Will OR Agree to Loan to Fund Travel Costs

Jack2019

Good evening 🙂

I sadly had to go bankrupt a few months ago, in part due to a fairly lengthy period of ill health which is now coming to an end.

So I’m now starting to look for work and because of the nature of the work I do, this will most likely be in London.

Should I find something, I will need to finance travel to the new place of work meaning I will need to find around £600 for a monthly rail pass.

This won’t be a problem once the first months salary is banked but to get that I need to be able to fund the first month some other way as I have been living hand to mouth for months.

The only asset I have is my car. The OR allowed me to keep this and is used for other purposes which they accepted when I submitted the bankruptcy application.

Hence no cash / assets were taken control of by the OR at the time the order was made, so there’s no money in the pot they’re holding.

A good friend of mine has said they will lend me the money to cover the rail ticket and maybe some other expenses I can’t cover in the first month (I have a dog and I’ve found somewhere that will feed / walk it for £8 a day) so long as I can pay it back over 12 months.

If I can’t pay it back, I can’t borrow it... no point in me applying for anything. 😑

The reason I’m asking this in here is every time I’ve approached the trustee dealing with my bankruptcy to ask what’s considered to be reasonable expenditure, they just tell me to get my job, submit my income and expenditure and then go over it rather than actually give me any advice.

Thanks in advance for any advice given. 🙂

Minkym00

You are allowed to borrow money as an undischarged bankrupt, providing you inform the lender that you are bankrupt.

If i were you I would borrow the money and have the lender write in to the OR to state that they have leant the money to you, are aware of your bankruptcy, and also disclose the repayment terms.

Minkym00

By the way, they are not being deliberately awkward, they are not allowed to give advice.

debt_doctor

Hi,

Yes, I agree. You can borrow up to £500 in any event and more if you disclose your undischarged bankruptcy status.

DD

Jack2019

Many thanks.

I’m sure the trustee is only doing their job but it’s a bit frustrating.

My next concern is should I take the loan, will the repayments be classed by them as ‘reasonable expenditure’ when submitting a SOA due to the change in financial circumstances.

I guess they will take into account the reason the money needed to be borrowed in the first place?

Or can I borrow enough to go ‘have it large’ in Ibiza for a month and they’ll not bat an eyelid. 😉

And there’s a scenario whereby I secure a job outside of London (I am in the process of applying for one). By car it would mean a daily commute of around 95 miles to a location which is a real pain to get to due to the amount of congestion plus my car is 14 years old and high mileage, and so I’m not confident as to how reliable it will be if used for this.

I would therefore be using the train to get there too. Are they likely to question why I’m doing this instead of using the car? And if they do, can they class the expense of buying a rail ticket as unreasonable?

I’m sure they’re not being deliberately obstructive. It’s just frustrating when they bat nearly every question you ask away.

Annie35

As you'd only get the loan to enable work (& only once confirmed employed surely) I doubt reasonable repayments would be unallowed.

A 95mile trip is a lot & your need for a car outside of work hasn't changed so I think you'd be very unlucky to be told 1 (car) or the other (train).

I know it's frustrating but the OR can't advise the future, something else may happen like a local job, so they can only react to today's happenings.

As an aside, are you sure you can cope with full time & a long commute, coming back from illness.

Jack2019

No, wouldn’t be borrowing anything unless employment was secured. My friend has agreed to transfer it into my account and I’d then pay for the rail ticket with my debit card, so the trail would be there for all to see.

No, I accept why they have to be like this and I am lucky as my trustee has come across as very reasonable so far.

So long as the work isn’t too stressful then I should be fine. I’m lucky enough to live close to a station served by HS1 and journey times are very low (something like 35 minutes each way for the location around 95 miles away plus maybe a 10 minute walk each way).

I have one further concern at this stage.

Because I’ve been off work for much of the current tax year, if say I started work next week, my salary will effectively be tax free until April.

I won’t need to pay any council tax until then either, hence if I submit an SOA based on the then circumstances, they may determine an IPA should be put in place.

Are they likely to take into account what your actual spare income is likely to be in under two months before making that decision or will purely be based on what your situation is at that precise moment?

I’ve read on here you have 21 days to notify them of a CoC whatever but still...

Thank you for all your help so far. ��

Jack2019

One more thing... the loan. What would the OR need to see as proof of this? A letter from my friend setting out what they’ve loaned me and what the schedule of payments are?

Or would we need to generate something like a formal agreement we both sign?

Might sound like a silly question but want to make sure everything is done in a way that would be acceptable to the OR as evidence.

Jack2019

Journey times... not 35 minutes for 95 miles each way, lol

35 minutes for each leg, as in 47 or so miles...

HS1 is good but it’s not that good!

Annie35

I *think it's 21 days after your money changes, so 21 days after 1st pay packet, but I could be wrong so wait for the older pros to pop up

I'd think a diy written contract would be fine, you could state you paying extra 1st one or two payments to take in your ct/tax excess then a fixed term from April. I would think that would be ok as by the time the OR tries to claw the excess it'll be April. As my OR said, it's not worth the time to look for what'll be nothing. (To paraphrase )

silvercar

A lot of companies offer interest free season ticket loans, so do check that out. They recoup the money through a pay packet deduction, so may suit you better.