fraudulent accountant. Car issues and bankruptcy??

hedwig1986

Hi there,

I will give you some background. I am a 29 year old woman with a 3 year old son. When my son was 5months old my husband left whilst I was on maternity pay and earning very little. I was left with £150 000 mortgage which I could not pay. I signed papers to agree to repossession and it has since been sold and there is an £80,000 short fall. The first thing I did was sought financial advice and paid a fee of £800 to a 'bankruptcy' specialist in October 2013. He has lied twice saying my court case went to court and I was bankrupt. After seeking advice from the courts themselves I since found out this was not the case. He gave me a daft excuse and refunded me £800 so now I am trying to do the process myself.

In the interim my now fiance bought me a new car. The adviser at the time told me this was fine and there would be no repercussions as I needed it to get to work and drop off my son to the creche. The car was insured 6 months ago for £3000. Now that I am doing the bankruptcy myself and doing my own research I realise this may not be the case. Although there is no direct bus route from my home to my work I could technically take taxies. Also, the car is worth over the allowed £1000. I am the registered owner but my fiance bought the vehicle. I'm not sure how I could prove this. Should I 'sell' the car to may dad and say that I needed to do this in order to raise the money for the bankruptcy fees? I also read that even if I do this the courts will see from the dvla that I changed keepers recently and can still ask for it back as the transaction was within 2years. I am so confused. Maybe I should put the bankruptcy off as its technically doing me no harm?

I am so upset because I paid the fee a year and a half ago and thought by now this would be over but I still have all the ongoing stress of it. I am in Northern Ireland if that makes any difference. I am so stressed out I fear that this as well as a divorce is going to kill me before I can get though it. Any advice at all is most welcome.

Louise

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome.

Unfortunately the rules in NI are completely different to the UK and we don't really have that much experience of NI bankruptcy. I would suggest that you ring the NI Stepchange team and get some of their excellent help. They are free and impartial and will help with all your questions.

Did your Fiance pay for the card from his bank account/credit card. Is there a paper trail? Is his name on the sales document? The registered keeper is NOT the same as the owner. If you can prove he bought the car and is loaning it too you then you should be fine.The difficulty is if he transferred the money to your account and you bought it.

The 2 year thing would be if you sold an item at under value ie: the car for $1k when it was worth $3k. If it is sold for full value and you use the money for a car and BR fees etc. then you would have no problems. But as I said if you can prove he bought it and then lent it to you then you should be fine.

tigerfeet2006

http://www.stepchange.org/DebtadviceinNorthernIreland.aspx

Stepchange NI for you.

dj2015

Hi Hedwig - When I went BR I didn't have any dealings with Stepchange so they are an option. If not - I'd suggest making an appointment and speaking to the Citizens Advice.


I went BR in NI and they were a godsend. I had 2 appointments with them and they took care of everything.


I'd suggest you just document all of your creditors and the amounts as well as your monthly expenses.


I also had a repossession included in my BR and it all went smoothly. As far as the car's concerned my car was worth £1500 and I was still allowed to keep it. Depending on how he paid for it, if you could get his bank statement to show the money coming out of his account for the payment, it would show he's the owner but you are just the registered keeper so the car is not YOUR asset, it's his.


I would definitely suggest not putting the bankruptcy off. Ok, it's doing you no harm at the minute - but if you do go down the BR route - believe me you're just postponing the 6 year LONG wait for it to be over.


I wish I had done it years sooner!