Declared bankrupt and completely lost and empty

Mrs_Malaprop

As others have said you should be fine with the Co-op Cashminder account, it shouldn't be frozen and if it is then a quick phone call to your OR should get it sorted pretty quickly.

Regarding the house, do you want to sell it? How much equity is there? Would you be able to afford the mortgage and any secured loans on it as you are not paying debts now.

The OR will send you a welcome pack and will probably ask for a face to face interview as you are creditor petitioned.

You will have to fill out a Soa(STATEMENT OF AFFAIRS) to work out what are resonable living costs. If you want to put one up on here I am sure some one will show you how an OR will look at it. You need to put your full income and how much your OH contributes to the joint household bills not her full income.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

alastairq

hi and welcome......please, look on the bright side......

at least, by having bR imposed by another, you have saved yourself the onerous task of finding £510 fees......

and the second favour that creditor has done for you?


saved you the hassle of worrying about finding those debt payments over those seven years...and the uncertainty of whether, during those years, your income would be guarenteed, or improved?

I'm in no way trying to belittle your moral sentiments regarding debts, and the re-payment thereof...far from it.


but you have been given ,unintentionally [on your part], a marvellous opportunity to make a new start, plus having the insight to avoid making the same mistakes again....

you can only go forwards now......welcome

DerekW

Hi all.

Just a quick thank you for all your kind words and advice - it is appreciated.

I have had a few days now to absorb the fact that I have been made bankrupt, and it is finally beginning to sink in after loads of reading and talking with the OH that it isn't the end of the world.

I still can't get through to the elusive OR in Manchester, I have been on the phone constantly since Thursday last week and still no luck.

I have though begun to get things into some semblance of order regarding how I got to where I find myself today.

2001 made redundant, didn't work for 16 months. 2004 breakdown of relationship. 2005 made redundant, this time for 6 months during which time my Dad was diagnosed with Leukaemia and eventually succumbed to it. 2009 made redundant again, this time for 4 months and previously an additional 3 months off work due to stress related illness.

I have a breakdown of all my finances now to

House value - approx £130,000
Mortgage - £72,000
Secured Loan - £32,000
Unsecured debt to 10 creditors - £32,027

Income - £1,268
Outgoings - £850 approx (no DMP to pay now)

I have all my letters sorted out by creditor for approx 2 years of communication (wife sorted all this when I was sorting my DMP after many years of burying my head in the sand and pile upon pile of unopened letters) - there are very few statements in this lot though the debts were long since passed onto different agencies - I had just managed to juggle from on to the next just avoiding whatever disaster was looming on the horizon by the skin of my teeth.

All my communication with CCCS regarding my DMP.

The OH will be taking all financial matters into her hands once all this is sorted. She is far more savvy when it comes to these things than I am and only owes about £10k on her mortgage (different property) and has savings. Thankfully we didn't put anything into joint names when we got married other than arrears in the utility bills which amount to about £800.

Now I have some order about things in my head, it seems that it may not be the disaster I feared it would be at first. Hopefully the OR will be in touch in the next few days and I can start making plans about what I need to do, I still feel a little in limbo at the moment, but it is a feeling that is becoming ever more manageable.

Thanks again to you all for the help and advice, I will post again as things begin to progress.

Derek.

DONNYWHITEGAZ

alastairq wrote: »

hi and welcome......please, look on the bright side......

at least, by having bR imposed by another, you have saved yourself the onerous task of finding £510 fees......

and the second favour that creditor has done for you?


saved you the hassle of worrying about finding those debt payments over those seven years...and the uncertainty of whether, during those years, your income would be guarenteed, or improved?

I'm in no way trying to belittle your moral sentiments regarding debts, and the re-payment thereof...far from it.


but you have been given ,unintentionally [on your part], a marvellous opportunity to make a new start, plus having the insight to avoid making the same mistakes again....

you can only go forwards now......welcome

I hope so alastiar,im in the same position for the same ammount and dont feel like the op does,im still trying to come to terms with it and what it means but im not downbeat with it,my main worry is my house as i dont want to sell and have arrangements with mortgage set up to pay my arrears,i shall just wait and see what happens when the or speaks to me,it would be good to keep track of each others situation being on the same sort of time line

dancingfairy

Hi - I don't know why you are selling your house - whether for personal reasons or whether becuase you felt you couldn't afford it and/or needed the money to pay the creditors.
As far as I know you are not made to sell the house during bankruptcy so you may want to look at the house situation and decide whether it is the best decision for you to sell or not. Perhaps it would give you a fresh start? or maybe it is an uneccesary stress right now? get some advice if you need to.
Anyway I don't really know anything about bankruptcy so can't really offer any practical advice but just to say I hope things get easier for you. It sounds like you were doing your best to get the debt sorted so try not to worry - it was the creditors decision - not yours.
df

BOB_A_H

DerekW wrote: »

Hi all.

Just a quick thank you for all your kind words and advice - it is appreciated.

I have had a few days now to absorb the fact that I have been made bankrupt, and it is finally beginning to sink in after loads of reading and talking with the OH that it isn't the end of the world.

I still can't get through to the elusive OR in Manchester, I have been on the phone constantly since Thursday last week and still no luck.

I have though begun to get things into some semblance of order regarding how I got to where I find myself today.

2001 made redundant, didn't work for 16 months. 2004 breakdown of relationship. 2005 made redundant, this time for 6 months during which time my Dad was diagnosed with Leukaemia and eventually succumbed to it. 2009 made redundant again, this time for 4 months and previously an additional 3 months off work due to stress related illness.

I have a breakdown of all my finances now to

House value - approx £130,000
Mortgage - £72,000
Secured Loan - £32,000
Unsecured debt to 10 creditors - £32,027

Income - £1,268
Outgoings - £850 approx (no DMP to pay now)

I have all my letters sorted out by creditor for approx 2 years of communication (wife sorted all this when I was sorting my DMP after many years of burying my head in the sand and pile upon pile of unopened letters) - there are very few statements in this lot though the debts were long since passed onto different agencies - I had just managed to juggle from on to the next just avoiding whatever disaster was looming on the horizon by the skin of my teeth.

All my communication with CCCS regarding my DMP.

The OH will be taking all financial matters into her hands once all this is sorted. She is far more savvy when it comes to these things than I am and only owes about £10k on her mortgage (different property) and has savings. Thankfully we didn't put anything into joint names when we got married other than arrears in the utility bills which amount to about £800.

Now I have some order about things in my head, it seems that it may not be the disaster I feared it would be at first. Hopefully the OR will be in touch in the next few days and I can start making plans about what I need to do, I still feel a little in limbo at the moment, but it is a feeling that is becoming ever more manageable.

Thanks again to you all for the help and advice, I will post again as things begin to progress.

Derek.

My heart goes out to you, it really does. I can't offer much advice, sorry,
but with the sheer amount of bad luck you have had, surely now the only way is up. You have a clean start now and a woman who obviously loves you. Love conquers all else. All the very best for the future.

DerekW

You know what Bob, the hardest thing was sitting down and telling the OH everything.

When we met I was already in financial meltdown and didn't hide it from her, I just never let her know the details.

As she is so financially savvy, she took it upon herself one day to open all my mail, and she sat in the living room for 8 hours sorting it all out. Obviously I had been burying my head in the sand for so long I had absolutely no idea how much I owed and whom I owed it to. That evening when I got home from work I got a flea in my ear the size of a bloody elephant. She worked out that almost 25% of my debt was in charges (late/ missed payments, over limit charges etc plus my charges from RBS for being over my OD limit and charges plus £36 per letter to let me know I had no money!!!!!). Not that I didn't deserve it, but it was all out in the open and I felt quite relieved by it. We made some decisions and calls and tried to sort out an IVA.

A few weeks later we found out I was going to be made redundant and everything had to be shelved.

I started working again in late July and I started on my DMP immediately I had my contract signed. I started paying nominal amounts to my creditors as advised by CCCS while things were going through, but too much time had worn on and one creditor decided to go for the big push (funnily enough after all their costs I don't think they will see much of the 4k I owe them).

We went to court together and she cried when it was declared I was bankrupt and I felt so small because the woman I love and who had tried to help me so much was hurt by something I had done in the past and that she had absolutely no input into, she had only suffered all the fallout.

We have chatted about it all and are both coming around to the fact that it isn't the end of the world. We have even had the odd giggle about it (I know it is a serious thing but we have had so many arguments and shed so many tears that it doesn't seem worth it any more).

We are where we are now, and we are being realistic about it.

I'm not sure what i would have done without her though.

fiveyearplan

If you haven't already done so, fill in this form and post it here for guidance before your OR interview. You need to make sure you are claiming for all the expenses allowable so you don't end up with an IPA that you can't afford.

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

fiveyearplan

DerekW wrote: »

We have chatted about it all and are both coming around to the fact that it isn't the end of the world. We have even had the odd giggle about it (I know it is a serious thing but we have had so many arguments and shed so many tears that it doesn't seem worth it any more).

We are where we are now, and we are being realistic about it.

I'm not sure what i would have done without her though.

You are so right. There comes a point when you realise debt is just debt and the only thing that truly matters are friends and family and health!

DerekW

Yay!

Finally got through to the OR in Manchester - what a lovely helpful lady.

I did all my prelim stuff with her and she has told me that my Co-Op Bank Account is absolutely fine to keep which is an obvious relief.

I don't have my appt. until January 7th, though this gives me loads of time to go through all the forms and get any additional info that I need.

I feel loads better now - hoop one jumped through successfully!