The October 2009 Bankruptcy and DRO club!

philnicandamy

Trom wrote: »

Wait... What?

Congrats though! Good luck with the OR.

you can swear on anything depending on your religious beliefs.....sadly though you cant swear at the clerk though

Trom

philnicandamy wrote: »

you can swear on anything depending on your religious beliefs.....sadly though you cant swear at the clerk though

Swearing at anything depending on your religious beliefs would have certainly been more interesting

crowman19

Well it's the big day for me. I will post later about how I got on.

Although I've read plenty of stories on here about how much of an anti-climax the actually hearing can be it still hasn't stopped all the paranoid thoughts going through my mind.

fermi

crowman19 wrote: »

Well it's the big day for me. I will post later about how I got on.

Although I've read plenty of stories on here about how much of an anti-climax the actually hearing can be it still hasn't stopped all the paranoid thoughts going through my mind.

Good luck.

Honestly, I was more bored than anything else in hindsight.

crowman19

fermi wrote: »

Good luck.

Honestly, I was more bored than anything else in hindsight.

Thanks.

I'm quite lucky with the court I am using you have to pay your fees and swear your forms in prior to the hearing. The judge only has the BR hearings between 10 and 10-30am and I noticed there were about 6 names down before mine when I booked the date. Hopefully it will be a quick in and out. Then I can start panicking about the OR interview. :rotfl:

crowman19

That's me done.

As has been stated before it really isn't anything to get too stressed about on the day (didn't stop me though).

The court I used operate a system where you pay your fee and swear your forms in before the day of the hearing.

The BR hearings are between 10 and 10.30am. I turned up at 9.30am hoping that if I got there early I may be first seen at 10am. I needn't have bothered as when I sat down in the waiting room there was a list on the wall with the order of hearings, I was number 6 of 8.

The 30 minutes I had to wait until 10am seemed more like 8 hours. At 10am they started to call people in. The first 4 went in and out very quickly probably about 10 minutes altogether. They then didn't call anyone in for 10 minutes. At this point my stress levels started to increase as there was another list that started at 10.30am, what if I wasn't to be seen today and had to make another appointment :eek:. They then called in the 5th person to be seen so I was going to be next. It got to 10.30 and panic set in again thinking I may not be seen so went to see the receptionist and asked if they carry on seeing people even after the time slot was up. She said not to worry and that I would be seen.

At 10.35am I was called in.

The judge had a quick look at my forms and asked me a couple of questions.

You privately rent is that correct ? me "yes"
Your rent is £xxx per month ? me "yes"
You have £xx,xxx worth of unsecured debt ? me "yes"

Then she said there was a couple of things she needed to make me aware of.

1. While bankrupt I cannot get any credit as it may result in criminal charges. ( I think you are allowed up to £500 but I don't want any and certainly was not going to dispute this with the judge)
2. You will be discharged in 1 year.
3. As I was working I may have to make a payment called an IPA to the OR to go towards my debts which would be in place for 3 years. It would only be a nominal amount though.

The judge then asked if I agreed to this and I said yes. She then signed the forms off and informed me "you are now bankrupt, I expect that is a huge relief for you".

I then left and handed my forms to the receptionist who said take a seat in the waiting room. She came back a few minutes later with my copy of the Bankruptcy Order and said the OR will be in touch in a couple of days and that I could go now.

I can't really explain how I feel about it at the moment, it's not joy or anything. I think I'm just reflecting on my life really at the moment and the stupid debt I have got myself into. I'm middle age, I rent , no real career to speak of at the moment. But on the upside I have the most beautiful 2 children which now can have my undivided and unstressed attention for the rest of their lives.

On the way home from the court I stopped off at the garden centre to buy a little conifer to plant in the pot in the back garden. The second one I bought to replace the first one which died has now died to. I'm planting this conifer to hopefully remember this day and to make sure I take care of my life from now on as well as the conifer.

Thanks for reading.

Jubbly1868

Its amazing to read the very different experiences of the br court procedure that we all seem to be having.

OH and I were not asked to swear on anything (slightly worried) and we havent heard from the official receiver yet although its been a few days.

The judge said nothing about our obligations whilst bankruptees although ive got the info from a website. Maybe its diff because we are in NI.

We noticed a note up outside the court, giving the OR's phone number so perhaps we are supposed to make the first contact...

Wont hurt to ring I suppose and find out what happens.

Lisa

Jubbly1868

Sorry for confusion. Our paperwork was sworn before a solicitor so assume that is same as others being sworn on bible; before judge etc...

crowman19

I have just had a call from the OR's office (that's effficient) saying I will get a call in a week or two to set up the interview and it will probably be a telephone interview lasting about an hour.

DON79

:j:j congratulations ToriD, Crowman and Dsljfreeman! well done to you all and thanks for posting your experiences too, its good for others to read so they know what to expect. :j:j