Moving to rented accommodation - guidance needed

despairofhands

Hello all

Fascinating reading and very informative. haven't come across the advice I need on a few issues though. Some guidance would be gratefully received.

Right - have spoken to National Debtline, received lots of literature and have read a masive amount on the subject and had an excellent meeting with a great Insolvency Practitioner (free of charge). Clear that it is best for myself and my wife to petition for bankruptcy. We work as a partnership for tax reasons. Because of my profession, I will no longer be able to work in my industry and therefore once declared bankrupt we will both be out of work with no income. We have 2 kids - 13 & 8. Own a property which we have put on the market. Valued at £250K. Mortgage £220,000. Total other debts including future tax liability etc = £150,000.

My wife is a qualified nurse and so she has started to apply for jobs again after 2 years out. I will basically have to retrain from scratch and am thinking of going into teaching - this will of course take time. We want to make a clean break and we want to do it quickly. We have decided to move out of the house in about 4 weeks after petitioning for bankruptcy and having our interviews. We have been offered accommodation by my wife's brother in a different part of the country.

Questions: I do not want any bankrupcy notice attached to the new address because of the difficulties it will cause with the family who know we are in trouble but not full extent. At the date of bankrupcy we wil be at are own address so that is the address I give but how do I complete SOA and include rent instead of mortgage without raising question of us moving to a new address. Clearly whn OR speaks to mortgage company they will say that mortgage is not being paid, so I cant include mortgage payment as this is not affordable. Any advice?

Also, income details. My past income is not relevant as far as SOA is concerned. I cannot find out what benefits we are entitled to until I am made bankrupt and my contract is terminated and so am unemployed. What do I put down as income, or can I find out what I wil be entitled to before being declared bankrupt?

Anyone, who was self employed when made bankrupt and/or moved home straight after bankruptcy who has any advice, I would be grateful for some insight. Sorry for the length of the post.

allofadither

Hi and welcome to the forum,

1. If you are living at your current (mortgaged address) at the time of BR then that's the address that will appear in the paper and on the BR order.

2. All info on the SoA should pertain to your current address and financial situation i.e mortgage, income etc. You will have the opportunity to update the OR with any changes as and when they occur.

Other's will probably chip in to offer more info, especially about the house and moving.

despairofhands

On a similar theme, what do we do for income to meet expenditure after bankruptcy if we are both unemployed. We will both have been self employed previously. I am panicked that after bankruptcy and getting a fresh start we will immediately start to accrue new debts through lack of income. How do we make sure we can make ends meet?

allofadither

I presume you are certain you won't be able to continue working? If your outgoings exceed your income after BR then you have no option but to reduce your outgoings....somehow....until your income increases again.

Make sure you apply for all the benefits you may be entitled to. Speak to the CAB, they should be helpful in that area.

You may want to post up an I&E list so people can see what you have to pay out and maybe offer suggestions for cutting costs. The DFW board are very good at offering money saving advice.

despairofhands

Thanks all for that. I will give the CAB a ring tomorrow. I did go into my local job centre plus a couple of weeks ago and they were all dumbfounded by what I was asking and handed me a batch of leaflets with telephone numbers on it.

As far as the SOA is concerned then I quote the existing essentials (I will post this asap for comments) including mortgage (even if I am not paying it now?) and then for income - it will be family allowance plus whatever info I can get out of the benefits people for tax credits etc etc. If it shows a whopping deficit - will that be a problem? I assume then that if my wife then gets a job, we update the OR to tell them? Do we then tell them when we move house and we pay rent? I don't want to draw attention to the new address though. My ramblings will get shorter I promise.

I am going to ring the court tomorrow and see if I can get a date for hearing and then start completing forms.

Thanks again all

allofadither

Hi,

Your SoA for bankruptcy should reflect your current financial situation - so yes include the mortgage and all other essentail expenses. Your income should also be what is applicable at the present time. You shouldn't include benefits you are not yet receiving.

A deficit, however whopping, is not unusual. So don't worry.

If your wife gets a job then yes, you will have to tell the OR about this and any change in circumstances. You will have the opportunity to update the OR with any immediate changes that are relevant during the interview, such as your new address/rent etc. You may be asked to submit a revised SoA...not sure. The OR will tell you want they want. You don't have to tell them about the new address until you have actually moved....so again try not to worry too much.

allofadither

In respect of the house...are you handing the keys back to the mortgage company or selling the house yourselves?

kerryboo

despairofhands - regarding the job centre to claim benefits, i too went into the job centre and they handed me a leaflet with a telephone number and the way they operate is i had to call them and they then gave me a date to come in and have a interview which i have had. Four weeks have passed and i still don't know if i am gonna get any money from them useless !!!!! so i would hurry and contact them. Or check there website https://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/

Hope this helps and makes sense

despairofhands

Many thanks again gang. You certianly are a mine of info.

At the moment we are trying to sell the house ourselves. I have written to te mortgage company asking for a payment holiday and explained the situation and am waiting for the reply. Obviously, if the house doesn't sell quickly, it wil be taken out of our hands.

Are there any implications for the house being reposessed after we go bankrupt rather than before as far as wiping out the debt is concerned. Obviously the main point of all this is that we get a fresh, all be it very dificult fresh start with no hidden skeletons in the closet.

As my wife and I are both going for bankruptcy should the Income and expenditure show the joint position or half that? In thenext few weeks income for us both wil be nil (save any benefits that become payable) although my wife may have secured employment. Our expenditure is then joint mostly, although she will own the car and have the expenses associated with that and I wil have already handed my car back to the leasing company.

On a joint basis, even if my wife got a job, there would be no surplus. However, on an individual level if her income is taken as a whole and only half the expenditure apportioned to her it might look .ike she has a surplus, whereas I would have a whoping deficit. Any thoughts?

Sorry I am slow to come back guys, I am doing a million and one things this week while I still have my car.

Lots of appreciation

allofadither

Don't aplogoise for anything...no need. Your doing a grand job!

I'm not up to speed on houses but other's are and will probably advise.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure about what you put on the SoA if you both go BR, I only did it for myself. Hopefully someone else can advise...sorry.

Have you got the forms yet? Depending on how complicated your affairs are it can take some time to get them completed.

You do realise you both have to pay the BR and court fees, that's £475 each :eek:

Stick with us though, you will get the answers you need.

silvercar

The timing of the house sale/ repossession is really important!

I'm saying that without being able to give solid advice but you must take advice on this.

As I understand it, if you were repossessed and there was not enough money from the sale to repay all the mortgage and arrears the lender would look to you for repayment of the difference; this would become an unsecured loan. If the house sale - post repossession - took place after bankruptcy it is unlikely that you could include that money in your bankruptcy and it would be a new debt. I say unlikely because I am not sure how definitive that is; if you were already in negative equity at the time of the bankruptcy it is more likely that the debt could be considered as part of the bankruptcy.

If you are definitely going bankrupt and definitely selling the house it may be sensible to reduce the price so that you are in control of the sale and you know that the mortgage will be cleared. The equity left would belong to the OR in any case, so I see that as a win, win for you.

For a house valued at £250,000, as a repossession you would have lender legal charges, estate agent fees etc and it would then be put on the market priced for a quick sale. You may only get £200,000-£210,000 for it.