My bankruptcy Story - It's not as scary as you think.

Freshly_ground

Hi there.

Just though i'd share my experience of my bankruptcy as I know when I was going through it all it was good to read other peoples accounts of how it all panned out.

As it stands today I'm now discharged and have been since mid March. My grief all happened over the space of about 3 years culminating in bankruptcy

It all started for me when the so called credit crunch hit the banks. I had run a successful business as a sole trader for the past few years and all was good.

Then a few firms I used to subcontract to went bust owning me lots of money - not a problem as the business had quite a sizable overdraft available to see us through it all.

Until HSBC got rattled by the credit crunch and decided to reduce the overdraft overnight inline with deposits. Basically making me insolvent overnight. No other banks would step in either

Creditors couldn't be paid on time, materials accounts were put on stop and fuel cards were maxed out in no time - things started to fall apart rapidly just by the very act of trying to run a cash hungry business on a shoe string - perversely business was absolutely booming!

An IVA was sought to put tings back on an even keel but one trade creditor that tipped the balance and would under no circumstances negotiate - any debt over £750 they will attempt to bankrupt you for the day it is late. The IVA failed despite having a far better return than bankruptcy.

I had to attend court 4 times in pretty short order to get winding up orders set aside - to be fair to the judges they were really good and threw out each winding up order as they said it was clear I was dealing with the situation in a way that would benefit my creditors.

By now things were looking decidedly ropey on the home front. Constant phone calls and process servers show up at my house was starting to upset the Mrs big time!

Bankrputcy was not an option as I'd loose the house i'd worked so hard to build quite a sizable equity stake in. And besides that it scared the life out of me - I had visions of men with clip boards taking control of my life and leaving me with just the clothes I was standing in.

Then out of the blue one day whilst on a job I got a phone call from the Official Receiver asking me to come in to discuss my previous weeks bankruptcy.....!

Yikes how did that happen without me knowing about it? By this time I was so worn out with fighting against the tide I just accepted my fate and went under.

Interview was had with OR - She was pretty chilled and re-assured me I would not be turfed out of my house or stripped of my worldly goods. the interview took a few hours as I had to recount my whole business career in quite some detail. She just told me to go away and start a new set of books from today.

And that was it. Besides a letter from the trustees asking for a few details that was it, nothing else happened other than the hassle from creditors went away.

No accounts frozen (apart from Lloyds TSB who booted my name off our joint account and canned the overdraft facility), no surplus money seized, no claim for any outstanding debtors or no notice in my local rag alerting all and sundry not to trust me.

They didn't even ask what the account balance was in my bank account. I even opened a new business account the same week complete with all normal facilities, except for lending without any hassle whatsoever.

On the down side.

The Mrs hated me for a bit - she soon got over it.

I'm going to have to sell my house - at the end of the day it's only bricks and mortar, I can buy another eventually. Odds on i'm quitting the UK and moving to a sunnier outlook when it does sell. I'd probably be there for life if BR didn't happen.

I decided to down sized my business to make as little profit as possible whilst I was bankrupt - people lost their jobs.

Growing the business again is going to be hard without access to credit facilities.

On the plus side

Downsizing has taught me a great lesson in credit control and cash flow management - credit gives you space to be lazy.

BR gave me a lot of freedom back - no staff, tax, VAT, NI or wages to worry about daily.

Don't cave in under the stigma - it's life, it happens and it's your choice how you deal with the aftermath. Crack on and make things happen or let it define you.

intranicity

Glad to hear that it's all gone well, and good luck with the business, wife.... and the future.

out of interest, I presume one of your creditors made you bankrupt, which one? Still, as a bonus, saved you the fees

Freshly_ground

intranicity wrote: »

Glad to hear that it's all gone well, and good luck with the business, wife.... and the future.

out of interest, I presume one of your creditors made you bankrupt, which one? Still, as a bonus, saved you the fees

I was made bankrupt by a trade creditor - BSS Group they are called, and their legal department certainly don't mess around.

Any tradesmen that aren't LTD - go LTD as they can turn your world upside down in a matter of weeks if they so choose.

The banks were pretty easy going and up for negotiation.

The daft thing is that everyone will end up with next to nothing now.