Bankruptcy Petition Received - Mixed Emotion

rog2

I have, today, received my creditor's petition, from HMRC, for bankruptcy. I was expecting it, having already received a statutory demand, and am not looking for sympathy.
However, I must confess that I have mixed emotions over the issue - partly relief, but a lot of sadness in that this is a situation that I tried my hardest to avoid.
I am off to CAB for some guidance, this afternoon, but would welcome any input from anyone in a similar situation.
As I have been petitioned by one of my creditors, how will this affect my dealings with my other creditors?
Should I inform them, and how?
Will all other debts be taken into account at the hearing?
The hearing is at the Royal Courts of Justice, in London. Can I apply for it to be moved to a local court?
Obviously, I am also worried about losing my house, etc and I will be discussing this with CAB.
I am sure that I will have a million more questions, and have seen, during my time on this forum, that there is a lot of good advice, so any help appreciated.
Thanks.

Mike_St_Helens

Hi Rog,

Hope you are well. Im in the same boat mate but Im petitioning for myself.

Here is a good forum where people know the ins and outs in detail.

http://www.debtquestions.co.uk/debt_forum/

Mike

file_wizzard

rog2 wrote:

As I have been petitioned by one of my creditors, how will this affect my dealings with my other creditors?.

If the petition is successful then all creditors will receive the same treatment from the OR, just because a specific creditor submits the petition this will not give them preferential treatment over and above any of your other creditors.

rog2 wrote:

Should I inform them, and how?

technically yes, although he OR will contact all on your behalf if it gets to that stage.

rog2 wrote:

Will all other debts be taken into account at the hearing?

yes, excluding any Inland revenue or other "Crown" debts.

rog2 wrote:

The hearing is at the Royal Courts of Justice, in London. Can I apply for it to be moved to a local court??

Yes

Best of luck with the CAB, if you have any further specific questions feel free to ask on here or PM me and If I don’t know I will do my best to point you in the direction of someone who will

rog2

Mike_St_Helens wrote:

Hi Rog,

Hope you are well. Im in the same boat mate but Im petitioning for myself.

Here is a good forum where people know the ins and outs in detail.

http://www.debtquestions.co.uk/debt_forum/

Mike

Thanks Mike - I was following your BR diary and picked up some good advice, but it seems to have dropped off recently.
Anyway, went to CAB yesterday, very helpfull, but the chap I saw freely admitted that he was more used to dealing with people who were petitioning for themselves, rather than the other way round. He did, however, give me lots of excellent advice, but suggested I best speak to a solicitor.
I am now trying to get a 'free half hour' but living in the sticks, there are very few solicitors about. CAB gave me their total list, of which only 2 give this service.
Never mind, I feel a lot happier since speaking with CAB, and I am going to have a look at the debtquestions forum now. Cheers.

Mike_St_Helens

rog2 wrote:

Thanks Mike - I was following your BR diary and picked up some good advice, but it seems to have dropped off recently.
Anyway, went to CAB yesterday, very helpfull, but the chap I saw freely admitted that he was more used to dealing with people who were petitioning for themselves, rather than the other way round. He did, however, give me lots of excellent advice, but suggested I best speak to a solicitor.
I am now trying to get a 'free half hour' but living in the sticks, there are very few solicitors about. CAB gave me their total list, of which only 2 give this service.
Never mind, I feel a lot happier since speaking with CAB, and I am going to have a look at the debtquestions forum now. Cheers.

I know, I should update it. There isnt much happening at the moment mind, we are simply trying to save up so we have as much hard cash as possible before the big day. It took a day to get all the creditors with balances and details all togather ! I will update it when there is anything worthwhile putting on it... No infact Ill do it now... Thanks...

Here is a great site that offers professional advice, and Im sure you can call them and ask to speak to someone professionally..

http://myvesta.org.uk/faq/faq_bankruptcy_uk.html#

There are some good educational videos here also.

PM at any time rog, we are not in this alone mate !

Richard_S

Hi Rog & Mike,
You're certainly not on your own, our bankruptcy was as a result of a creditor's petition, we had a meeting with OR at the beginning of August. After almost 6 hours he informed us that we would need to be interviewed by a more senior colleage because he was concerned about whether we had behaved appropriately in the months leading to our bankruptcy; still not heard anything.

It's laughable really, this new legislation was introduced to make it easier for "entrepreneurs" to get back into business when things had gone wrong. Our bankruptcy was more business than personal and we would like to commence trading again but don't feel as though we can until we have some idea of when we'll be discharged.

Good luck to you both, I still feel confident that we'll be looking back in a year and thinking we did the right thing.

Rich

rog2

Richard_S wrote:

Hi Rog & Mike,
It's laughable really, this new legislation was introduced to make it easier for "entrepreneurs" to get back into business when things had gone wrong. Our bankruptcy was more business than personal and we would like to commence trading again but don't feel as though we can until we have some idea of when we'll be discharged.
Rich

Thanks for your support Rich. I expect, as my BR is also mainly business related (as indeed Mike's) that mine will not run smoothy either. I can only imagine that, if you have heard no different at the end of 12 months, then you should automatically receive your discharge. Hopefully someone can give more accurate advice.
Rog2

Richard_S

Hi Rog,

I'm hopeful that the OR's office is so busy that they don't have time to go raking over the details of every transaction for the last two years. He said that they might want to go even further back than that, don't know if that was a scare tactic. The problem, is when you're running a business you're that busy that you don't always have time to keep 100% accurate records.

