Help please on sequestration in scotland

siamese1972

Hi everyone,

I've been struggling with my debts for years, I am a full time mum with no earnings, I was living in England but have been living in Scotland for 14 months. To cut long story short, here goes ...

Have just ordered 30 day free trial with Experium as I was told Bailiffs had been knocking on a previous address in England about a week ago which I left in Jan 2010. So, I am trying to find out if a CCJ was issued to which I did not know about :-( and to determine whether these are Bailliffs or Debt Collectors.

I have been struggling with my debts and now with very young children I really need to take control of my life and be RESPONSIBLE. Am married but ALL the debts are in my sole name. I will be ringing Scottish Citizens Advice first thing tomorrow for advice about Sequestrian. I have no choice but to go down this route as I feel there is no way out of my situation.

I would appreciate any help and advice from anyone going down this route. I have learned a very hard lesson in life "if you don't have it, then don't spend it" and now many years later I am struggling with this. I am fed up of looking over my shoulder, I am always anxious and never at ease.

I wish I had never been so foolish with money in my younger days :-(

Snagggles

Hi there, can I help at all? I'm a Money and Debt Adviser in Scotland, so know a bit about insolvency options under Scots law.

The fact that all your debts are in your sole name is a positive, as if any were joint, your sequestration would have left your husband liable for them.

Are you renting or do you own your property at the moment?

There are three routes into bankruptcy in Scotland. There's LILA, which is Low Income, Low Assets, Apparent Insolvency and Certificate for Sequestration. Your circumstances will dictate which route is the one for you. It's the same form you fill in, regardless, and it costs £200, which is non-refundable so I would definitely get someone like CAB to check over your form before sending it, to make sure it's all correct and you've enclosed all the necessary documents.

The AiB (Accountant in Bankruptcy), which is who you apply to, are actually being pretty good about sending applications back if things are missing at the moment, but they don't have to - they can just reject it and keep your £200 if you've done it wrong...so not worth the risk.

I won't bombard you with stuff, but if you have specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer.

My first advice though would be to see someone like the CAB, or Shelter if they have a money adviser in your area, to discuss your options and see if there is an alternative to bankruptcy before you make your decision.

Also, don't be too hard on yourself. Who HASN'T made a few bad decisions, particularly in their younger days? You are tackling it now, and that's what matters.

siamese1972

Too much debt to go down the LILA route, I have no assests. Everything is in my husbands name including the car. Rented accommodation. I am at my wits end now even more with the thought of English Bailiffs (if that's what they are) chasing me across the border.

A few questions to try and clear my mind before I get through to the Citizens Advice.

1. Do you pay £200 in one installment? (read somewhere it's £100 to submitt the forms, then you pay separate for court fees).

2. What happens if you havent the money to pay for the fee? can you get help?

3. What happens to bank account, I have a basic cardcash account with Halifax with no overdraft facility,with just child benefit going in. Would this be safe in this account? There are no other credits going into this account.

Snagggles

I don't think there's a limit to the amount of debt you can have for the LILA bankruptcy?

With no earnings or assets, it may be an option.

If not, you can still petition for your own sequestration. If there has been a Charge for Payment made against you (a formal demand for payment, through the court), and more than the allowed 14 days has passed, you can use that to prove 'Apparent Insolvency', or you can obtain a Certificate for Sequestration (you'd get this from an authorised money adviser, through somewhere like the CAB etc).

roougers

Hi Siamese,

Welcome on board, like Snaggles says, absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, most of us have been there and got the T-Shirt.

Someone more qualified than me may dispute this, but I had a similar situation in that I lived in England and moved back to Scotland. I was getting Baliffs letters in England and very quickly they connected me to my new address. I was under the impression that English Baliffs had no juristiction in Scotland so did nothing. Within a few months of moving back I had a knock on the door from a Sheriff Officer (The usual one I wont mention) acting on behalf of the English council I owed Tax to.

To cut a long story short, even the local Sherriff Court didnt seem to know if they could legally take the debt, so I settled up. It was a few years ago so the legal position may have changed.

Dont want to scare you, but English Bailiffs and Scottish Sherriff Officers seem to work with each other, but then if you are going down LILA then it may not be an issue for you.

Good luck with it. I am a LILA bankrupt, from getting the forms to paying my £200 I managed to do it all myself within a few weeks. Its not as intimidating as it seems, and a CAB adviser will help you.

