Going Bankrupt

wd2015

Hi

I have a small company that has been running for about 7 years. I contract out as a software consultant and also do project work.

Everything has been fine until about 3 years ago I suffered a lot of personal problems (misses running off with baby, father in coma for 3 months etc). At that point everything started to slip for me. After a while of burying my head in the sand I contacted my accountants to organise a meeting to discuss a plan to get me back in line. We drew a plan but nothing ever came of it - in fact that was the last time I actually got to speak to the owner of the accounts company - everyone I spoke to was saying they were leaving them as they were screwing everyones accounts up! They used to be a popular local company. Anyway - One of the accountants left because they couldn't work there anymore and this was the one accountant I thought was any good within the company so I let him take my accounts with him. Fast forward a year and now he has disappeared off the face of the planet having been paid for the last year - he ran off with my receipts and no accounts have been filed now - for 2 years.

I accept that I should have been more on the ball with all this but like I said - I'd been through an awful time and was burying my head in the sand and when I tried to lift my head out there was such an awful mess I had no idea what to do.

I know now that I need to go bankrupt but have no idea how to go about it. There are people who are charging (a lot of) money to do the process for me or I can do it myself. What is the best thing here?

The company hasn't made any money for months now, I work as a full time employee for another company now and have a new family to consider.

Any advice here would be gratefully received as I feel I'm feeling my way through the dark and TBH I'm bricking it.

Keeping_Positive

Hello sorry to hear of the tough time you've had. I would contact Business Debt line as its free and would be able to help with the business aspect. There is loads of great information in this board especially in the stickies so have a look through those too.

National_Debtline

Hello there, you can find out more about Business Debtline here. They are our sister organisation. They can advise on both business and consumer-related issues. http://www.bdl.org.uk/

Best wishes,

David.

longtermplanner

Definitely speak to Business Debtline.

It will make the process of getting advice and then implementing it easier if you are clear in your own mind if you want your company to be closed down or if there is some reason why you would like to keep it going even though it's not making any money and you are working for someone else. If you aren't clear about this, then you double the amount of advice needed as the two different situations need to be explored.

wd2015

I am certain I need to close the company down and just deal with the mess. It's not making any money any more and I just want to move on.

Before I speak to anyone do I need to get the accounts for the last 2 years sorted? I thought this was all in hand but it became obvious over xmas and jan that the accountant had just disappeared with my paper work and money

Thanks for all the help so far.