How long to become bankrupt?

emmiemac

Hi there,

Just wondered if anyone could give me some advice -

I've been out of work for a few years now as I suffer from M.E. Have quite alot of debt as I was just finishing my degree when I became ill. Have been unable to repay any debts since August last year and am now just paying £1 a month to my creditors (my only income is incapacity benefit).

What I'm wondering is how long it is likely to take for my creditors to serve the court order that I think I need to begin bankruptcy proceedings. Obviously it's quite an anxious time waiting for it to happen when nothing seems to be. I don't know if all my creditors are hanging on waiting to see if I go back to work or what. Is it the case that they are only likely to serve court papers if they think there's money to be got out of me??

I am married but all my debt is in soley my name and our mortgage is in my husband's name. Also, I live in Scotland, and I believe it's called sequestration here.

Any advice would help, thankyou

immoral_angeluk

Well there's currently no point them making you bankrupt as benefits are not classes as income that can be used to pay creditors when it comes to iva's bankruptcy etc. Do your creditors know your income details at the moment?
At the moment if you were made bankrupt all it would be save you the fees doing it yourself as you wouldn't be made to pay anything towards you bankruptcy as you aren't earning an income as such.

rog2

Have a look at the Bankruptcy Club thread - you'll find lots of advice there.

emmiemac

immoral_angeluk wrote:

Well there's currently no point them making you bankrupt as benefits are not classes as income that can be used to pay creditors when it comes to iva's bankruptcy etc. Do your creditors know your income details at the moment?
At the moment if you were made bankrupt all it would be save you the fees doing it yourself as you wouldn't be made to pay anything towards you bankruptcy as you aren't earning an income as such.

Thanks for your help. Yes, I have given financial statements to my creditors so they know my situation. Sorry I don't totally understand what you were telling me about fees etc, is it the case that without a proper income I won't be able to be made bankrupt at all?

immoral_angeluk

emmiemac wrote:

Thanks for your help. Yes, I have given financial statements to my creditors so they know my situation. Sorry I don't totally understand what you were telling me about fees etc, is it the case that without a proper income I won't be able to be made bankrupt at all?

From what I'm aware to go bankrupt costs a certain amount in fees to start out with(Not sure how much sorry..) and then if you have the income I think you pay a set amount each month towards your bankruptcy for a set amount of time. As you have no 'income' you wouldn't have to pay the set amount each month, and if your creditors made you bankrupt they would be liable for the fees.
This is what I've gathered from our friend who was made bankrupt last year but I could be wrong.

tight_jock

emmiemac wrote:

Thanks for your help. Yes, I have given financial statements to my creditors so they know my situation. Sorry I don't totally understand what you were telling me about fees etc, is it the case that without a proper income I won't be able to be made bankrupt at all?

Hi
not sure how it works in Scotland but I think you need to owe a min. of 750 for anyone to take proceedings against you in England.
Try insolvency.gov , speak to money advice unit of CAB or CCCS and get yourself some iinformed ,free advice.

Also Bankruptcy club and supporters club on this site is great for advice and a chat.:T

Best of luck

CLAPTON

in england...i'm not sure about scotland, you can apply to be make yourself bankrupt..it cost 450
or your creditors can apply to make you bankrupt.
however, if you have no assetts, in general your creditors wont make you bankrupt as they have nothing to gain and it costs them money.

perhaps you could tell us a little more about your circumstances and why you expect to be made bankrupt or what court proceedings you expect your creditors to take before you can apply yourself..

smokey112

Hi Emmiemac

We declared ourselves BR or sequestrated ourselves last year.

We took advice from a company and if I recall correctly you need to have been served with court papers from one of your creditors - we had and that is why we where able to sequestrate ourselves - I will have a look and see if I can find anything else about it. It cost us £63 pounds each to declare BR - the papers where taken to court on 7th October and we where declared BR on 27th October.

I will try and find out some more for you

HTH
Ang
x

smokey112

Emmiemac

This is the website of the company that we used to help us with our papers etc - you wouldnt need to use them as such as you don't have any assests - there is information on these pages of what you can do

http://www.debt-help.biz/trustdeeds.asp


http://www.clear-your-debt.co.uk/Sequestration.htm

This site shows under what reasons you can declare yourselve BR

Ang
xx

Broken_hearted

Is there any way the creditors can go after the house as they are married.

smokey112

Broken_hearted wrote:

Is there any way the creditors can go after the house as they are married.

it depends on a lot of things - how long have they been married - how much if any money did OP put into property etc - my OH is not divorced yet and he legally still had "equity" in his ex's home - it was worked out at £25k - but with a lot of negotiating he had to find someone to pay the Trustee £500 for them to lose the beneficial interest - I had to do the same for the house we live in as although it is in negative equity they technically could have got a valuation at the end of the 3yr period and sought money from any equity