Snagggles

1. Do you pay £200 in one installment? (read somewhere it's £100 to submitt the forms, then you pay separate for court fees).

2. What happens if you havent the money to pay for the fee? can you get help?

3. What happens to bank account, I have a basic cardcash account with Halifax with no overdraft facility,with just child benefit going in. Would this be safe in this account? There are no other credits going into this account.

Sorry, for some reason I didn't see these questions!

1. You can pay it in instalments, but don't send off the forms until you have paid the full amount. I think creditors pay separate court and admin fees, but if you're a debtor you don't. You can pay it over the counter at RBS (they have a sort code and account number specifically for doing so), and if you want to pay in instalments, there's a form you send off to the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

2. The fee can't be waived but there may be charities who would help with the fee. You could have a look at the turn2us.org.uk website to see if you would be eligible for any of the grants on there.

3. I think it's up to your bank whether they will continue to provide banking facilities to an undischarged bankrupt, so it may be worth starting to look around for a basic bank account now, in case they do insist on closing it. Whilst benefit income is usually safe, if you have built up savings, even if it is from benefit income, they will be classed as an asset.

coolcait

Bailiffs have no jurisdiction in Scotland.

Sheriff Officers may play a similar role, but there are a lot more hoops for creditors to jump through in Scottish law before they can get to the stage where they have the right to send Sheriff Officers to enter your home and take your personal belongings.

However, an English creditor can quite legally pursue you for a debt, even if you have moved to Scotland.

Snaggles has given a lot of good, detailed advice about the process. And he/she is right, there is no limit on the amount of debt you can owe in a LILA bankruptcy.

It's all about how much do you have coming in (Low Income) and how much do you have in assets (Low Asset).

siamese1972

Thank you everyone for your comments. I have been on the phone first thing this morning to CAB in Scotland. They are sending me out forms to fill in, then from there will be made an appointment with a money expert to discuss Bankruptcy. I was informed that LILA as you say assets less than £10,000. Still not sure whether I would be entitled to this as I don't get any benefits (income tax, working tax etc) just Child Benefit. But all this will be discussed :-)

As for the Bailiff/DCA, they have informed me that if it was an English Bailiff/DCA they have no jurisdiction in Scotland. The only way they can enter is if the debt will be transferred upto the Sherriff Courts. At this moment in time I'm still waiting on full access to Experium so I don't know if it's DCA or defaulted CCJ's.

I feel at the moment I can breathe a little, I've done debt plans over the years, but they never came down :-(

Time to face my demons head on, stop being so ashamed and scared and put this to rest once and for all. So, I can be debt free and in the future get myself a little job.

Thank you everyone.

Snagggles

This is from the AiB website:

Low income means gross weekly income of no more than the standard national minimum wage for a forty hour working week. This is equivalent to £237.20 a week. Any pensions or maintenance payments that you receive are also counted in with your income.

If you receive income support, income-based jobseekers' allowance or working tax credits you will be treated as meeting the low income test, even if your actual income is more than £237.20 a week.

From what you've said, it sounds as though it would apply to you, but the CAB will be able to confirm that.

Your assets have to be under £10,000 in total as you say, with no individual asset over £1k (except for a car, which can be up to £3k based on the Glass Guide valuation).

siamese1972 wrote: »

As for the Bailiff/DCA, they have informed me that if it was an English Bailiff/DCA they have no jurisdiction in Scotland. The only way they can enter is if the debt will be transferred upto the Sherriff Courts. At this moment in time I'm still waiting on full access to Experium so I don't know if it's DCA or defaulted CCJ's.

Yes, as I understand it, they have no jurisdiction in Scotland and they would have to convert it to a Scottish decree in order to enforce it here.

Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better. Do keep posting if you need support or just people to chat to who know what you're going through.

siamese1972

Hi,

PIN number arrived yesterday for me to do access my full credit report through Experian. So, very nervously I accessedd this last night to find out if any CCJ's had been issued against me. To my relief there were NONE, so you can imagine relieved in a way. So, guessing the people that came knocking at one of my addressess that I left in 2010 must have been door stop collectors from the DCA. Please clarify if there were any outstanding CCJ's against me they would be on here?

Paperwork filled in and returned to CAB Scotland, just waiting on an appointment now with a money expert to discuss Bankrupty.

Feel a little happier today, now things are starting to progress.

x