We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

Three months left -- what to expect?

People used to say that one of the great things about going bankrupt is that you don't have to worry about getting letters in the post any more. Well, since the changes to the IPA rules, I worry about getting a letter every single day and I've still got three months to go before AD.

What can I expect to happen in that three months? Is it possible I'll never hear from the OR again? I've heard you get a letter about the OR being released as trustee. When might that happen? Say they decided to go for an IPA, how long would that take? In other words, how close to AD can you get before you can be pretty confident you're not going to get an IPA? Someone mentioned in another thread AD being suspended. Does that happen a lot?

I don't want to call my OR as I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie, but it's unsettling not knowing what is going on or what might happen and, as I say, since they changed the rules it's now something that's often on my mind.

Comments

  • Angiepange
    Angiepange Posts: 3,521 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Can't answer all your questions, sorry, but with us all was quiet until 6/7 weeks pre AD. Then my DH received a new IPOQ to fill in and return (I didn't get one as Im not working). Sent this back, nothing had really changed income wise for us and we were never contacted again. The next correspondence we received was just after AD in response to an email I sent them asking for a confirmation of discharge letter. We never received any letter about the OR being released as trustee.

    If I was you I would continue to let sleeping dogs lie ;)
  • Wolfers

    I had my letter from the OR saying they were relasing trustee ages ago (no later than start of January) - and i went BR around the same time as you. It may not come at all now
  • MTDancer
    MTDancer Posts: 244 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    I await letters with dread too. Our file went to a trustee who has asked for monthly I&E reports but nothing else. My OH is self employed and we have not been told when his income will be assessed. I have a car and have never been told that I can keep it. I want to phone to ask if we can keep the equivalent of a months wages in the bank as income is so up and down but I don't want to rock the boat. It is just another form of anxiety. I envy the people who can just settle into the bankruptcy and feel the worries slip away. Obviously I am no longer worried about the debt but the feeling of being watched and scrutinized all the time is quite disturbing too.
    Building a new life after bankruptcy
  • wolfers
    wolfers Posts: 246 Forumite
    MTDancer wrote: »
    I await letters with dread too. Our file went to a trustee who has asked for monthly I&E reports but nothing else. My OH is self employed and we have not been told when his income will be assessed. I have a car and have never been told that I can keep it. I want to phone to ask if we can keep the equivalent of a months wages in the bank as income is so up and down but I don't want to rock the boat. It is just another form of anxiety. I envy the people who can just settle into the bankruptcy and feel the worries slip away. Obviously I am no longer worried about the debt but the feeling of being watched and scrutinized all the time is quite disturbing too.

    It's weirdly reassuring that I'm not the only one. I was thinking about all this this morning after I started the thread and I realised that it's actually really holding me back. I very much feel like my whole life is on hold and that I won't be released until I'm discharged. I find myself barely motivated to do anything positive. I'd say I was borderline depressed about it all, in fact.
  • MTDancer wrote: »
    .. Obviously I am no longer worried about the debt but the feeling of being watched and scrutinized all the time is quite disturbing too.
    Thanks for describing what I haven't been able to put my finger on, although I was lucky enough to get ed - I'm still looking forward to my end of year - I've got that feeling stuck in my head so it's only now the full year is approaching I'm feeling a really deep relief, either that it's taking that long to sink in! :D
    FWIW - I still don't like getting letters of any sort and get a bit twitchy about the phone ringing... even though I know better now :) so you're not the only one....
    lbm
  • Angiepange
    Angiepange Posts: 3,521 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    wolfers wrote: »
    It's weirdly reassuring that I'm not the only one. I was thinking about all this this morning after I started the thread and I realised that it's actually really holding me back. I very much feel like my whole life is on hold and that I won't be released until I'm discharged. I find myself barely motivated to do anything positive. I'd say I was borderline depressed about it all, in fact.

    I felt like this throughout the whole 12 months. Every time I got post I expected a letter from the OR and when I did get one I would shake like a leaf opening it :o:( I hated the feeling of someone else having control over my life.

