going BR, advice needed

lee316

Hello everyone,
I have been reading this BR forum for a number of days now. Now my head is in a spin and I don't think that I can make any sense of it, so was hoping if I outline the situation some of you lovely people could help me.

As you can imagine, we are deep into debt, it's going back years but we have always survived, just. We've been doing the only sensible thing at the time we could think of, and that was getting a loan to repay other loan, and now the point has come when we have to own up and realise that we were just making things worse.

At the moment, only my husband works, as I have been made redundant at the end of March. Finding another job has proved impossible, and I have aplied for a jobseekers but still waiting to hear from them regarding initial interview.
We are in arreas on mortgage payments for four months now, and secured loan for two. We also owe two months council tax, and they have already sent us a court summons for 28th of this month.
At this point we have exactly 50 pounds left to our name, and my OH don't get paid till 25th. There is child benefit due next week, but that has to cover petrol for OH for work,some dd's (bills) and food till the end of the month. Trouble is, as soon as he gets paid all is gone on bills and debts. Vicious circle.
Hence BR seems like the obvious choice.

The problem is, we keep reading about the fees we have to pay when aplying for BR. As both of us would apply, would we have to pay fees separately as individual claim, or as one claim? We are in deficit as soon as OH's wages go in the bank, let alone being able to afford the fees. We haven't even got that sort of money in the first place, is there a way of getting help with those?

I've got a thousand other questions, and I'm sure they have been answered on here already, but it's the fees that are the most pressing one.

Any help would be greatly aprecciated.

So_Sad_Angel

Hi Lee

Welcome to the board....ask away Honey...someone will know something about everything ....oooops did that make sense?

Anyway....fees are payable & there is some remission if you are on benefits. Make a call to one of the debt charities & make sure that BR is the option for you.

Above all...keep reading. learning & asking. Your confidence to deal with your current situation will grow the more as you realise that there is a solution.....its making sure you find the right one.

Gosh I`m in waffling mode today !! my apologies..I`ll shut up now :D

keep smiling,

Angiexx

MicheH

Hi, we're in the same situation as you regarding circumstances and the decisions we made about how to deal with our finances.

We went bankrupt yesterday (all very civilised, helpful, friendly, lovely staff and judge in our experience)

We paid £310 in fees and £150 in court fees each. It is a bind to get this money and we just say did it in time before totally going under as we knew a long time ago that we had to go down this route.. anyway!!

When we were there they told us that there were plans to reduce the £310 to £90 to help people go through the process in this economic climate. When this is going to happen I don't know, just thought I'd give you the heads up.

lee316

Thank you on your kind words of support Angie and MicheH, we are just so worried at the moment as yu can imagine. As my OH works and I am still waiting to hear from jobseekers, don't suppose we'll be entitled to any discount.
MicheH, I gather you have made joint application with your OH? Is that the fee you payed for both or each one separately? If it's just one fee we might just be able to scrape it together, but if we each have to pay that amount separately than I don't know what we'll do.

lee316

Whoops silly me, just read it properly, it's each.
Ooops, i need to log off and clear my head a bit.

debtinfo

Hi, bankruptcy is an individual matter and so you will have to pay 2 sets of fees. The reduction to £90 that the OP read about are for a Debt Relief Order which is for people with less than £15,000 of debt