meeting at OR office 3-4 hour interview!!!

spikeisbroke_2

Hi all,

Well i was made bankrupt on monday and ive had lots of forms to fill in and loads of leaflets for advice but now i have to have a 3-4 hour meeting at the OR's office next week! :eek:Is this normal? ive only been hearing of people having interviews by phone for an hour.Now im worried.

Spike

tigerfeet2006

They schedule in an 3-4 just in case, it may not, you will just have to wait and see. Have seen some in for an hour and some in for 4, especially if there is a lot to discuss about the business. It is nothing to be afraid of, they are not trying to trick you or anything and if you need a break at any time just ask and they will let you have one.

Tinytim

Hi Spike,

My interview was face to face and scheduled for four hours. It was quite long, but nowhere near the four hours allocated. If you have been in business (which seems to automatically generate a face to face interview) there is nothing to worry about.

In my case the examiner really couldn't have been more pleasant. As Tigerfeet says, you can ask for a break at any time, and they will tell you this at the start. My examiner seemed more concerned that I had enough coffee

My interview seemed to be quite a lot different from the telephone interviews most people get. The examiner spent the vast majority of the time asking questions about the business and its history, and what went wrong. In our case it was very evident that the current economic climate was the sole factor for the business failing, but he was still very interested how this impacted in our case. Like others, we had vast amounts of credit and in hindsight had been very stupid. I'd worked out that something like two thirds of the credit we had taken out was used to repay interest and other credit, and he seemed quite satisfied that we had identified how this had led us to where we were. In summing up, he did say that it was evident that if my earnings had continued at 2006/2007 levels I would have kept up with things and wouldn't be sitting there.

The conversation surrounding my vehicle, valued at just under £2000 was over in a matter of seconds when he said " I take it you want me to exclude this as essential". I of course said yes, and that was the matter closed. There was no discussion at all over my SOA which wasn't even looked at. The examiner simply glaced at it and simply said to let him know if my income increased.

We spent some time talking about the house and he explained the purchase of beneficial interest. He did state that they do not accept early repayment charges as a debt against the property, and the equity is the value less mortgage only. He did state that he would be looking for the whole amount of any equity - no deals to be done.

My own feeling is that a face to face interview can be preferable to a telephone one. The examiner can benefit from all the non-verbal communication which doesn't exist on the telephone, and can assess whether you are being open and honest or not. I resolved to be completely open and honest, and probably said more than was strictly necessary, but this didn't seem to matter. All in all, it was nowhere near as bad as I imagined.

spikeisbroke_2

many thanks tigerfeet and tinytim:T, i appreciate your answers and have calmed down slightly now.

spike

peachyprice

It's just a standard letter and that's the time slot they allow for a f2f, we were out in 55 mins.:D

spikeisbroke_2

many thanks peachyprice i just thought it was a bit excessive, under an hour would be good. got no problems with meeting with them it was just the time involved.:T