Ask a StepChange (formerly CCCS) counsellor a bankruptcy question

StepChange_Allen

Indiana76 said:

Just to update, we had a call from the OR and they have invoiced us directly for the money which we have now paid. 

Hi Indiana

Thanks for the update on this. Please let us know if we can help with anything else at all.

Best wishes

Allen

Louise1311

Hi , I am desperate for bankruptcy advice and just been on the step change site and it says they can’t help the self employed ? Does anyone know wheee I can get help please? 

JCS1

Louise1311 said:

Hi , I am desperate for bankruptcy advice and just been on the step change site and it says they can’t help the self employed ? Does anyone know wheee I can get help please? 

Business debtline should be able to help. And keep posting on here for help.

StepChange_Allen

Louise1311 said:

Hi , I am desperate for bankruptcy advice and just been on the step change site and it says they can’t help the self employed ? Does anyone know wheee I can get help please? 

Hi Louise

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

As JCS says, Business Debtline should be able to help you. The reason that we're unable to help self-employed clients is that there can be various effects of different debt solutions on the various types of self-employment, and it's not our specialism. Therefore we recommend and signpost clients to Business Debtline as they're experts in giving debt advice to all types of self-employed people.

Best wishes

Allen

matilda.cs

Hello,
i have a question about CCJ’s and bankruptcy after 6 years. 

If an insurance company asks if I’ve ‘ever been BR/CCJ’ am I obliged to fess up?
someone I know says they admitted a 28 year old CCJ mid insurance policy and they charged him an extra £600!! Is this a thing?
can they punish a customer for something that is long expired?

StepChange_Patience

matilda.cs said:

Hello,
i have a question about CCJ’s and bankruptcy after 6 years. 

If an insurance company asks if I’ve ‘ever been BR/CCJ’ am I obliged to fess up?
someone I know says they admitted a 28 year old CCJ mid insurance policy and they charged him an extra £600!! Is this a thing?
can they punish a customer for something that is long expired?

Hi there

Thanks for getting in touch. 

When it comes to insurance it's important to be honest, if they've asked you if you've ever been made bankrupt it would be worth making them aware of this, but explain the time frame which it happened and hopefully that will help with any quotes. 

I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give you a specific answer to the situation that person found themselves in, but if the county court judgement (CCJ) wasn't settled (even if no longer showing on their credit file) the insurer may have made the decision to charge more based on a perceived risk.

Insurance companies may do a more in depth credit check if you're looking to pay monthly instead of a one off payment. You can find out more information about that here.

I hope this helps.

Patience

dmcw

Hi, I am 7 years discharged and it is all down to each Insurance company. Some aren’t interested and some are so my best advice when you’ve found your list of quotes is to make a quick call
and ask the questions. I remember approaching Swinton after my first year discharged and they said they aren’t interested yet others are 7 years down the line. Good luck x

StepChange_Allen

dmcw said:

Hi, I am 7 years discharged and it is all down to each Insurance company. Some aren’t interested and some are so my best advice when you’ve found your list of quotes is to make a quick call
and ask the questions. I remember approaching Swinton after my first year discharged and they said they aren’t interested yet others are 7 years down the line. Good luck x

Hi there

Yes, different companies have their own approaches to all things financial, whether it's lending criteria, how long back they'll look at information and so on. So I'd agree to contact a company first to check whether historical bankruptcies or CCJs are an issue for new policies now.

I appreciate it may not be affordable, but trying to put money aside throughout the year to pay it in full eliminates this problem as well as likely saving money as you usually pay interest on monthly payments.

Allen

chrischarn

I have lost unnecessarily a 240k property , my lifes hard work and savings wasted, and am just about to lose a 125k second property, my mothers inheritance that she worked all her life for too. completely wasted, to a greedy , manipulative rouge IP and his solicitor, in brief , he took over my case in jan 2017 , i believed he was taking out an IVA after my enforced bankruptcy from the inland revenue. I owed 57k and paid him 50k in cash in the first year , so I thought I was just 7k plus a few fees short of the target . 

 

Instead of taking out the IVA ( which would have cost just 10k ) he repossessed the house i was working from, quickmovenow valued it to me initially at 240k,  he sold it to them for 146k,  part of the loss was due to paying them £30,000 as a kind of agents fee, obviously estate agents only charge maybe £1000 or so .  The IP did not put it to any market whatsoever to achieve the best price as is his legal duty. Simply allowing me two weeks work decorating etc would have seen it reach near its 240k valuation, that decision he made therefore cost me £96000. He has obviously lied to creditors as they could have been repaid in year one. 

 He has stretched out the time and fees over 200k , and deliberately taken in the minimum from the property in order that he can sell my mothers home ( I inherited ) for £125k , thus he gains from realising more assets as does his solicitor.

 Thus i have lost 50k in cash and 240k in property , and my mothers home at 125k,  and my income as i was running a home business from there,  all this taken instead of a 10k IVA 

He now threatens to also  take the home we live in a three bed semi worth £180,000 leaving us homeless along with  my partner and little boy Christian. , 

 

 I now have little in the way of savings, he has ruined my life , I was due to retire but now cannot, i am in pain physically and emotionally and have considered suicide.    These people know full well that people in my position are vulnerable, but if death does occur , then they get to earn more money by dealing with your estate. 

