Advice need about bankruptcy

disco_3

Hello
I wonder if you could answer a few questions for me.

A friend has contacted cccs and they have advised going BR.
She is on DLA & Income support and has 1 dependant. She does not want to post a SOA as she has submitted it to cccs.

This was only told to her today and panic has set in so instead of having a worrying bank holiday she would appreciate a few answers.

Firstly she thought she would be ok going down the IVA route so has opened a new basic bank account to pay direct debits for Gas, Electric etc. She has only normal living expenses in this account enough to pay bills and shopping.

Been advised to stop DD and make token payments.
When she has the info which cccs say they will send out how long from start to finish is it to going BR.

How much time will she have to get the fees to go BR.

Assets none really apart from normal household furniture but she does have a Laptop, worth £300 and the daughter has her own computer its an old one, are these at risk. Also she is worried about her 27" lcd tv which she bought and paid for approx 2 years ago, It was only £500 new.

Another thing she is worried about is her leather sofa which was also bought and paid for 5 years ago but it does look new.

Will she be able to continue paying her priority debts with her new bank account as stated gas, electric, insurance internet, tv licence oh and she does have a standing order for £16 a month for the lottery.

2 More things thats on her mind, She lives in a Housing Association house and is worried could she be evicted, She is not in debt with rent as its paid via Housing benefit. Last but not least, Baliffs.... Can anyone enter her house in the meantime of going BR. I must stress this has only just happened today the call from cccs and up to now she is not in debt with anyone so no creditors now at this moment in time.

fermi

disco

Copy and paste your post into a new one on the 'Bankruptcy & Living With It board

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=136

That way more people with direct personal experience of all this will see your post, as well as all the people on the main DFW board.

In the meantime I'll try and put my thoughts together with regard to your questions. I've been through the process myself.

EDIT: The powers that be might see fit to move the thread across.
EDIT AGAIN: And they did

lynzpower

disco wrote: »

Hello
I wonder if you could answer a few questions for me. I'll try but Im not a bankrupcy expert
A friend has contacted cccs and they have advised going BR.
She is on DLA & Income support and has 1 dependant. She does not want to post a SOA as she has submitted it to cccs.

This was only told to her today and panic has set in so instead of having a worrying bank holiday she would appreciate a few answers.

Firstly she thought she would be ok going down the IVA route so has opened a new basic bank account to pay direct debits for Gas, Electric etc. She has only normal living expenses in this account enough to pay bills and shopping. ( it sounds like she doesnt have enough income for an IVA being on benefits)

Been advised to stop DD and make token payments.
When she has the info which cccs say they will send out how long from start to finish is it to going BR.

How much time will she have to get the fees to go BR. ( not sure google official reciever, all the details are on there)
Assets none really apart from normal household furniture but she does have a Laptop, worth £300 and the daughter has her own computer its an old one, are these at risk. Also she is worried about her 27" lcd tv which she bought and paid for approx 2 years ago, It was only £500 new.

Another thing she is worried about is her leather sofa which was also bought and paid for 5 years ago but it does look new. ( these are not at risk I wouldnt have thought, the OR doesnt take relitavely cheap items such as this, only things like if you have an expensive car they would ask you sell it and buyt a cheaper runaround. Id imagine all these things are safe)
Will she be able to continue paying her priority debts with her new bank account as stated gas, electric, insurance internet, tv licence oh and she does have a standing order for £16 a month for the lottery. (yes she can still pay these as normal- unless the bank account she has doesnt allow DDs?)

2 More things thats on her mind, She lives in a Housing Association house and is worried could she be evicted, She is not in debt with rent as its paid via Housing benefit. Last but not least, Baliffs.... Can anyone enter her house in the meantime of going BR. I must stress this has only just happened today the call from cccs and up to now she is not in debt with anyone so no creditors now at this moment in time.

As I understand it, being evicted from a HA property is not going to happen, I suggest you give your mate a big hug and tell her not to worry she needs to have a good read of the official recievers website it has a FAQ page where all these questions should be answered for her

Bakeybadoo

disco wrote: »

Firstly she thought she would be ok going down the IVA route so has opened a new basic bank account to pay direct debits for Gas, Electric etc. She has only normal living expenses in this account enough to pay bills and shopping.

I agree with the above poster, if CCCS didn't suggest an IVA, she probably doesn't have enough disposable income to qualify for one. You need at least £100 surplus.

Been advised to stop DD and make token payments.

If she is going BR, she should not make ANY payments apart from for essentials living expenses ie: rent, water, council tax etc.

When she has the info which cccs say they will send out how long from start to finish is it to going BR.

She will need to contact her local court to first check they deal with Insolvency Hearings (BR) and second, see if she has to make an appointment or just turn up on any given day. How long it takes depends on which system and how busy they are.

