Something's Gone Wrong- Help

Val17

First, Many Thanks to all that take the time to read and comment on our first post, it is very much appreciated.
I wont go it to too many details on how and why we were made BR, but needless to say it was over a disputed debt that we disagreed with, but in the end my OH was made BR in the Dec 2014.

We visited the OR and they were surprised that the BO was approved, as it was not a great deal of money (£13000) and we had means to pay (OH was employed and we had surplus income). We went into the meeting with great concerns of losing our family home as the mortgage is only in OH name and there was positive equity in the home. But our OR said they would not pursue this course of action as the OH had a means to pay and we had other mitigating circumstances (one of our children is Autistic, and it would upset them greatly if forced to move house, school ect). The meeting with the OR went very well, they explained the choices we had either set up an IVA or IPA and we chose the IPA as this limited us for the shortest amount of time.
We filled in all the necessary paper work and left it with the OR. A few months later and we were informed that the OR had assign a Trustee to deal with the case, which we were surprised at, as we thought the OR themselves were going to deal with the setting up of the IPA, and after a phone call to the OR they said not to worry, that the Trustee would now deal with and set the IPA up. More paper work followed now from our appointed Trustee which we filled in, yet again, and sent back. We then proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait.

Taking the idem that no news is good news we didn't pursue the Trustee's too much but did make a few phone calls to them as well as the OR to make sure that they had received our paper work and when would the IPA be set up, each time we were told that there was no issue they were just going through our case and the IPA would be set up accordingly. Needless to say that it wasn't.

OH was discharged in the Dec 2015 and we still had not received anything from our Trustee. By this time we were contacting the OR every other week to find out was was going on and the OR was surprised that nothing had been done and even they had not received anything from the Trustee regarding the case. Fast forward to last week when we received a letter out of the blue from another solicitor acting on behalf of our Trustee demanding a resolution to my OH BR?. This was a complete shock and in the letter they now break down the BO which seems to have ballooned to over £40000 with over £10000 being Trustee charges. They also in the letter mention the family home and the mortgage making quite clear that they intend to start proceeding to take the family home.

Now our question is this, do we have some legal recourse on the way my OH BR has been handled, as it seems to us that the Trustee knowing there was positive equity in the family home have deliberately stalled with the intention of foreclosing on the house.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated, as we are now having sleepless nights and undue stress to this new situation.

many thanks for reading.

ps if you require any additional information, then leave a post and we'll answer as best as we are able,

KeepOnKnitting

I am sorry you haven't had a response yet. I am sure someone knowledgeable will be along soon, but in the meantime I am wondering if payments can even be set up now. I thought once you had been discharged the window to set up an IPA closed, but I could be wrong in this instance. I also think that even if you do have to pay, it can only be the same terms that would normally be agreed, so if the OR was against repossession they shouldn't be able to do that.

standalone

Hi,

May I ask how much equity you think is in the house, as this of course is going to make the difference.

My understanding would be as your OH has now been discharged then no IPA or the like can now be but in place.
As I am sure you know this would of run for three years but had no bearing on the amount of money was involved in your bankruptcy just the amount of surplus money left over at the end of each month.

The problem here is that the OR or any trustee they appoint has three years to deal with the house and try and recover any equity in the house.

The only way things could have been different in your case is if you had tried to have your bankruptcy cancelled. This would only have been possible if you had been able to pay the bankruptcy amount in full at the very start of your dealing with the OR and any costs involved with doing so.

Right away you should be contacting citizens advice or the like to try and get some help with this.
If you have some spare money then a visit to a solicitor that is knowledgeable in bankruptcy matters would be my advice, but do not spend your money on a solicitor unless they have expertise in this field, some do some do not.




Tks.

TheGardener

This quite complex - try a DM to debtdoctor

Val17

Just a quick reply. We have 80k equity. We've contacted the OR today and they are going to investigate who these new solicitors are.SO should have some answers on Monday. Fingers crossed.

National_Debtline

Hi Val


I will try to check back in on this thread next week to see what updates you have had. It sounds as if at the very least there has been some very poor communication on the OR's part in this matter.


