all as short as possible.

In 2005 due to illness got behind with credit items and fell really far behind. I entered into a IVA in Jan 2006 and made payments to this for little under 3 years, due to credit crunch and redundancy, I ask IP if could reduce payments for short period of time till got back into full employment. He refused and failed arrangement late 2008 and petitioned for my Bankruptcy in Jan 2009.
There was no new creditors within the bankruptcy that werent already a part of the IVA.
I had meeting at OR offices, no IPO made and I was discharged in Jan 2010. OR advised my 2 banks they could re-open my accounts (Nationwide & Halifax).

My IVA on my credit file is due to come off in Jan 2012, defaults from credit accounts start to come off my credit file from Nov 2011 to Feb 2012.

When these have gone I be left with Bankruptcy only till Jan 2015 which is disapointing as in theory this means that I would have had a insolvency present on my credit file for 9 years for the same debts as IVA.

Therefore, im wondering if it at all possible for me to have bankruptcy removed from my file at time of IVA (Jan 2012) so that ive had 6 year period?

To add further, at the OR meeting they where somewhat disapointed that I was there as (not in so many words) I had paid so much into IVA arrangement and was half way into it. I think what they where saying is that if I was given half chance and reduced payment during my patch I could have continued IVA to completion, that was my original goal.

Any help regarding this would be brilliant as really want to push forward with life now and would really like the option of moving home next year.

Big thank you for all your help

Maizy

Hi there, I hope someone can offer a bit of advice. I would rather not ring the helpline at this stage, have rang other debt lines in the past, one of whom said BR was the better option, the other tried to tell me I should have plenty left over out of our salaries. For now I shall just put some details on here if ok as I think after almost 3 years paying a DMP recently reduced but now over a 20 year period, we are looking at taking the BR plunge.

Basically, we have now resorted to pay day loans and are really struggling as the interest alone is around £350 per month. This was when a couple of essential expenses came around. I was promised a promotion earlier in the year which didnt come off and truly thought the pay rise could get us back on track but its not happened.

We owe 114k mortgage, 29k secured loan, 26k dmp (which is about half and half), 5k to a family member, £500 overdrafts, £750 other credit cards, £1400 pay day loan, £700 arrears on utilities and I think thats about it. When I look at those figures and we take home £2800 per month, (mortgage council tax and dmp is one full wage, I just cannot see how any of it will get paid and the thought of going on for all those years in circles is really affecting this household, which at one time was a happy and contented place. Sorry for going on but really am at a loss what to do. I dont know what we do wrong but our finances are so out of control. Does anyone think my BR would be granted?

Also if my BR is granted, what kind of thing would extend a discharge period, what does the official receiver look for. If a BRO is placed for any reason, does that just mean restrictions are in place or are the incoming funds/overtime still taken into account for the length of the BRO. I'm just asking out of curiosity as it may be deemed that our spending was totally unnecessary on some occasions. At what point can pay rises and overtime belong to the debtor?

My main concern is where the heck do I start, I/we have opened a basic account and picked up the BR papers and of course now this month our mortgage will miss (it went to court and we pay £50 for previous arrears), the payday loan is going to miss which Ive paid ok since Jan and I just feel completely weighed down by it all and I know its affected my husband more so. Hes so ashamed etc etc.

We have gathered some funds together and in two weeks time will have enough either for the BR or the rent on a new house and I have no idea which to do first, can anybody help. Of course if I go into private rent which all around here are through estate agents, what am I meant to say when the credit report fails which it will, I feel Im in a catch 22. The thought of being debt free and able to start again after years of struggling is obviously appealing, but its those initial steps we are afraid of, the main one being the embarrassment and upheaval of having to move and what the heck to tell folk.

Anyway, if anyone can offer any advice as to what steps to take, I would be grateful. Many thanks in advance.