Bankruptcy, Repossesion & renting, i'm confussed!!.

Banco44

Hi, Some of you will have read this from a previous thread, but apparently i put it under the wrong section?! I have another question, please read the below and the question below it.

Hi there, was wondering if someone could give us some advice.
Me and my wife entered into an IVA with Debt Free Direct (DFD) in March 04 where we agreed to pay £499 per month, which at the time was affordable as we were both in full time employment and had no children.

Within the first year my OH got pregnant and we advised DFD, whilst on maternity leave they allowed us to reduce the payment to £360 per month.

After having the baby my wife went back to work but only on a part time basis 16 hours per week, we advised DFD that our income had vastly reduced along with the added expenditure of having a child, they advised us over the phone to pay only what we could afford and after completing an income and expenditure form this was only £70 per month.

18 months later we had another child again we advised DFD and continued to pay £70 per month.

During this period we have on at least three occasions requested a variation to the original proposal, but this seems to have fallen on deaf incompetant ears at DFD.

we have also tried 3 times during that last 4 years to remortgage to make an early settlement of the iva and each time we have been told that there was not enough equity to cover what they want.

In 2006 we received a certificate of non compliance, we immediatly spoke to and wrote a lenghy letter to DFD re explaining our circumstances, after not hearing from them we called them to see if they received the letter, they tild us they had and to ignore the certificate of non compliance.

In January/February this year we received a letter from DFD as we do each time at this time of year to review our income and expenditure, we completed this and found we could up the payment to £131 per month, After making 2 payments of this new amount we received a petition for our bankruptcy with the hearing being on the 9th May.

My questions are:

1. Does anyone know who DFD's governing body are? as we wish to lodge a complaint against them.

2. Does this sound like DFD has been incompentant and not lived upto there side of the deal?

3. What is involved in the process of us being made bankrupt?

4. We know we are likely to loose the house, CAB advised us to stop paying the mortgage, is this ok?

5. Can we leave our house to privately rent before the OR gives us notice to leave.

Sorry for the length of this posting but is has been a long and difficult time and i'm hoping someone can help us. I now wish i'd gone bankrupt 4 years ago and so would have saved paying those incompetent idiots any money at all, out of all we have paid to them nearly £11000 seems to have gone in there fees and administration of the IVA!!!!

Further questions :

We have found a house to rent, do we need to inform the mortgage company that we are moving out and that we want them to reposesse the house as soon as we move into rented? Is there a form to complete or do we just write to them and tell them we are being made bankrupt and have moved to rented?

Do we tell the OR/Trustee straight away that we have moved out so they can deal with the house sooner?

Do we have to pay the council tax on the empty property?

Thanks again, i know its a longen!

tigerfeet2006

Hi and welcome to the board :wave:

Sorry haven't got time to reply in depth but if you have a read of this thread you will find most of your answers. Scarlett is a very inspirational lady.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=596237&highlight=scarlett+diary

Well done on taking steps to get your life back under control.

Notgotapottoweein

Hi Banco.

I'll do me best!:eek:

If you've been advised to go bankrupt then contact your local county court who will advise you of the process of going bankrupt.

Different courts have different ways of doing things but ours ( Coventry county court ) were fabulous.


You most certainly can stop paying the mortgage plus all other debt immediatley if you are intending bankruptcy. Just keep on top of your utilities ie council tax etc.


We moved out of our property in January into rented accomodation before our bankruptcy hearing. We hadn't paid our mortgage or any other debt since the previous october and didn;t inform anyone of our move. The only thing we did do was to have our post redirected for 6 months so we could keep on top of all our letters to give to the OR upon bankruptcy. Try and move into private rented before bankruptcy if possible although depening on your credit rating you may need 6 months rent in advance to do this which is why you stop paying for things now and save the money up.


Our mortgage company ( Northern rock ) wanted us to sign a voluntery surrender form but we refused to do that so they are taking it back the conventional route and have made a court date of 2nd June! only 8 months since we stopped paying the mortgage.


Regards the council tax. We do not currently pay any council tax on our empty property but if it is not sold before july we could then be liable.


Good luck.

Cinderbrook

Hi, the trouble with IVA's is that now they are generally saying that you must pay a minimum of £250 (so they can make money out of you). As you have reduced your payments unfortunately this is what happens with IVA plans. My own adviser at Payplan warned me against them as people often end up being forced in bankruptcy, but in my view the better option. The CAB are right to say stop paying your mortgage. As you are being made bankrupt there is no point paying anything to any creditors, save your cash, you will have more after BR. Just concentrate on organising the move to the rented home. Good luck for the future.

Banco44

Notgotapottoweein wrote: »

Hi Banco.

I'll do me best!:eek:

If you've been advised to go bankrupt then contact your local county court who will advise you of the process of going bankrupt.

Different courts have different ways of doing things but ours ( Coventry county court ) were fabulous.


You most certainly can stop paying the mortgage plus all other debt immediatley if you are intending bankruptcy. Just keep on top of your utilities ie council tax etc.


We moved out of our property in January into rented accomodation before our bankruptcy hearing. We hadn't paid our mortgage or any other debt since the previous october and didn;t inform anyone of our move. The only thing we did do was to have our post redirected for 6 months so we could keep on top of all our letters to give to the OR upon bankruptcy. Try and move into private rented before bankruptcy if possible although depening on your credit rating you may need 6 months rent in advance to do this which is why you stop paying for things now and save the money up.


Our mortgage company ( Northern rock ) wanted us to sign a voluntery surrender form but we refused to do that so they are taking it back the conventional route and have made a court date of 2nd June! only 8 months since we stopped paying the mortgage.


Regards the council tax. We do not currently pay any council tax on our empty property but if it is not sold before july we could then be liable.


Good luck.

Many Thanks for that advise, you have certainly helped to put my mind at rest. We don't feel so bad about it now.:A

Banco44

Cinderbrook wrote: »

Hi, the trouble with IVA's is that now they are generally saying that you must pay a minimum of £250 (so they can make money out of you). As you have reduced your payments unfortunately this is what happens with IVA plans. My own adviser at Payplan warned me against them as people often end up being forced in bankruptcy, but in my view the better option. The CAB are right to say stop paying your mortgage. As you are being made bankrupt there is no point paying anything to any creditors, save your cash, you will have more after BR. Just concentrate on organising the move to the rented home. Good luck for the future.

Thanks this really helps me, i wish i'd not gone bankrupt four years ago.
Do you advise telling the mortgage company my new address or should we just redirect the post?

Banco44

just another question.

After the BR hearing, will the OR/Trustee send bailiffs round to take may tv etc??

betterlatethannever

No Banco, unless you have items of a high value then they won't be interested (generally items over 1k value)
Do you have a car?

maxmycardagain

buy some condoms too....

Banco44

betterlatethannever wrote: »

No Banco, unless you have items of a high value then they won't be interested (generally items over 1k value)
Do you have a car?

We don't have anything over £1k.

We would estimate the car to be about £2K, Are they likely to take this?

Banco44

maxmycardagain wrote: »

buy some condoms too....

Yes maybe i should!!!