There were some funny moments during the interview though. My OH is a flirty forty year old babe and she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, showing just a hint of stocking top and the poor guy could hardly concentrate at times. She really didn't want to be there and kept referring all questions to me because she "had absolutely no interest in finance or accountany".

Our house was security for a business loan and we knew that we would have to move out at some point and were genuinely concerned about whether we would be able to rent a property with our bankruptcy status. I contacted all the local estate agents and some would not even consider us but we were fortunate that one agent was happy to refer the decision to the landlord and advised that we wrote an accompanying letter explaining our situation; we picked the keys up last week.

Same with opening a bank account, we expected big problems but Nationwide opened us a basic account while we were in the local branch.

As things stand at the moment once we can get past this threatened second meeting we'll be happy that things worked out the way they did. We had over £250k of debt and servicing that was taking a real toll on us, but then you wake up the day after the bankruptcy and "wow" £0 debt.

We were also concerned about the embarrassment of the notice appearing in the local paper; we live in a small village and people love to stick the knife in, but again nobody has even mentioned it to us.

Have had quite a bit of experience of the procedure so anything you want to know just ask, PM me if you'd find it embarrassing to post on the thread. We had a week's holiday after the interview and we felt like teenagers again with all the debt worries and problems behind us. There weren't many 40yr olds frolicking in the sea at sunset but we were one of them; big boost to our personal lives.

All the best,

Rich

rog2

file_wizzard wrote:

Best of luck with the CAB, if you have any further specific questions feel free to ask on here or PM me and If I don’t know I will do my best to point you in the direction of someone who will

Thanks F_W, It was, as I mentioned above, a reasonable meeting with CAB. Their advice was, of course, good, but they did say that they were not used to dealing with BR cases that had been brought by creditors - that is, probably because we are in quite a rural area - and have suggested that I discuss the situation with a solicitor.

However, they seemed quite convinced that I would not be able to change the court, as, in their opinion, this is the favoured court used by HMRC.
Just seems a bit 'grandiose' - The Royal Courts of Justice, in the Strand - for a £60k BR.

The other point, on which they were quite convinced, was that HMRC would insist that I sell my equity in the house. I have three children, over the age of 18, currently living at home (although one is away at uni). Does their presence affect my 'equity' in the house? I am a bit confused over this.

Mike_St_Helens

Richard_S wrote:

Hi Rog,

I'm hopeful that the OR's office is so busy that they don't have time to go raking over the details of every transaction for the last two years. He said that they might want to go even further back than that, don't know if that was a scare tactic. The problem, is when you're running a business you're that busy that you don't always have time to keep 100% accurate records.

There were some funny moments during the interview though. My OH is a flirty forty year old babe and she kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, showing just a hint of stocking top and the poor guy could hardly concentrate at times. She really didn't want to be there and kept referring all questions to me because she "had absolutely no interest in finance or accountany".

Our house was security for a business loan and we knew that we would have to move out at some point and were genuinely concerned about whether we would be able to rent a property with our bankruptcy status. I contacted all the local estate agents and some would not even consider us but we were fortunate that one agent was happy to refer the decision to the landlord and advised that we wrote an accompanying letter explaining our situation; we picked the keys up last week.

Same with opening a bank account, we expected big problems but Nationwide opened us a basic account while we were in the local branch.

As things stand at the moment once we can get past this threatened second meeting we'll be happy that things worked out the way they did. We had over £250k of debt and servicing that was taking a real toll on us, but then you wake up the day after the bankruptcy and "wow" £0 debt.

We were also concerned about the embarrassment of the notice appearing in the local paper; we live in a small village and people love to stick the knife in, but again nobody has even mentioned it to us.

Have had quite a bit of experience of the procedure so anything you want to know just ask, PM me if you'd find it embarrassing to post on the thread. We had a week's holiday after the interview and we felt like teenagers again with all the debt worries and problems behind us. There weren't many 40yr olds frolicking in the sea at sunset but we were one of them; big boost to our personal lives.

All the best,

Rich

Thanks Rich, Just shows you that its not the end of the world. Its sometimes for the best.

Things look brighter every day !

Richard_S

rog2 wrote:

The other point, on which they were quite convinced, was that HMRC would insist that I sell my equity in the house. I have three children, over the age of 18, currently living at home (although one is away at uni). Does their presence affect my 'equity' in the house? I am a bit confused over this.

Hi Rog,

Equitable interest in a property does get involved and it is affected by children being resident in the house although I think this only relates to the time scale you're allowed to sell the property. If any of the children were contributing to the mortgage that could work in your favour. Do you have a wife or partner who has a legal claim on the property or is named on the mortgage?

You could try speaking to one of the charitable agencies such as CCCS or National Debt Line and failing that I would go and see a solicitor. It's got to be worth paying for an hour of their time to make sure you're fully informed; they might even be able to suggest something that the OR wouldn't have considered. We used a solicitor and were able to claim legal aid.

If you do end up having to sell the house to release the equity and there's not going to be anything left after the OR has taken their share you might consider not paying the mortgage and putting the money away for the future. It'll p**s the bank or building society off but you don't really need to stay in their good books at this point.

Rich