I am officially a stamped, signed and sealed paupre!

shy-but-need-help

Today at 3.44 I was officially declared a bankrupt- I did it, I survived and in thanks to you very lovely people supporting me and helping answer all my (often very daft and trivial) questions reassuring me it was all ok I should return here and tell my own story to let others about to take the leap know it's not as bad as you expect!

I'll admit after months of dealing with snotty people who spoke down to me over money i owed and made me feel like a naughty school child i really was expecting it to be an awful affair.

I decided to get it over and done with and tell my father (already told my mom) and he wished me good luck, told me he could understand why and he was surprised we'd hung on this long. So with that in mind I left dh at home (who was assuring me he could deal with the kids all day) and i got on the bus with my mother to birmingham- an hour and ten minutes!!!!

Arrived, found the court and killed the 45 minutes early that we were. Checked in to the court through the security gates (although boy did my mother look odd explaining why she had shoes in her hand bag :rolleyes: ) and was directed to the 4th floor, got there, got entirely confused by the signs and went to the payment desk who sent me back to the insolvency enquiries where a nice lady ticked my name off the waiting list and sent me out to sit in a waiting area with a lady with pink hair (hello pink haired lady if you post here- hope it all went well for you too) waited around 20 minutes and then they called me in, went through my forms and made any changes that needed making, then i had to number all the pages (still no idea why?) and then they sent me to the payments desk, paid my £485 and then went and swore an affadavit (which can now be done without a bible if you're a "no particular concerns of the spiritual kind" like myself) lady signed it all and sent me back to the clerks office, they took my papers from me and sent me to wait again- another 20 minutes or so, then the clerk came, fetched me, took me down to a huge waiting area with well over 20 court rooms off it (huge place) and we sat and waited whilst an usher took my forms into the judge- judge was apparently rushing us through as it was now 3.40 and they close at 4 and there was another bloke after me, two minutes later she reappeared and said the judge would see me (GULP- i'd just watched lady with pink hair not have to go see him, hers were just signed off)

So i went in- just a standard office, very friendly looking judge sat at a big desk with a tape recording thing, offered me one of 10 big red comfy chairs, i sat down he asked my name, where i lived, was it rented, did i understand the effect it would have on me and as it was a small amount compared to many bankruptcies (under 10K but i really was going to take years and years to pay it off as we were) and i told him yes, he asked did i take professional advice, again i told him yes and he said he would not sign the order- signed it, told me i could now take some relief in the fact when the phone rang i just needed to tell them on 11th february i was declared bankrupt. He wished me well with my clean start and told me if i comply with the OR all should be fine.

I went back out and a very friendly clerk showed us back upstairs and asked was it what i'd imagined, she was really friendly- she took my paperwork, told us to take a seat, returned around 20 minutes later with my bankruptcy order and we were free to go, OR is due to call me tomorrow.

So yes- it was no where near as terrible as i was expecting, I feel a genuine relief (especially as i arrived home to more nasty letters) I feel like i can have a normal life again, it'll be a modest, living within my means and saving for a rainy day type of life but normal all the same.

Thanks everyone for their advice and help.

betterlatethannever

:T :T Thats great news SBNH..bet you feel sooo much better now:j

I'm glad your Dad gave you such a good response..i know it bothered you a lot and parental support can be invaluable.

Why do the security guys always pick on things in your handbag...mine commented on the Pro_plus and the amount of tablets i had, but my bag is like a mini chemist and i'm prepared for everything:D thankfully he saw, but didn't comment on the ermmm, female personal stuff:o

Anyway, you can now relax a little and lead that 'normal' life.

shy-but-need-help

Thank you- my mother is terrible for security check embarassments (once got stopped at heathrow and questionned over why she had ham sandwiches in her handbag - i quote "We do feed you on board madam" LOL)

I am just looking forwards to being able to do normal things - like answer the phone and not have to deny being me!

LesleyL_2

hi Shy
glad its behind you and as BLTN says, so glad you have family behind you
that is the best news of all :beer:

Lesley

vivadave

Brilliant news SBNH. pleased everything went fine for you, and the people were helpful and friendly with dealing with you.
And thanks for sharing your story with us.
My turn on Friday, and to be honest, i'm pooping myself over it lol

Viva....;)

tigerfeet2006

Hi Shy, well done on getting through the day. Glad it went well for you and thank you for letting us know about your experiances.

:rotfl: at your mum and the shoes. Just why DID she have a spare pair of shoes in her bag?

shy-but-need-help

Ahhh the spare shoes did have a purpose, she has a dodgy knee and with all the walking she wore her smart shoes (as she didn't want people to think bad of her at court) but they sometimes play her knee up so she put her baseball pumps in her bag just in case... however baseball pumps happen to be bright yellow converse all stars covered in little cartoon rabbits LOL

Dave you will be fine- I was verrrrrry worried about it all (especially the travelling into b'ham bit as i really don't "do" cities and i am overall a person who doesn't deal well with high stress situations) but it all went just as people on here had told me- right down to the clerks being friendly bit- no wigs or robes in sight. Do take a drink or something to read though because a good 80% of the time i was there was just waiting

Am now just sat waiting for the reciever to call...

LesleyL_2

and that will go just as smoothly shy (((Hugs)))

Remember when he/she asks their questions that they are not trying to catch you out, just get clear on how and why the situations occurred Come back later and tell us how it all went

Lesley

tigerfeet2006

Ah! that sounds sensible. ROFL at them being converses and yellow.

If you are talking to the OR today anyway ask about the child benefit.

shy-but-need-help

I shall do- I have called child benefit too this morning and made sure next weeks will go into dh's personal account- i called the CTC people initially and made that switch over a week ago and they said "oh shall we notify child benefit" to which i said yes, foolishly thinking they'd do it immediately... however talking to child benefit people today they only got the request to do it yesterday hence why todays payment went into joint account- moral of this story for anyone else if the CTC people ask you do you want them to get CB to pay to another account say no, you'll do it yourself

Notgotapottoweein

Bravo :j :j :beer: :beer: