Post Bancruptcy hassle

wd40_2

Hi All

Just a quick bit of advice if anyone could before I go about giving some people my experience of an IVA then Bankruptcy.

I went Bankrupt in June 2008 and was automatically discharged 12 months later.

First question is should I have got a discharge notification? If so (I didn't) who do I contact to get one? Is it the Insolvency Service or the court?

Secondly. Having not found this forum at the time of discharge, I didn't realise it was a sensible thing to do to write to the creditors and get files changed etc. and enclosing the bankruptcy order and discharge letter.

I'm probably lucky that so far only one of my previous creditors has sold on debt.

Capital one seem to have sold on to Credit Solutions Limited who started writing to me in November 09.

Interestingly enough, they got my surname wrong and the address, but the local postman has been delivering them anyway

I have had about 8 letters so far, firstly demanding payment, then saying they would send someone round, then offering a cheaper settlement, then demanding payment and yesterday one that mentioned payment and potential incurred court costs of £80 and £120.

At first I was happy to ignore the letters, after all it is their mistake and why should I spend my money phoning them to tell them that, plus, if I give them a copy of my bankruptcy order they will have my correct address to visit if they wish and also my correct name.

If by chance they did manage to find my address, I have their letters by the door along with my bankruptcy order to give them.

The bit that bothers me is the last letter mentioning court.

While I guess if I ended up in court there would be nothing to answer as they have got it wrong (and I double checked to make sure that the Capital One account was included in the bankruptcy file), if a summons was served on me I would still have the hassle of having to attend court I guess wouldn't I? Or could I just send a copy of my bankruptcy order, a copy of all their letters and a copy of my bankruptcy petition?

Anyway, that's the brief story, hopefully someone can advise.

Thank you and I have to say, there are some people on here doing a truly wonderful job. Well Done!

fermi

Welcome.

If you get automatic discharge, then they don't write to you.

You could ask your OR to write you a letter confirming discharge. Otherwise you will have to get a certificate from the court which costs £60; free though if you are exempt from paying court fees due do benefits/income.

If Credit Solutions go to court then you would just put in a defence that the debt is covered by the bankruptcy. If they then have any sense, they would discontinue the court action.

It might be worth telling them of the BR. These companies like to threaten to send someone, but very rarely do it. It's normally just a threat used to panic debtors into calling them up. If anyone did turn up, you just tell them to "get lost" and/or send them away with a copy of the BR order.

Have you checked your credit reference files yet?

fiveyearplan

In the unlikely event you do receive county court papers do not ignore them. Send back the Acknowledgment saying you are going to defend - your BR being the defense. Do NOT rely on the creditor to do this for you (ie don't just phone them and explain and rely on them to withdraw action or you most likely will get a CCJ).

wd40_2

Cheers folks.

That helps.

I shall await their action, but also intend to write to all the creditors with a copy of the BO as per the link in the stickies to ensure they take the appropriate action to rectify my credit file.

Cheers