The Bankruptcy Club & Supporters Club

Richard_S

dabble wrote:

This club is so supportive - it is really helping me a lot to read of other experiences - it definitely makes this all something I can deal with. Thank you.

Having had a wonderful VAT lady visit this week who advised that perhaps the best move would be to dissolve the business as well as go BR and start with a fully clean sheet, and putting into perspective that I am not cheating anyone, that I did the best I could, and that if I had been better advised a long time ago, some of the debts would not even be there (though I know it is my responsibility when it comes down to it), I think this is going to be the most sensible. My health is not getting any better and I want to stop the anti-depressants as soon as I can, not increase the dosage (which it feels like I need to do - but keeping calm). Anyway...

We've worked out our SOA and I just need to get on and sell what I can on eBay to raise the 2 lots of fees needed. I'd like to get it done this month, but that is pushing it, though I do have some work still to be paid for (now there's another tale - cashflow, cashflow, cashflow!). So that is the priority just now - a very weird feeling - that this could be dealt with by Easter and we could actually have a family life (I won't say again, as we've been battling with debt since the children were born anyway - they're 6 and 3).

So - hope to get through to the Business Debtline today to ask them a few things - like what will happen to the business rates that are unpaid (will the landlord have to then pay - who happens to be family, so really don't want that), what will happen to anything owed to Inland Revenue, and things like that.

We've included a holiday fund in the SOA - that would be nice - once we get past the stigma of being/going BR, we will actually have a hugely better quality of life, and not just with the stress being alleviated.

Thinking of you all - and thank you again.

Dabble
Member 30

Hi Dabble,

We had a very similar situation to yours that came to a head at the beginning of last year resulting in our bankruptcy in June 06. We had stuck with a business that had started really well and then gone slowly downhill culminating in disastrous Christmas sales in 2005. All our available funds went into subsidising the business and we found ourselves using credit just to live on.

It was a property company that petitioned for our bankruptcy so we didn’t have to save for the fees but we did do everything we could to avoid BKY. We have lost everything, house, business, cars, investments etc and were lucky enough to find acceptable rented accommodation before the house was repossessed.

It’s been an absolute roller coaster of emotions and we’re not due to be discharged until next year so the question of BRU’s, BRO’s and IPA’s has yet to be resolved but on balance we do feel as though we’re in a position to put our lives back on an even keel. It’s going to be a long hard slog and we’re well into our forties and that doesn’t help, but we have got rid of that ever present nagging debt which is a huge relief. We managed to get away for three separate weeks holidays last year, allbeit on a slim budget, and being able to get away and look at things more objectively was vital to maintaining our sanity.

This forum has been a godsend over the last 6 months or so, and I hope that you’ll get through the next few months and emerge relatively unscathed with a new start in front of you. It’s not just the information on here it’s that feeling of not being on your own and being able to swap the odd humorous anecdote; probably more like black humour at times. We started visiting this site about the time that Mike St Helens opened this thread and together with Rog2 we went through the mill about the same time as each other.

Wishing you all the best for the future,

Richard

jbaugh

hi

i have looked at a DMP but we dont have the 100 pounds pm for that .....i had my first nasty letter this morning saying that they will not feeze intrest that the charges for late paments ect were as follows and my off er was unacceptable lol...they are going to love me when i now turn round and tell them actually i cant afford that now....if i dont laugh ill cry
ty for your suportive replies

Brokeandbothered

jbaugh wrote:

hi

i have looked at a DMP but we dont have the 100 pounds pm for that .....i had my first nasty letter this morning saying that they will not feeze intrest that the charges for late paments ect were as follows and my off er was unacceptable lol...they are going to love me when i now turn round and tell them actually i cant afford that now....if i dont laugh ill cry
ty for your suportive replies

Aren't the letters creditors send great? So helpful! I tried to make payment arrangements with some of my creditors over the phone. They told me they could only make an arrangement if I paid them there and then over the phone. I said I had no money and so they said fine - no arrangement! They wouldn't even wait 10 days for the cash. It's like they think you are just stashing the money away and having a ball - morons! :mad:

Whoops_Apololypse

Can someone please advise us on whether or not we sould write to our credit card companies. We'll explain - we knew we'd have to go bankrupt after seeking advice. As advised we stopped paying our cc payments in October/November last year. We have caller ID so we are successfully avoiding the many phone calls from them and we now have a lever arch file full of letters from them. One cc has now resorted to sending a postcard stating that someone will be coming to our home? Does this actually happen? Anyway, we also have to loose our house and are going to stop paying the mortgage next week. Then file for bankruptcy once we have saved up the two fees that we need. It's all coming to a head now and expect to be bankrupt in 2-3 months. Should we sit tight with no contact with the cc providers or should we make our first contact with them now? They are all closing accounts and filing for legal action now. How will this affect us and do we have 2-3 months left before it gets really nasty with the cc providers?