Dennis
@natdebtline

Val17

Hi, again many thanks to all that have taken the time to read our post and especially to those who have taken the time to reply.

Update : We contacted our OR on Monday, who said that the only people who should be contacting us are our Trustee's, unless we have received a letter from the Trustee's saying that they have appointed some else, which we haven't, and their advise was to write back to this other solicitor and explain that.
We also have many unanswered questions about our BR and the OR said to write to the Trustee's with those questions and copy in the OR, we were again reassured that a Sale Order would not take place, which seems contrary to everything we've read.
We did contact another solicitor (someone who'll be dealing with something else for us) to generally ask if it was something they could deal with, and they said they could, but it could be costly. But, he listened to what had gone on and did say that in the very least it sounds as if our Trustee have kept us badly informed, that it sounded as if the other solicitor was getting us to commit to paying the debt, locking us into a contract and he also said that it was unusual that the Trustee did not deal with the property within the first year and they have left it very late in the BR to get a Sale Order.

Anyway that's what we found out so far, we'll keep this post updated as and when we find things out.

Many Thanks
Val

alltaken

Val17 wrote: »

Hi, again many thanks to all that have taken the time to read our post and especially to those who have taken the time to reply.

Update : We contacted our OR on Monday, who said that the only people who should be contacting us are our Trustee's, unless we have received a letter from the Trustee's saying that they have appointed some else, which we haven't, and their advise was to write back to this other solicitor and explain that.
We also have many unanswered questions about our BR and the OR said to write to the Trustee's with those questions and copy in the OR, we were again reassured that a Sale Order would not take place, which seems contrary to everything we've read.
We did contact another solicitor (someone who'll be dealing with something else for us) to generally ask if it was something they could deal with, and they said they could, but it could be costly. But, he listened to what had gone on and did say that in the very least it sounds as if our Trustee have kept us badly informed, that it sounded as if the other solicitor was getting us to commit to paying the debt, locking us into a contract and he also said that it was unusual that the Trustee did not deal with the property within the first year and they have left it very late in the BR to get a Sale Order.

Anyway that's what we found out so far, we'll keep this post updated as and when we find things out.

Many Thanks
Val

I might be missing something but why not ask the OR for that in writing? If they can reassure you once again that the sale order will not take place then surely they could write that down too?

If they can't for any number of excuses try and put it back in your court by explaining that they want to be copied in to the letters you send to the trustee, which shows they have an interest and should hopefully backup what they say.

standalone

Hi Val

I was reading over your original post and noted again that the letter you received from the trustee stated that the bankruptcy amount had now ballooned to over £40000, I was wondering how they could have arrived at such a figure ? even adding on the £10000 trustee fee on to your £13000 original bankruptcy amount that means others involved here are asking for £17000 in fees. If it is not in anyway sensitive may I ask, who now thinks they are owed £17000 in fees for work they have done regarding your bankruptcy.

Tks.

Val17

Hi

Here's the breakdown as given by the other solicitor

Trustee's fee's inc vat £10,378
Trustee's disbursements inc vat £821.98
Solicitor's fee vat and disbursements £2,500
Petitioning costs £3,561
Know Creditors £13,803.09
Statutory Interest at 8% £2,810.09
Bank fees £66.00
DTI cheque fees £6.00
Secretary of State Fees £7,319.85 (says this can be forgone if paid quickly)
Total £40,563.09

This is something we don't understand, how so many fees have been added to such a small debt.
maybe some here could enlighten us.

Many Thanks

National_Debtline

Hi Val


I'm afraid it's all too easy for trustee fees to mushroom and sometimes eclipse the level of the debts themselves in a bankruptcy, as effectively they are charging for every minute of their time and anything they accomplish. The following guide goes into great detail about how such fees are determined and in what circumstances they can be challenged. If these fees were so inflated as to justify a challenge, however, chances are that your creditors would already have taken this step.


https://www.r3.org.uk/media/documents/publications/professional/Guide_to_Trustee_in_Bankruptcy_Fees.pdf


Dennis
@natdebtline