Seriously considering BR now.....

philnicandamy

Hiya scarlett & welcome.....although looks like your in safe hands already thanks to tigerfeet

for explinations about exemption of court fees etc have a look at the link below for the forms who can claim & who cant etc, things changed from october 1st so people who declared BR before than could have been exempt now maybe not..I get a few benefits along with incapacity & my court fees were exempt..now they are not BUT they take other things into consideration other benefits low income etc, I've been lucky & received my early discharge from BR so I attempted to contact the court for an official discharge cert but at a cost of £60...i've had to take the exemption form in a list of my benefits along with the last 3 bank statements I hadand now have to be assessed if I can have a discount..might not happen though :rolleyes: ...just shows how mad its got!

http://bankruptcy.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=368

Meanwhile as dawn said...ANYTHING you need in the meantime just post

Phil

Scarlett.1974

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your kind welcome too

I guess my main concern at the moment is I'm not really sure exactly what we're supposed to do now and in what sort of order I suppose ringing one of the debt charities on Monday morning is the first task? I have no idea what we're supposed to do about the house and the mortgage and secured loan - keep paying or stop? If anyone can answer any of the house-related questions I asked in my 1st post I'd really appreciate it I don't know whether we should stop paying everything and start saving for moving into rented (as well as the fees too of course) and stay here as long as we can drag it out for, or whether to contact the mortgage and secured loan people and say "here, have it back". Can anyone advise?

From some reading I've done this morning I see that you can have benefits paid by giro as a short term measure, which would be great for H's IB, but what about DLA, Working/Child Tax Credits and Child Benefit - does anyone know if these can be paid by giro too?

H printed off one lot of the forms this morning. Good lord above :eek: they make War and Peace look like a 'little light reading' :rolleyes:

Scarlett xx

ps. Tigerfeet, I told you! :rotfl: Ever since this all 'kicked off', so to speak, a few weeks ago I'm having lots of trouble sleeping. Every morning, without fail, I'm wide awake at 4.30-5.00am. On a positive note, my kitchen has never been so tidy

philnicandamy

1st thing you must do is contact one of the debt charities mentioned in either dawn or my sigs they will best advise you on what to do next, once you petition for BR one of the first questions that you'll be asked is "have you saught professional advice" I used the cccs back in Jan this year & to be honest they were brilliant..I did try the CAB as well but because of staf shortages & no qualified debt advisor they didnt do that well..i'm not that great with property but i'm sure rich or someone will be along to help you soon

As far as benefits are concerned DLA tax credits etc the people who told you they would pay your hubbys IB should be able to put you in touch with the department that pays other benefits to arrange a giro as well...either that or pop into your local jobcentre...when I declared BR in Jan all by IB DLA etc were paid by giro till i'd opened a co-op account

fermi

Lots of questions......

NatWest normally close/freeze all accounts when you go BR so you will need another one. There is a sticky at the top of the board Bank accounts for Bankrupts. It's better if you can open one of these after court (telling the bank you are BR) since this massively reduces the risk of it being frozen, but lots of people find that the Co-op and Barclays basic accounts are fine to open before (but it's always a slight risk).

For benefits, you can get a Post Office Card Account, which since it can be used for receiving benefits only is never effected by bankruptcy. In fact the OR/postoffice have specific instructions not to touch/freeze these accounts. You need to request a 'letter of invitation' from one of the benefit providers (DWP etc) before you can open one.

For the car. How much finance is outstanding, and how much is the car worth according to Parkers guide www.parkers.co.uk (the one used by the OR most of the time)?

Scarlett.1974

Ahem, me again with yet another question!

You know on the day of BR all your accounts are frozen, yes? Well, what if you don't sort out in time any monies going in and they do go in to the frozen account? Can you withdraw this money? Or does it then belong to the OR?

Thank you

Scarlett.1974

Thank you Phil and Fermi

Fermi, that post office account sounds just the ticket, I'll look into that today. Give me 5 mins and I'll come back with all the info about the car, thank you xx

Scarlett.1974

Fermi

Re: the car. Have looked on Parkers and am quite shocked at how much value it's lost in 6 months (unless H paid over the odds in the 1st place for it). I'm not sure which figure you need, it gave a few options, so here they are:

Franchised dealer - £6330
Private dealer - £6030
Private "good" - £5375
Private "poor" - £4470
Part exchange - £4875.

The finance outstanding is approx. £5k (He part exhanged our old car and got £3k for that, so the original amount of finance was £6477 inc. the interest )

fermi

Well, from the look of that there would be very little or no benefit to the 'estate' by making you surrender the car. Remember that there are additional costs incurred in selling it.

If the OR sees no benefit from the car as an asset then whether or not you can keep it is usually down to whether the finance company is willing to let you retain the vehicle and keep making payments. Many are happy to do this now, but it would be a good idea to check the agreement for a 'bankruptcy' clause and maybe even check with the company.

If the finance company are happy, the only other hurdle is convincing the OR that you should be allowed to continue making payments, and that the running/maintenance/insurance/tax are acceptable in your I&E (or that you can meet them out of any surplus the OR leaves you). If the car isn't essential for work then this might prove to be a bit of a hard sell to make, but sometimes it is surprising what some OR's allow.

I don't want to get your hopes up, since many factors may conspire together to result in you not keeping the car. But the best advice is to prepare a detailed case for the OR as to why you think you should be allowed to keep the vehicle and to justify the associated expenses.

More info on cars is here: http://bankruptcy.informe.com/cars-and-bankruptcy-dt72.html

Scarlett.1974

Thank you Fermi, you really are a mine of information, you star!

I did think of another reason that *might* just go in our favour - H is on IB because he has quite severe depression and also suffers with anxiety and panic attacks (all diagnosed by his GP). Now, the thought of public transport, especially after all these years of having a car, brings on a mild panic attack in him, so god only knows how he'd cope if he actually had to do it. Might the OR take that into account?

BTW, I've been looking into that Post Office account you mentioned above and I think it might be just perfect for us The DWP helpline number, to get a letter of invitation, is closed now until Monday, but I'm going to call them then and see if I can this particular ball moving. I'd need to arrange to pay all other bills, council tax, utilities etc..... by cash for a week or 2 I guess, while sorting out the new bank accounts with the Co-op (hopefully), but i'm guessing that sorting out the money coming in is more of a priority than the money going out right now? I mean, they'd all be paid eventually, even if it meant paying 2 months in once go once we were sorted out

Robflh

Hi Scarlett.1974

As I understand it, even if they make hubby sell the car, he would be allowed to buy another one as long as it costs less then a £1,000.

If the car is in good condition and you sold it tomorrow, it would be worth £5,375. If I have read it correctly, you have had the car for six moths. To kill that debt, you might only have to pay about £4,000. That would leave £1,375 and after buying a replacement car you might only have around £300 left.

Now the car does not seem to be such an asset but again it would be up to your OR.