Bankruptcy Timeline

davebrown

Can anyone tell me how long it usually from the time of submitting an application for bankruptcy to the time it would be in effect ?

One thing I dont understand is when the bank accounts are frozen, how do I have access to any of my income, E.g. what happens if I urgently need to take 20 pounds out to buy the kids a treat, Do I have to run this request by the official receiver first ?

Thanks,

Dave.

Debt_Free_Chick

First ... OPEN A NEW BASIC BANK ACCOUNT NOW!!!

Details here

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/public/bank_account.pdf

Get your salary paid in here (if necessary) and transfer all DDs & SOs for essential bills e.g. electricity, gas, water, council tax to this new account.

Going Bankrupt
You complete the necessary form (the Petition) - the staff at the local court can help you complete them, if you need help, or contact the National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

You then lodge your Petition with the Court and pay the fees. You need to look in the Phone Book for Courts, Civil Courts, County Court. If you are in London, you may need to go to the High Court instead.

The Court may hear your Petition straight away or you may have to book an appointment. You normally have a brief appearance in front of the Judge. After this, you book an appointment with the Official Receiver ... how long to wait? Depends on the backlog in your area, but normally not very long. Sometimes you can see the OR straight away!

There's a good guide here

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/pdfs/howtopetition.pdf

but contact the National Debtline if you need specific help.

Good luck

louise1234_2

Why would you urgently need to buy a treat for your kids??

If you are going bankrupt, surely you must realise you cannot afford treats.

I'm sure they understand you need to eat, cover housing & utilities,, but expecting to go bankrupt & have money for treats really is a bit much...

You are hoping for your debts to be written off (ie covered by banks who pass cost onto other customers) and still expect money for treats!

I'm not wanting to be rude, but your attitude to money really annoys me.

loobyloo1980

louise1234 wrote:

Why would you urgently need to buy a treat for your kids??

If you are going bankrupt, surely you must realise you cannot afford treats.

I'm sure they understand you need to eat, cover housing & utilities,, but expecting to go bankrupt & have money for treats really is a bit much...

You are hoping for your debts to be written off (ie covered by banks who pass cost onto other customers) and still expect money for treats!

I'm not wanting to be rude, but your attitude to money really annoys me.

This will annoy you more then. My boyf's parents went bankrupt in November 2003 as their circumstances had been in decline for years. The final straw came when his mother who had by this time been on incapacity benefit for 7 years with a catalogue of serious medical problems started to worsen and his father who was a taxi driver kept having to leave work to tend to her, hence the wages getting less and less.

They had debts of water bills, council tax, as well as door to door loans and other things. The water bill alone was over £4k (how long they must have been avoiding paying is beyond me for it to reach that). Anyway, they successfully went bankrupt.

BUT, they did not declare a particular door to door loan account and immediately they went bankrupt and the people had been round to assess their property and belongings (avoided having anything like TV removed by saying was grandparents, and they only rented council house) they took out a bumper loan to have Xmas on. They bought a PC, 3 new mobile phones, digital camera, and loads of things for the rest of the family too. Loads of clothes and shoes, takeaways every weekend when we went round for tea (we would have preferred beans on toast to be honest).

They continued smoking and spending over £100 on fags throughout bankruptcy and after too. Then they were informed that the some of the debt wasn't covered under bankruptcy and they would need to pay it themselves, which then landed them back in a mess. They obvioulsy never learnt anything from bankruptcy. I was annoyed as I am paying mine off bit by bit, and they were moaning when most of theirs had been written off.

davebrown

louise1234 wrote:

Why would you urgently need to buy a treat for your kids??

If you are going bankrupt, surely you must realise you cannot afford treats.

I'm sure they understand you need to eat, cover housing & utilities,, but expecting to go bankrupt & have money for treats really is a bit much...

You are hoping for your debts to be written off (ie covered by banks who pass cost onto other customers) and still expect money for treats!

