Bankruptcy Help

kevmalone1981

Long story coming, beware....

A few years ago I took a new job that didn't turn out to be as it was promised (the salary was half that promised).
To take this job I had to move with my fiance to a new area and rent a place.
I figured the extra income from the pay rise would pay the rent and bills, we were both previously living with parents.
We both had debts but nothing we weren't able to handle and never missed any payments on anything until this mess. (after bank charges and missed payment fees totalling £2000 alone we both owe jointly £25,000)
After a month in the new jobs we received our first paychecks, only to discover that there was a difference to what was promised.
Straight away this led to problems as we could only just pay the rent, and bills and a few payments on debts.
Before we new it we were living off credit cards and missing payments all over the place. But having just signed a tenancy for 6 months with no way out of it we had to stay and rack up more debts, missing more and more payments.
We were then contacted by Churchwood Financial Management Ltd, who jumped to help us.
We had no experience of being in debt and were quite naive and so took the opportunity they presented in the form of a repayment plan.
They arranged to get in touch with all of our creditors and arrange repayment. There was no explanation of fees at all.
So we took them at their word and began to pay them what we could afford each month.
A month or two later they contacted us again saying that our creditors were unhappy with the amonuts we were paying and that the only way we could keep them happy was with "a little known loophole, called an IVA"
A very helpful gentleman gave us what he claimed to be impartial, biase free advise and from this we took up the IVA.
At the time of agreeing I was concerned about how much we could afford as we were struggling as it was.
We were told that if our salaries increased we would have to pay more and I also confirmed on a number of occasions that if our income went down that our payments would decrease also.

Cut to 9 months later.....

my fiance is now pregnant and i have had a number of months out of work due to stress and panic attacks (brought on through worry about debt)
This meant that our IVA was in breach.
I had contacted Kingsgate (Churchwoods sister company) who the IVA was with and they said that it was unfortunate but their was no way of decreasing the payments on the IVA to anywhere near what we could afford and with my fiance being out of work there was no way of us being able to claw it back at a later date.

Due to this we are now victims of a failed IVA and any day now we are expecting lots of angry letters.

Basically what I need is advice on bankruptcy.
i am concerned that we will loose our cars (both worth less that £2000). Mine I expect to loose but hope that my fiance will keep hers (as our baby was born 5 weeks ago)
I am also concerned that we will loose our household items as due to the IVA we are now unable to pass a credit check for somewhere to live and our property is in storage whilst we live with relatives whilst a homeless charity helps us find somewhere to live.

We have an appointment with CAB on Friday but I'm concerned they will tell us that bankruptcy isn't the answer and that we'll have to pay thousands of pounds in fees and charges for each loan.
We really hope to have a clean start for the sake of our baby.

Please help....

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome to the board.

From what you have said I see no reason why the CAB wouldn't say BR was a solution.

Your household goods will be safe, the only things that will get taken are things like expensive plasma screen tv's or Picasso paintings that you may have lurking around.

Cars are difficult, you have to prove to the OR that they are necessary and not a convienience to you.

Well done on taking steps to getting your life back under control. Anything you need to know just help.

Got2change

Please stay calm - and congratulations on the new baby.
Someone far cleverer and more experienced than I will no doubt advise you more fully - however -
Bankruptcy will probably be the best option for you; once you have decided that, you should stop paying all your creditors and start saving for the maximum £485 fees (depends on your income).
You may be able to reclaim some of the bank charges/late fees that have accrued - or possibly they will be decucted from the balance owing? Given timescales, it may not be worth pursuing them on that - but again, someone else will give you clearer advice; I think it is a long process.......
You definitely need to get the help of CAB or similar - the Court will expect you to have done so and believe it or not, it can help delay maters in a good way (a bailiff who called on me the other day said that once I had involved the CAB, it meant that he would expect matters to actually slow down so he would not put any further pressure on me).
I am sure that your household goods will be safe - unlesss they are massively valuable - i.e. antique or high spec electronics. The only time you are asked about items of value is when it comes to completing the Bankruptcy petition. Cars I'm not too sure about - I read conflicting stuff am therefore worried about mine. My CAB chap said no way will they take it (as it's an old banger) but I don't feel safe even now. I absolutely adore my old banger and I do need it but how safe it is remains to be seen....
Hope this helps - and I've made so many typos and taken so long, there are probably lots of better answers than mine already posted for you.
All the best.

kevmalone1981

So has anybody on here been declared BR at Preston Court that could tell me how much it is going to cost.
Myself and my fiance will be declared at the same time so I fear it will be expensive.

fermi

The fees are the same at all courts.

For each person it is a £150 court fee and a £335 deposit for the OR.

If you are on certain benefits then you can be exempted to £150 court fee.

• Income-Support
• Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• State Pension Guarantee Credit
• Working Tax Credit with no element of Child Tax Credit

Or if your income is low enough then you may get it waived on those grounds.

That is all explained in probably too much detail here: http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/ex160a.pdf

The £335 for the OR is always payable though.

susieh_2

Hello & welcome,

Just a quickie, i know you've not yet made a decision on whether B/R is for you or not but we were declared b/r in Blackburn (so not sure about the court in Preston), but our telephone interview was with the office in Blackpool, which being in roughly the same area I'm sure yours will be too. The O/R was so lovely and really put our minds at rest, I'd go as far to say he was really sympathetic. Even when we rung every day for nearly a week with one query or another he was so helpful.

Hope all goes well, and really at this moment in time your family are your priority.

Best of luck

Susieh