 

He has  supposedly a legal duty to recover the monies efficiently ,with due care?  fiduciary duties ? He basically uses the powers as an IP as a front to defraud people of their homes and assets quite unnecessarily.  Three homes gone, just 7k owed initially  its scandalous.  i don't think I am the only one being treated this way. 

 

Given there will be many more bankruptcies in the near future due to covid, I wonder how many more people will fall victim, and what percentage of those will suffer and perhaps die as a result.  someone needs to stop him , people will die, year on year , as long as he is in business, while he and his solicitor get very very very rich.  

 

. There will be many who have nothing left to live for  - and wont. These are the circumstances that cause depression and no end of mental health issues. 

 He repossessed my home just before xmas last year,  the time that would cause maximum psychological damage, he would not let me take my work tools -a professional car lift, this is illegal but he does it nonetheless.  If I died , there's no one to publicise what they do, so it would be in their interests, its something one cant have proof of ,  but given their other actions it would not be unfair to suspect it.    somehow this man needs to be stopped.

StepChange_Allen

chrischarn said:

I have lost unnecessarily a 240k property , my lifes hard work and savings wasted, and am just about to lose a 125k second property, my mothers inheritance that she worked all her life for too. completely wasted, to a greedy , manipulative rouge IP and his solicitor, in brief , he took over my case in jan 2017 , i believed he was taking out an IVA after my enforced bankruptcy from the inland revenue. I owed 57k and paid him 50k in cash in the first year , so I thought I was just 7k plus a few fees short of the target . 

 

Instead of taking out the IVA ( which would have cost just 10k ) he repossessed the house i was working from, quickmovenow valued it to me initially at 240k,  he sold it to them for 146k,  part of the loss was due to paying them £30,000 as a kind of agents fee, obviously estate agents only charge maybe £1000 or so .  The IP did not put it to any market whatsoever to achieve the best price as is his legal duty. Simply allowing me two weeks work decorating etc would have seen it reach near its 240k valuation, that decision he made therefore cost me £96000. He has obviously lied to creditors as they could have been repaid in year one. 

 He has stretched out the time and fees over 200k , and deliberately taken in the minimum from the property in order that he can sell my mothers home ( I inherited ) for £125k , thus he gains from realising more assets as does his solicitor.

 Thus i have lost 50k in cash and 240k in property , and my mothers home at 125k,  and my income as i was running a home business from there,  all this taken instead of a 10k IVA 

He now threatens to also  take the home we live in a three bed semi worth £180,000 leaving us homeless along with  my partner and little boy Christian. , 

 

 I now have little in the way of savings, he has ruined my life , I was due to retire but now cannot, i am in pain physically and emotionally and have considered suicide.    These people know full well that people in my position are vulnerable, but if death does occur , then they get to earn more money by dealing with your estate. 

 

He has  supposedly a legal duty to recover the monies efficiently ,with due care?  fiduciary duties ? He basically uses the powers as an IP as a front to defraud people of their homes and assets quite unnecessarily.  Three homes gone, just 7k owed initially  its scandalous.  i don't think I am the only one being treated this way. 

 

Given there will be many more bankruptcies in the near future due to covid, I wonder how many more people will fall victim, and what percentage of those will suffer and perhaps die as a result.  someone needs to stop him , people will die, year on year , as long as he is in business, while he and his solicitor get very very very rich.  

 

. There will be many who have nothing left to live for  - and wont. These are the circumstances that cause depression and no end of mental health issues. 

 He repossessed my home just before xmas last year,  the time that would cause maximum psychological damage, he would not let me take my work tools -a professional car lift, this is illegal but he does it nonetheless.  If I died , there's no one to publicise what they do, so it would be in their interests, its something one cant have proof of ,  but given their other actions it would not be unfair to suspect it.    somehow this man needs to be stopped.

Hi Chris

Thanks for posting this.

I'm very sorry to hear about this experience that you're going through. I can understand that this has had a severe impact on your mental health. I hope you're getting support with this, but if not, please speak to your GP and if you feel suicidal, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I will give you the best thoughts I can where possible but I think you need to seek legal advice around this, and provide them any paperwork you have regarding your dealings with this person. If you think that fraud of some kind has been committed here, then I would also report it to the police. You can also report/complain about the insolvency practitioner here. This is not my area of expertise but the amount of money that's been taken from you compared to what was owed appears to be clearly disproportionate.

So at the start you mention that bankruptcy was enforced by HMRC; I assume this 'IVA' was going to be proposed to try and get the bankruptcy cancelled, due to the assets you had? A regular IVA would not result in property sale, so was this a lump sum IVA idea that would see the property sold to pay creditors as far as you understood?

What authority did this person then have to repossess your property? In general, someone can't just repossess another person's property, or indeed sell it without their consent, so perhaps a solicitor can look at this aspect for you. It is hard to fathom how, after you paid £50,000 and had a valuable home sold for well under value, that he's now threatening to take two other properties. This needs looking at immediately by people that can go through all the paperwork and correspondence with you to see what has been done and what laws/rules have been broken.

Hopefully if you follow my suggestions above, the actions and conduct of this person will be fully looked into, and you can get all the help and support you need.

Best wishes with it all.

Allen