Last few ends to tie

Sugarglider1992

Hi All

After an unfortunate balls-up with a DRO application through, I am now in a position to file for bankruptcy next week. My brother is gifting me the bankruptcy fee, and he was also offering to pay for a solicitor to help complete the paperwork and answer any questions.

From previous help from this forum, I think the knowledge on here may be more valuable than a solicitors fee, so I wonder if anybody could help me tie a few loose ends to give me the confidence to go ahead!

I've copied my expenses as per my online form;

Rent £400pm - share 5 bedroom house with parents and brother
Council Tax £36pm- equal share
Gas & Electric £30pm - equal share
Water - £6pm - equal share

Pet insurance £13.52pm - for doggo
Vet bills £10pm
Prescriptions/ meds £3pm
Dentist £22pm - lots of work needed! have documentation from dentist

Groceries inc pet food £58pw
Toiletries £30pm

Vehicle insurance £60pm - contribution to fleet policy
Vehicle Tax - £18pm
MOT and maintenance - £25pm
Fuel - £60pw

Clothing & footwear - £18pm
Hairdressing - £10pm
Mobile phone contract £51pm
Hobbies leisure sport - £30pm
Gifts - £5pm

Psychotherapy £50 fortnightly
Dog flea/worm direct debit - £13.00

I think i've copied all the individuals but they total this to £1399.18 pm anyway
My average income from the last 12 weeks is £1449.76 so I am aware that I will have an IPA. In approx 12 months my parents will be retiring and downsizing, so I will need to fly the nest and rent alone. I will deal with that when it comes. Until then, I'm happy to pay the excess as an IPA. Any suggestions on the SOA would be appreciated

My questions are....
Basic pay is 285.40 per week based on 40 hours. most weeks i will work a minimum of 2.5 hours overtime, every other week I do 4 hours on a saturday, and if its a busy week, clock a couple up working late to cover the reception. If I am on annual leave, or sick, then no overtime. I am confused on how to fill out the income part. I could put my basic 40h in the net pay, but then its difficult to add the overtime into the specific box when my overtime is totally different each week. Does anybody have any advice please?

Some of my debt is due to gambling and they ask how much, but i can only give a rough figure as I would use my credit cards, and then when I won it would be cashed out onto a card, then used again, and it was a vicious cycle. Do you think the OR would understand that I am just giving the best figure I can, but I may not have it spot on?

Lastly, stepchange advised me to apply for a DRO a couple of months ago, and then pulled the rug at the last minute. So as per their advice, I set up a basic bank account and started only using that account for wages and payments, and stopped payments to all my creditors ready for when it all switched over. Now i am back to square one, do I need to declare this new account as my 'main account', along side all my old accounts that used to be my main accounts?

Sorry to ramble on. Just want to be sure I am ready. Thank you!

WhenIam64

After an unfortunate balls-up with a DRO application

There are checks, lots of them, to make sure this does not happen. What went wrong - was it numbers or something else?

Bankruptcy is far more expensive than a DRO.

stepchange advised me to apply for a DRO a couple of months ago, and then pulled the rug at the last minute

The choice to submit a DRO is yours. Stepchange cannot deny the application, only advise against it.

TheGardener

It would help us give consistent advice if you use the SoA format here - there is a button to post to this forum at the bottom of it.

Is your BR in England - why do you need a solicitor? I assume its a complicated financial set up?

fatbelly

I've got the picture from your other thread. I think bankruptcy will work for you and you should be able to have a sensible conversation with the OR about your therapy needs. There may still be some form of IPA as you will be on a zero tax code.

I'm just wondering about the timing...

In approx 12 months my parents will be retiring and downsizing, so I will need to fly the nest and rent alone

That's going to be more difficult with an insolvency on your credit file. Is there any chance of getting rented accommodation sorted out, then going insolvent?

There's no 20k limit in bankruptcy so it's not a big problem if you go over 20k while debt-juggling for a bit.

For the form, just do it yourself and use estimates and lowest income figures as appropriate. It's a basis for discussion with the OR at a later stage.

Sugarglider1992

Thanks for the replies and advice - feeling a lot more comfortable with the situation now, I think i've accepted the unexpected changes!

WhenIam64 - stepchange had advised that although my therapy would be a sticky point, that if I got a case together proving that it is a vital part of my day-day living, that they would put the DRO application forward. After 2 months of waiting, they said that the psychotherapy wasn't allowed in insolvency anyway so wouldn't be putting it forward. Very disappointing but soldier on!

I'm not going to be in a position to rent at the moment, as I contribute my a fair share my parents home, it would leave them struggling to pay the overheads. However after you raised that point, i contacted some landlords that I used to work with and found a couple that would be happy to consider me as a tenant... phew! thanks for raising that fatbelly

fatbelly

Daniellemcookie wrote: »

I'm not going to be in a position to rent at the moment, as I contribute my a fair share my parents home, it would leave them struggling to pay the overheads. However after you raised that point, i contacted some landlords that I used to work with and found a couple that would be happy to consider me as a tenant... phew! thanks for raising that fatbelly

Well done

Credit references can be an issue but where you are known personally by a landlord as a reliable person, that overrules everything.

Good luck and keep posting.