Finally ready to go BR!

sillygirl73

I joined this forum over 2 years ago, and realised then that BR was my only option! Since then, various things have happened.........we have finally sold our house with the help of our banks AVS scheme, we are happily in a rental house, and our family has increased by 1 more:). It has taken us a long time to save up the fees, but provided nothing happens between now and next month, we should be ready to take the plunge at the beginning of march :eek:.

For the last 2 years we have been paying £1 token payments to all our creditors and have been very lucky to have had only 1 month of phone calls whilst CAB were assisting with the initial letters to them. The last 2 years have been very smooth:). We have managed to live within our means, not using credit or borrowing any money, and have managed to save as well, firstly for a rental deposit, and now for the fees.

Having read this forum extensively, I think I am happy with our SOA and filling out the forms. As my only income is CTC and CB then I think we can fill out our SOA's the same? (My husband is the main earner working full time).

The main query is about our car (surprise surprise!). My in laws bought a car (£2500) in November for us to use. My husband is the registered keeper as it is with us all the time at the moment, but my understanding is that as it belongs to my father in law, then the OR will not have an interest in it?

I understand that it is then up to us to provide evidence to the OR as to why we need to use a car, as obviously included in my SOA are petrol and maintenance expenses.

Am feeling really anxious suddenly about it all, as the last 2 years have passed with no real problems, and I suppose we have not had to face the fact that we now owe close to £100000 between us:eek:. I now just want it done, and although I hope we won't get an IPA (have used the IPA calculator and it seems that we should be ok), if we do then so be it. I get the impression that things are getting stricter and stricter for BRs. Just wish I'd gone BR 2 years ago now!!

I have e-mailed the court for the forms and for info regarding appts etc, so now I guess its just about setting the date!

I may redo our SOA again and will post on here, so would be grateful for any feedback.

Ineedaname

sillygirl73 wrote: »

Having read this forum extensively, I think I am happy with our SOA and filling out the forms. As my only income is CTC and CB then I think we can fill out our SOA's the same? (My husband is the main earner working full time). Remember, you go BR as individuals. If he is working and you are not then you should fill out your SOAs accordingly. So add your incomes together and work out what percentage of the total each of you earns. Then you contribute towards that percentage of the joint household expenditure and he contributes his higher percentage. For instance, No point you putting vehicular expenses on your SOA as you likely wouldn't be able to prove a need anyway.

If you fill them both out the same and there is a surplus, an OR clerk looking at it without realising may think you both have a surplus!

The main query is about our car (surprise surprise!). My in laws bought a car (£2500) in November for us to use. My husband is the registered keeper as it is with us all the time at the moment, but my understanding is that as it belongs to my father in law, then the OR will not have an interest in it? Your husband will need to declare the car on his BR forms, at least that he has 'sole use of a car'. Then, yes, he'll also need to prove a need in order to gain vehicular allowances on his expenditure.

I understand that it is then up to us to provide evidence to the OR as to why we need to use a car, as obviously included in my SOA are petrol and maintenance expenses. As above, if the car is for your husband's use then those expenses go on his SOA and not yours. Do them individually as it is much clearer what your personal financial situation is then and who has a surplus, if any.

I know how you feel about taking the big leap after a time of relative peace and quiet from the debts. I was on a DMP for 5 years before I went BR and went from virtually no stress to freaking out :eek: Once I had my OR interview done, I started relaxing a bit again and I haven't heard from any of my creditors throughout the entire process.

sillygirl73

So for example, if I earn 20% of household income, then if our rent was £1000 , on my SOA I would put £200 and on my husbands, he would put £800? Or is that too simplistic? Have baby brain at the moment and so am feeling a bit thick!

Ineedaname

That's exactly it. Baby brain is obviously good for you.

So you work out all the joint expenditure like that and then put down each of your personal expenditure on the relevant SOA. So on his he'd put down the car expenses. I would put all the baby costs with groceries and split as per percentage as you are jointly responsible for those costs.

dojoman

Doing 2 SOA`s is a nightmare, but try and keep it simple and don`t over think the process, I know I did and it drove me nuts.

sillygirl73

Dojoman, I know........have spent so long thinking about this that I'm a bit paralysed now that we are actually doing it!
Am still a bit confused about the 2 SOA's as have also read that we can just do the same one, with my income being zero and then declaring my benefits as 'other income' and putting husbands full income as his contribution. Then on his SOA putting his full wage and then putting my contribution as the full amount of tax credits etc. So in essence they mirror each other.
But Inan's advice also makes good sense too!
Aaaargh!!

Ineedaname

What might help is if you ring the Court where you will go BR and ask the BR Clerk what they would accept.

The one thing I personally would never do is submit two SOAs exactly the same, for the reason I outlined earlier, and I seem to remember that has been reported on the board as having happened, i.e. both husband and wife were issued with an IPA for the same amount, being that of the joint surplus but asking for it once from each of them, equalling twice the surplus they actually had!

dojoman

sillygirl73 wrote: »

Dojoman, I know........have spent so long thinking about this that I'm a bit paralysed now that we are actually doing it!
Am still a bit confused about the 2 SOA's as have also read that we can just do the same one, with my income being zero and then declaring my benefits as 'other income' and putting husbands full income as his contribution. Then on his SOA putting his full wage and then putting my contribution as the full amount of tax credits etc. So in essence they mirror each other.
But Inan's advice also makes good sense too!
Aaaargh!!

That is exactly what we did, we put the full amounts for all household expenses, and then whatever our personal ones were we put on our own. Don`t worry the examiner will have seen loads of dual SOA`s and should know what is going on, I know ours did:)

Maizy

Hi Sillygirl

Good luck for when you go BR, we are into our 3rd month and although things are a bit tight, its the best thing we ever did.

With regards to the SOA, I questioned this until it finally sunk in, couldn't get my head around it.

On both our SOA all the expenses were identical so they mirrored each other, the total outgoings on each would then be the same. We didn't have any individual expenses, everything is family or car (small amount for petrol) orientated.

Then, I put my income, (part time), tax credits etc which of course left a huge deficit and that was filled when I put oh income down leaving no surplus/deficit. We left ourselves pretty tight but to be honest, we are much happier and the year is flying already. No looking back for some of us, its the only option so we need to embrace all the positives as and when we can as hard as that is at times. Best of luck.

lifeislikeweather

hello my hubby received br letter now we got some joint account aswell n we 1 saving accout aswell whats going to happen plz plz help answer
and i got my single account too is that some thing happing to with me account too or not plz help

IF

lifeislikeweather wrote: »

hello my hubby received br letter now we got some joint account aswell n we 1 saving accout aswell whats going to happen plz plz help answer
and i got my single account too is that some thing happing to with me account too or not plz help

Please LILW, could you stick to your own thread. I know you are worrying but please could you answer our questions so we can help you.

Your thread is here, please click on blue link below:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3775337

Best wishes
If...x