How much time will she have to get the fees to go BR.

Again, depends on when her appointment at the court is set for. You can put it off until you know you'll have the funds but it's best to get booked in and then start saving, so she needs to set herself an achieveable timeframe that she knows she can get the fees ready by.

She'll be exempt from court fees as she's on IS so it'll be £325.

Assets none really apart from normal household furniture but she does have a Laptop, worth £300 and the daughter has her own computer its an old one, are these at risk. Also she is worried about her 27" lcd tv which she bought and paid for approx 2 years ago, It was only £500 new.

All will be fine. The OR is only interested in items that they can remove, sell and get a decent return on. So expensive cars, painting, antiques, properties etc.

Another thing she is worried about is her leather sofa which was also bought and paid for 5 years ago but it does look new.

Highly unlikely they'll be interested in that. Might be in good condition but by the time they pay to have it removed and auctioned, it's not worth it to the OR.

Will she be able to continue paying her priority debts with her new bank account as stated gas, electric, insurance internet, tv licence oh and she does have a standing order for £16 a month for the lottery.

Yes. As long as it's a Basic Account and it's stated on her forms that that is what it is, she should be ok. The final decision on closing accounts lies with the bank and not the OR.

Who is the new account with? I ask because some banks won't allowed BR's to have an account with them. The ones who do are Nationwide, Barclays and Co-Op.

2 More things thats on her mind, She lives in a Housing Association house and is worried could she be evicted, She is not in debt with rent as its paid via Housing benefit.

If they aren't a creditor, she'll be fine.

Last but not least, Baliffs.... Can anyone enter her house in the meantime of going BR. I must stress this has only just happened today the call from cccs and up to now she is not in debt with anyone so no creditors now at this moment in time.

Baliffs have to enter 'peacefully' so you have to open the door and let them in, that sort of thing. If she's worried, just don't open the door if not expecting anyone and or call out and enquire who's there.

Creditors don't like calling in the baliffs, it's more expense for them and even if they collect anything worth any money from the house, it won't cover the original debt probably and then they have to pile on the baliff charges. If you can't pay the original debt, what's the likelihood you'd have enough to then pay more to the company?

They prefer the huff, puff, harass you with calls and letters approach.

Lastly, she should stop paying, most definitely if she's not already in default. If she is paying then it won't look 'as good' to a judge that she wants to go BR. You need to show you are struggling and not paying/getting an account defaulted is the best way of them seeing you need to escape the debts and that's why you are going BR.

Hope that's helped your friend.

Cute_'n'_Quirky

Re an IVA most companies will not take any IS or DLA into account as income.

The bankruptcy fee from 1st April 2007 is £335

Bakeybadoo

Hubby only paid £325 on the 20th April and that's all I have to pay on Thursday.

I did know it'd gone up but not all courts are charging the extra £10 I don't think.

allofadither

Bakey, good sound advice for disco, as usual.

But I would just like to say that I did keep paying my creditors right up until the day I went BR. I know that probably sounds odd but I had previous experience of the hassle they dish out and didn't want to go thru it again. It doesn't matter how I managed to do it but I did, and the Judge didn't pass comment. Nor did the OR.

So it is still OK to keep paying creditors up to BR if that's what the individual wants to do. And I don't see why that should be looked on unfavourably by the courts.

fermi

Its important to make sure you have the form for court fee exemption filled out if you need that, and the correct evidence. Otherwise you will have to pay an extra £150, which is a surprise you don't need on the day.

The form EX160 (I think) is available from the court, or is on the 'Courts Service Website'.

Bakeybadoo

Good to know a-o-a-dither. Nice to hear the other side, since I was only on the no-cash-to-afford-it place.

It might be helpful to mention to the OP, in this case, if she's on limited income that she can stop paying, which might help her save for fees too.

allofadither

Bakeybadoo wrote: »

It might be helpful to mention to the OP, in this case, if she's on limited income that she can stop paying, which might help her save for fees too.

Totally agree, where there is no means of paying creditors and cobbling together the bankruptcy fees, then the fees should take priority.

disco_3

First of all sorry for posting in the wrong place. Thanks for moving it.
A big thank you to all that give advice, It has answered some questions that was playing on her mind.

Would the Benefits people know or would have to be told of this impending course of action. Could this affect any thing.

As you are all aware its a scary time not knowing the full facts and course of action but thanks to the forum it helps and puts peoples minds at a more restfull state.

I have read hundreds of threads on this forum on just about everything but to get all the answers in one thread makes it easier to explain to this person.

If she thinks of any more questions im sure i will be back on this thread.

Once again many thanks and have a happy bank holiday weekend.:beer: