pre bankruptcy preferential payment 20 September 2020 at 2:02AM in Bankruptcy & living with it 2 replies 186 views

Sammy_w

Hi All,

First thanks for all the support and help from you all.   I have a quick question about pre Bankruptcy payments.

When I lost my job i had no savings & last paycheque was non existent - my patents loaned me money for food, etc and i also borrowed some money from a few friends - I needed a suit for interviews etc.  In both cases I agreed to pay them back in full once I was earning again, which I did.   At that point I hoped to not be in my current situation.  

anyway technically are these are seen as 'preferential payments'?  I had no choice at that point, I needed to eat and try to get myself back into employment.   
I was also in child maintenance arrears.  I was struggling with my mental health and desperately needed to appease my ex to ensure there were no visitation issues.   Again will the OR be understating with this?

sourcrates

Preferential payments are something that are made to creditors, borrowing a few quid off your mate hardly falls into that catagory now does it.

Please don`t overthink things, apply common sence to everything, because thats what the OR will do, they will not be interested in anything such as you describe, they know you have no money yet you need to eat, or buy clothes, whatever it may be, thats essential, not preferential, big difference.

Don`t muddy the waters by mentioning borrowing money from a mate to buy a suit, or to eat, or whatever, its not relevant to the OR`s job, as it was a necessity on your part.

MalMonroe

Hi, have you contacted one of the debt help agencies at all? They are really helpful and can give you all the information you need, what to include in your application and everything else. I used StepChange, click this link https://www.stepchange.org/
or there's a free phone number 0800 138 1111.

I reached the point where I didn't know what to do or which way to turn and they arranged a Debt Relief Order for me and explained everything very carefully. I can't tell you how good it was to just get everything off my chest and be told that there was a solution and they were going to help. They will even submit your application for you.

But it sounds as if you need some good solid advice about everything that will happen and I can't recommend StepChange highly enough. Just try them, you have nothing to lose. Good luck!