    However once I had AD I really did start to relax and begin to think more positively to the future. I felt as though I could start putting it all behind me :) Hopefully Wolfers, come your AD, you will too.
  • MTDancer
    MTDancer Posts: 244 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    Wolfers, despite the way I feel I do feel more positive than I did when I first did the deed! Almost 3 months in and i see a small glimmer at the end of the tunnel. Anytime it gets too much just email me for support
    Building a new life after bankruptcy
  • ~BB~
    ~BB~ Posts: 60 Forumite
    MTDancer wrote: »
    I await letters with dread too. Our file went to a trustee who has asked for monthly I&E reports but nothing else. My OH is self employed and we have not been told when his income will be assessed. I have a car and have never been told that I can keep it. I want to phone to ask if we can keep the equivalent of a months wages in the bank as income is so up and down but I don't want to rock the boat. It is just another form of anxiety. I envy the people who can just settle into the bankruptcy and feel the worries slip away. Obviously I am no longer worried about the debt but the feeling of being watched and scrutinized all the time is quite disturbing too.

    Hi guys,
    This is exactly like I feel! Glad I'm not the only one, as people on here seem to regard you as being a bit of a woose feeling like this, like 'just grow up and get on with it!'.
    I'm having an awful time and don't feel like I can breathe until the year is up and then the two years after that for the dreaded IPA!
    I shouldn't really have had one but I was just too scared not to agree to one! The not wanting to rock the boat thing again!
    If only I had known then that they look over your shoulder for three years instead of just the one with an IPA I would never have agreed!
    I've had some really bad advice through all of this, not from this site but from the CAB etc, made it sound so easy, and didn't make me aware of all the consequences and lots of other things I have found out on here! It's far from easy!
    I'm finding it takes as much of a toll on my mental health as the debt did! Roll on the next two and a half years!!!!!!!!!!!!:(
  • WLITC
    WLITC Posts: 1,029 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    wolfers wrote: »
    People used to say that one of the great things about going bankrupt is that you don't have to worry about getting letters in the post any more. Well, since the changes to the IPA rules, I worry about getting a letter every single day and I've still got three months to go before AD.

    What can I expect to happen in that three months? Is it possible I'll never hear from the OR again? I've heard you get a letter about the OR being released as trustee. When might that happen? Say they decided to go for an IPA, how long would that take? In other words, how close to AD can you get before you can be pretty confident you're not going to get an IPA? Someone mentioned in another thread AD being suspended. Does that happen a lot?

    I don't want to call my OR as I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie, but it's unsettling not knowing what is going on or what might happen and, as I say, since they changed the rules it's now something that's often on my mind.
    This sounds exactly like what I went through. I'd finally calmed down after worrying for months about a possible letter from the OR and then they annouced the rule change and that set me off again and I was convinced that the OR's would decide to reccess everyone under the new rules, etc... of course it never happened. There was a suggestion from one poster that they were going to automatically send everyone an IPOQ just prior to discharge, but that seems to have turned out to be mis-information. If your BR was fairly straight forward and your not self employed then I suspect you won't hear from the OR again. I went BR last March and had just one email from the OR asking one or two questions and that was it, not a peep or letter since (was auto discharged Saturday).

    I know its hard to do, but try to relax. I installed a free app on my phone that counted down the days and once it got to less than 99 I started to feel much better. Also, from what BB&B has posted in the past, if you have been contacted (i.e sent an IPOQ) within several weeks of your AD date then its unlikely to happen as they simply wouldn't have time to process it. So in my mind, once I was about 8 weeks from AD I semi confident I was in the clear .. still didn't stop me wanting the day to arrive any quicker tho. :rotfl:
  • Ineedaname
    Ineedaname Posts: 3,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    ~BB~ wrote: »
    I'm finding it takes as much of a toll on my mental health as the debt did! Roll on the next two and a half years!!!!!!!!!!!!:(

    That's one of the reasons I didn't go BR and ran a DMP for nearly 5 years instead. I knew my health wouldn't survive the added stress. Now I'm wishing I'd done it a year ago as my health has improved to the point where I may end up back at work before AD and consequently get an IPA. :cry:

    Alternatively, being BR may negatively affect my health enough to prevent me returning to work so soon, who knows... (and that's meant genuinely, not as an 'avoid IPA' clause)
    When I joined, I needed a name. The forum members gave one to me...I am INAN :D
    "Fortunes ebb and flow and a boat must move with the tide and be thankful that it floats." Judith Allnatt
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 354.8K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 247.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 604.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.6K Life & Family
  • 262.1K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.