I hope this makes sense?

skylight

Whoops - I wouldn't bother making contact. They wont believe you anyway. Hundreds of people tell them this on an hourly basis and most of them are lying anyway.

I have had lots of postcards and one visit (from someone who hadn't sent a postcard). *If* they do turn up, they have no powers at all. Dont let them in and tell them through the letterbox to Burger Off.

Are you sure that you will lose the house? Its not always the case, but non payment of mortgage will not help you keep it.

Whoops_Apololypse

charlotte664 wrote:

Whoops - I wouldn't bother making contact. They wont believe you anyway. Hundreds of people tell them this on an hourly basis and most of them are lying anyway.

I have had lots of postcards and one visit (from someone who hadn't sent a postcard). *If* they do turn up, they have no powers at all. Dont let them in and tell them through the letterbox to Burger Off.

Are you sure that you will lose the house? Its not always the case, but non payment of mortgage will not help you keep it.

Thanks for this - we won't make contact with them then - it's one less thing to do. We'll certainly send anyone away with a flee in their ear! We spent 5 hours at the CAB whilst they deliberated over our situation. The problem is we have extreme secured debt. We were badly advised and we've ended up with a mortage repayment of £850pm on £160K and 2 secured loans of £1030pm and £250pm on £170k worth of loans. The house is only worth £220K. These are absolutely crippling us. On top of this we have £50K work of cc debt. We actually have around £110k negative equity once the house is repossessed - so it gets worse.

tight_jock

Whoops_Apololypse wrote:

Can someone please advise us on whether or not we sould write to our credit card companies. We'll explain - we knew we'd have to go bankrupt after seeking advice. As advised we stopped paying our cc payments in October/November last year. We have caller ID so we are successfully avoiding the many phone calls from them and we now have a lever arch file full of letters from them. One cc has now resorted to sending a postcard stating that someone will be coming to our home? Does this actually happen? Anyway, we also have to loose our house and are going to stop paying the mortgage next week. Then file for bankruptcy once we have saved up the two fees that we need. It's all coming to a head now and expect to be bankrupt in 2-3 months. Should we sit tight with no contact with the cc providers or should we make our first contact with them now? They are all closing accounts and filing for legal action now. How will this affect us and do we have 2-3 months left before it gets really nasty with the cc providers?

I hope this makes sense?

If you are using any of the agencies to help you throug this then I would let them have copies of all this type of correspondence. Also make notes of date and time of phone calls so that you will be able to use them when you complain about the harassment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoops_Apololypse

tight_jock wrote:

If you are using any of the agencies to help you throug this then I would let them have copies of all this type of correspondence. Also make notes of date and time of phone calls so that you will be able to use them when you complain about the harassment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The CAB weren't very interested when we showed them our file full of letters. Should the CAB have been more interested in our letters? We'll defo will start making notes of whose ringing and when.

Richard_S

Whoops_Apololypse wrote:

The CAB weren't very interested when we showed them our file full of letters. Should the CAB have been more interested in our letters? We'll defo will start making notes of whose ringing and when.

Hi Whoops,

We were in a similar situation with house, secured loans and credit cards, mainly due to trying to turn a loss making business around. When we were at the stage you're at now we just "battoned down the hatches" ignored the phone (unless one of us felt argumentative) dumped the post, stopped paying anybody and everybody, with the exception of utilities and food, and waited for the whole mess to implode / explode.

We found that CCCS were worth talking to, if only for reassurance, and they also recommend talking to their sister charity for small businesses, can't remember the name but I''m sure they'll mention it if you have business interests.

Apologies for such a short post and I'll watch out for you tomorrow and over the weekend. I guess the most important thing we can say is:

"stay calm, stay focused, believe that you will get over this, don't run out of alcohol and very quickly you'll be looking back at this thinking, why did we worry so much?"

All the very best wishes for the future,

Rich & Jane xx

tight_jock

If the CAB have agreed to help you then I am surprised that they do not want this correspondence for their files.

Our advisor told us to send copies of everything to her so that she knew exactly what was going on. On this basis she wrote 6 letters of complaint to variuos companies for harassment and got apologies for us from all of them.

Maybe we were just very lucky that we got an advisor who cared as well as doing a job?