So worried about justifying debt..

scaredmummy

Hi there,

I am in the process of saving up to go bankrupt. The main factor towards this is due to the repossession of our appartment which will leave us with a shortfall of about 40k plus another 18k of debt due to hire purchase, loans , credit cards...
I am so worried that I wont be able to justify the debts and will get into trouble with the OR..
Also I am a really disorganised person and have very little paperwork and cant remember a lot about my debts
Please help me if you can offer any advice x

Pee

I'm sure there will be someone along in a moment who can help. Try not to worry. I helped a friend fill out the bankruptcy form and there was less detail required than I expected. Have you down loaded the forms and had a go at filling them in?

Madame_George

Hi,

I'm not really in a place to offer advice, but just wanted to give you a *hug*.

There'll be someone along soon to offer advice.

x

scaredmummy

Thanks people...I am just worried I wont have satisfactory reasons for the loans etc..such as holiday etc

CeeBeeDeeBee

Hi, I just wanted to add my support too.

I'm in a similar position and have huge debts due to the collapse of my business.

I haven't even started filling the forms yet as they seem so daunting.

From what I can gather from others on this site the ORs are quite reasonable and have seen it all before. Your main debt is from the negative equity in your property so thats not your fault.

As for the loans and credit cards etc have you looked at whether you can reclaim any charges / PPI and checked that all the CCAs are enforceable?

Chris

tigerfeet2006

Chris if SM is going BR then it is not worth reclaiming as it will all go to the OR.

SM it is OK to put holiday down, that is perfectly acceptable, you are even ablr to put savings for holidays down on your SoA..Don't panic about it the OR will have seen it all before and £18k is not much in the grand scheme of things. Believe me he will have seen worse.

alastairq

£18k is not much in the grand scheme of things. Believe me he will have seen worse.

nowhere near my debt......you'd have to treble it at least!

Mind, once the creditors got down to begging levels, with ridiculous offers to 'clear the accounts'....[and I did some sims myself], it turns out that most of what I [or, I suspect, most others] owed was interest and charges generated by the CCs themselves...rather than what I had actually 'borrowed'...


The OR isn't into 'blame' with the BR.......however, if spending included new, recent, high value items, then these might well get claimed by the OR as assets.

BR is NOT about being naughty..it's purely about being Insolvent.

[Regarding specific reasons, 'gambling' is one which an OR may/will take special interest....but I'm not sure what form that interest takes]

For your 'reasons for debt'', simply cite the more recent debt history..showing how you've made an effort to control/repay in the past, but circumstances have overtaken you.

The turning point for you may well have been, when in order to meet payments, you have been left without sufficient to live on.....or are approaching that position.

It was certainly the point where I called a halt to proceedings!

Trom

If you want to put your mind at ease, you could order a credit report and then contact your creditors and ask them for statements from the past 2 years or so. That way you can see for yourself where the money went.

When I started filling out my forms and looked at all my statements, I soon realised I had not spent £18K on clothes like I thought, after all. At least 5K were balance transfers from years and years ago, and the rest had gone towards food, bills, furniture, DIY, travel/holidays, and yes, OK, clothes too. It made me feel better about myself if nothing else. Turns out I'm not a complete bimbo.

nappentass

alastairq wrote: »

For your 'reasons for debt'', simply cite the more recent debt history..showing how you've made an effort to control/repay in the past, but circumstances have overtaken you.

Thanks for this - I've been worried about this because much of my debt is over a long time and I was reducing it - more recently redundancy & lack of similar paid employment / current economy/house market have resulted in me now having to start to go down br route (advised by CCCS)

custard_cream_3

When my OR kept asking me about specific debts, and why I took them out, I was scrupulously honest with her - I couldn't remember. Not a lot she could do really.

CeeBeeDeeBee

Some good advice on here. From what I can tell OR's are pretty reasonable so as long as you haven't done anything dodgy they are OK with everything.

Its only when debts come from gambling etc or assest dissapear that they get scarey.

The reason I asked if you had looked into reclaiming or challenging debts is that I dont know how far along the process you are, I have been 'going bankrupt' since June and nothing so far has happened.

It seems to me alot of creditors are reluctant to push too far, most of my creditors keep threatening, DCA letters etc but nothing really happening.

If you start claiming back charges, looking at CCA enforcability surely that will buy some time and maybe even reduce the debt, which might make BR not neccessary? As far as I know if your account is in dispute the creditor cannot take any enforcement action.

One thing maybe you can answer tigerfeet - can you reclaim charges etc once you have been discharged?

Chris