Bankruptcy question

Mitzi1

I became unable to repay credit card and loan repayments (amount owed is £35,000) in 2017 due to change in personal circumstances. Between then and now I have not worked and have not claimed benefits. I have no assets, car is in husband name and always has been. So I have absolutely no personal income. I have had some money in my bank over these years which is from my husband to me to pay for shopping, diesel etc. About 1 year ago I had £15,000 paid in to my bank from a company that my husband did a big job for. The money has dwindled down to very little now as that has been used for day to day expenses( all showing on my statements). I want to apply for bankruptcy now to clear my debt but my questions are:
1. Do I qualify?
2. How would the large sum of money paid in effect the bankruptcy application?
3. Would they need to ask for information from my husband/companies he has received money from into my account? Ideally I would like to keep him out of it altogether.

fatbelly

If you haven't made any payments since 2017 and you live in England then these debts are nearly statute barred.

Creditors have six years to start a court claim and if they miss this window, they are out of time according to the Limitation Act 1980.

The critical date here is the date they registered a default. So, for instance if a lender register a default on 24 Feb 2017, they are now out of time.

You're thinking of bankruptcy rather than a DRO because you are over the 30k limit. Statute barred debts do not count towards that limit so you might consider hanging on a bit. A DRO will only cost £90, make no requirement to pay from your income and is generally less intrusive.

I see you've asked the stepchange rep for comment so I'll let them answer your bankruptcy-specific questions.

Mitzi1

fatbelly said:

If you haven't made any payments since 2017 and you live in England then these debts are nearly statute barred.

Creditors have six years to start a court claim and if they miss this window, they are out of time according to the Limitation Act 1980.

The critical date here is the date they registered a default. So, for instance if a lender register a default on 24 Feb 2017, they are now out of time.

You're thinking of bankruptcy rather than a DRO because you are over the 30k limit. Statute barred debts do not count towards that limit so you might consider hanging on a bit. A DRO will only cost £90, make no requirement to pay from your income and is generally less intrusive.

I see you've asked the stepchange rep for comment so I'll let them answer your bankruptcy-specific questions.

Ah, I forgot to mention, 2 of the debts are now CCJ’s. One CCJ is just under £9,000 and the other is £2,000. The rest will be statute barred in a few months from now like you said. I’m not worried about those. But I’m thinking that the CCJ’s might never go away. Even if I don’t pay the CCJ’s in 6 years, I think they can reapply another CCzJ anytime in the future.

fatbelly

A ccj doesn't go statute barred - you are correct. But if they don't enforce a ccj within 6 years of judgement they have to ask specific permission of the court.

There's no second ccj - once they have one they are expected to enforce it.

The qualifying criteria for a DRO are

• not a homeowner
• not had one in the past 6 years
• debts under 30k - that is qualifying debts that are due and payable
• surplus income under 75 per month
• assets under 2k
• car (if you own one) has to be valued at under 2k.

So from what you say, once 5k of debt goes statute barred, you qualify

sourcrates

Just to add the debts will CCJ`s are included in a DRO as well, the judgements get annulled.