I'm not wanting to be rude, but your attitude to money really annoys me.

Well that certainly comes across rude, Since you take offence so easily to something completely unrelated to you, I dont give two hoots if it annoys you or not, and i'm quite sure nobody else on this board would benefit from knowing it annoyed you.

Birthdays, snacks for school dinners, times the kids get invited to someones birthday party, times like these are to what i'm referring. Obviously I know I would not have free reign of my money to spend willynilly, but there are times when unexpected costs occur. I used the kids as an example, they always seem to need something ;-).
:eek:

loobyloo1980

davebrown wrote:

Well that certainly comes across rude, Since you take offence so easily to something completely unrelated to you, I dont give two hoots if it annoys you or not, and i'm quite sure nobody else on this board would benefit from knowing it annoyed you.

Birthdays, snacks for school dinners, times the kids get invited to someones birthday party, times like these are to what i'm referring. Obviously I know I would not have free reign of my money to spend willynilly, but there are times when unexpected costs occur. I used the kids as an example, they always seem to need something ;-).
:eek:

I understand where you are coming from, I find it very hard to get through a month without having something child-related to spend money on, even if it is just an icecream. I think once the bankruptcy people have been and done their stuff, and you have been assessed whether you can make a contribution to the debts etc, your money will be yours to do what you want with. I think if you suddenly won the lottery or something you would have to pay them off, but other than that once its done its done. You can get your basic account and even £250 credit (although no one on here would be advising that after bankruptcy I'm sure). I think you may just have to sit tight a little while they do their assessments. I'm sure if your child had a birthday party you would be able to sneak it onto your shopping bill - oyu have to eat whether going bankrupt or not ;-)

normski_2

Sorry that some of the posts have been less than helpful. When you are made bankrupt you usually speak to the Official Receiver on the telephone, advise him of your bank accounts, and he then 'freezes' them immeadiately.

Whilst histiorically your accounts were frozen and then the balance was taken by the Official Receiver I beleive that it now more common for bankrupt's to be allowed to continue to use current accounts with small credit balances.

You may want to take out some 'extra' cash just before making yourself bankrupt to cover any small short term emergencies.

Regards

Normski

davebrown

Thanks All for the advice..

Debt_Free_Chick

Dave

I had missed the bit about treats, sorry.

You will need to present the OR with a budget of your necessary living expenses. I believe you may be allowed a modest amount for child-related expenses, but I'm not sure that they would fall into the category of "treats". Expected expenses, yes - and possibly an amount for your children's birthday present. But you will be expected to budget an amount every month and save up for this.

You need to understand that you must seriously change your spending habits ... if you have been generous with presents in the past, that is going to change as the OR will not allow extravagance in your budget. Remember, that the OR is going to take some of your income for up to 12 months in order to pay something towards your debts, so you will HAVE to stick to your new budget - you won't be able to get credit (debt, as I prefer to call it).

The only other option for "treats" is to make a cutback in the budget somewhere else e.g. food. So, if you need £20 for a treat, you'll need to spend £20 less on food, or wherever you decide to make the cutback.

Your lives are going to change quite dramatically. You will have a rigid budget, you will have to stick to it and you are all going to have to go without things you might have had in the past. Especially if those things were funded by running up debts.

Debts are only caused by one thing .... spending more money than you have, because you've been able to get credit. You won't have that option for a long time to come.

You need to prepare everyone in your family for this if you are going bankrupt.

Good luck, though

Jumanji_2

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

you won't be able to get credit (debt, as I prefer to call it).

I've started calling it that as well. I've always thought that the word credit sounds positive like something you already have, not something someone is lending you!

Jumanji_2

Dave,

My partner and I are currently getting the money together and filling out the paperwork to apply for bankruptcy. Maybe we could keep each other up to date, and just give updates as to how we're getting on. At least that way we don't feel like the only people who are going through it!

Good luck

Jumanji