Sparkysi Bankrupt diary.

sparkysi

22nd August 2006

Had my bankruptcy meeting today. I had prefilled all the forms on line, so printed them off, put the fees in an envelope (£475) and went off to court, in my case, Southampton Combined Court. The nice lady at the counter went through all my paperwork, made a few changes and then we swore the affidavit in.

Once this was done I went straight up to see the District Judge. Was in there for all of 2 minutes an he allowed the petition. Once done I then had to go back to the nice lady on the counter who then drew up the bankruptcy order. This takes about 20 minutes to do so I went of for a coffee, bad move, for your informaion, dont ever drink the coffee in the Southampton Combined Court, its the pits.

I went back and the bankruptcy order was made out. I then had a quick phone call with a lady from the OR's office. This was very straight forward, just confirmation of my bank information, business details and current litigation info. Interestingly, I had one thing wrong, I thought that the OR immediately froze your bank account, this is not the case. Your bank account is entirely controlled by the bank, the OR has to write to them but its th banks choice if you can keep the acount or not.

And thats basically it. The entire process took about an hour and a quarter. Everyone was very pleasant and helpful throughout. I now have to wait to hear from the OR, as I am self employed my interview will be face to face rather than phone. They have up to 8 weeks to notify everyone so I may still get creditor contact but at least I now have something to tell them.

Please note, I am not advocating bankruptcy as an answer to all debt problems. In my case it was the best option. I took advice from many sources, including here and CCCS. No one should do anything without getting professional advice first, and I would definitely recommend talking to CCCS.

Cheers

Simon

Mizz_Pink

Thank-you for sharing!

I'm sure it will be a comfort to some dfw's on here.

bluezone

glad it went ok. the actual court bit I also found to be over quite quickly.

Mike_St_Helens

sparkysi wrote:

22nd August 2006

Had my bankruptcy meeting today. I had prefilled all the forms on line, so printed them off, put the fees in an envelope (£475) and went off to court, in my case, Southampton Combined Court. The nice lady at the counter went through all my paperwork, made a few changes and then we swore the affidavit in.

Once this was done I went straight up to see the District Judge. Was in there for all of 2 minutes an he allowed the petition. Once done I then had to go back to the nice lady on the counter who then drew up the bankruptcy order. This takes about 20 minutes to do so I went of for a coffee, bad move, for your informaion, dont ever drink the coffee in the Southampton Combined Court, its the pits.

I went back and the bankruptcy order was made out. I then had a quick phone call with a lady from the OR's office. This was very straight forward, just confirmation of my bank information, business details and current litigation info. Interestingly, I had one thing wrong, I thought that the OR immediately froze your bank account, this is not the case. Your bank account is entirely controlled by the bank, the OR has to write to them but its th banks choice if you can keep the acount or not.

And thats basically it. The entire process took about an hour and a quarter. Everyone was very pleasant and helpful throughout. I now have to wait to hear from the OR, as I am self employed my interview will be face to face rather than phone. They have up to 8 weeks to notify everyone so I may still get creditor contact but at least I now have something to tell them.

Please note, I am not advocating bankruptcy as an answer to all debt problems. In my case it was the best option. I took advice from many sources, including here and CCCS. No one should do anything without getting professional advice first, and I would definitely recommend talking to CCCS.

Cheers

Simon

Hi Simon,

Thanks for this. I will read your diary with great interest.

Me and my OH are currently preparing to go Bankrupt. Big long story, but again through the help of this site and many other organisations find that it is the way forward for us. Please keep updating your diary to let us khow you get on.

We have a 2 month wait as we save for the fees... Im currently sorting out prepayment for utilities, moving Mort over to repayment etc etc all in preparation for B day.

Do you feel better.... A nice well deserved beer for a stressful day is due I think! I'd join you but im on night duty this week... boooo....

Mike

sparkysi

I hope it helps and lets anyone else know what is going to happen. I was really worried about it as I had no idea what to expect when I went to the court, and theres nothing more worrying than the unknown.

I do feel better, its nice to know that the burden of the debt is now gone. Its a worry as to how life will be from here in, especially as I now have to rebuild my credit again, or at least once I have been discharged I will. The next hurdle is the meeting with the OR. I am hoping the process will be quick as I have no assetts at all so there is little to investigate. We shall see.

Took me a while to save up the fees too. One thing I would suggest is that you try and make an appointment so you have a date to work to. In southampton the wait is about two weeks, but I do know that some courts are far longer than that, well worth a phone call to verify.

Cheers

Simon

sparkysi

A little bit of progress.

I have my meeting with the OR on Wednesday(13th) at 10am. Got my pack and its all pretty straight forward, no big deal so far. They ahve warned me it may take 2~3 hours to conclude but I think this is a rule of thumb for SE people. I think my case is pretty straight forward as its not business debt that has casued me the problems. We shall see.

Also spoke with the Natwest who have told me they will close my step accoun as soon as they get notification from the OR. Had a trawl up the high stret and found that the banks that would offer an account didnt like to open them inbranch and you have to fill in forms and send them off. The only excpetion being Nationwide who opened me an account on the same day with no problems at all. Obviously its a very basic facility but its plenty for me.

Will let you all nkow how wednesday goes.

Cheers

Simon

sarah_skint

thanks simon for your post - I have a meeting tommorrow with a money specialist but it looks like this is my path as well not through the want of trying to clear the debts I have amased. Will look for your posts and good luck with the O.R
Sarah

postingalwaysposting

ohh simon what a great thread :T i will be thinking of you wednesday bankruptcy is a big step for anyone....

Biffa

Simon,

Me & hubby went bankrupt in December last year and were discharged in July this year - best thing we ever did! Have you got a new bank account sorted? If not, speak to the Co-op - they do a basic bank account called Cashminder - you can still have a cash point card and direct debits etc but no cheque book or overdraft.
PM me if you have any questions, but look on it as a new beginning. We've got more money now than we've ever had before, partly becuase I'm on good money through work and because we don't fritter it away anymore!

Good luck

sparkysi

Managed to sort an account ith Nationwide, they were the only ones who would do it in the branch and straight away.

Well I have had my interview with th OR. And I have to say I am not feeling any better for it.

The interview is supposed to take 2~3 hours, mine took an hour, almost to the minute. Now I dont know if this is just because my situation is very straight forward so theres not a lot to talk about, or because the interviewer just didt think she was getting anywhere.

Its all a bit odd really. The interview is basically to go over the statement as submitted to the court. Expand upon it and get some back ground info. I guess its like anytime you spend reflecting on your mistakes. I just spent an hour trying to explain how I got in my situation and its blatantly clear I have wasted a lot of money and made some rubbish choices. Its hard to examine yourself so dispassionately and remain cheerful.

Anywho, I gave them all my tax related documents and an old share certificate I found which is worth about a tenner. Now I just have to wait and see.

Thanks

Simon

sparkysi

Got a letter from the OR, after a few moments papping myself, I opened it up and it was just to confirm that i am allowed to keep all my tools and equipment for work, so thats nice