Wot a life's thread.

wot_a_life

Our 18 year old isn't quite 18 yet, he will be at the end of July this year, he attends college 4 days a week and he is 2 years into his course.

He is actively looking for a little PT job to fit around his hours

Richard_S

Hi Wot a life,

Unless your circumstances take a drastic turn for the better I can't see a way out of your current situation without declaring bankruptcy. I would never encourage somebody to declare bankruptcy because I'm not a trained advisor; that should only be a recommendation made by a professional. If you do contact one of the Debt Charities and they recommend bankruptcy then I would approach it as follows.

Immediately stop paying all debts including the mortgage. Continue to pay utility bills and council tax, and only absolutely essential expenditure. This should allow you to save the fees for bankruptcy and hopefully start to save a little towards a "cash contingency" fund; especially if your O.H is well enough to work during some of this period.

The bank / building society will eventually start proceeding to repossess your house, but don't be tempted to offer to pay anything until it gets to Court. This could well take at least three months, and by that time you should have been able to petition for your bankruptcy, and be relieved of all the unsecured debt.

When you get the Court date, work out what the arrears are, and then deduct five years off your outstanding mortgage term, and work out how much per month the arrears will come to spread over that period. For example, if there's 10 years left on your mortgage, and the arrears are £10k, then that's £1k p.a or approximately £84 p.c.m. This is the figure to offer in Court towards the arrears. There is case law that guides Judges to accept repayment of arrears over the term left remaining on the mortgage, and by deducting five years you are offering slightly more than you need to.

Having increased your arrears will also have reduced the equity in your house, and consequently your Beneficial Interest. If you wait until the very last moment to discuss purchasing the B.I from the O.R there's every chance that house prices will have fallen even further, and the B.I reduced to a point where it's a manageable amount.

There's inevitably going to be a lot of pressure with approaching your debt problems like this, and there's never any guarantee of success, but it certainly does offer you a workable route out of your current difficulties. Following a very similar route worked for us, and our debts were quite a lot higher than yours, so I am talking from experience and not hypothesising about something I've no real knowledge of.

The first step has got to be conatcting a Debt Charity, and then move forward as I've suggested.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions, however embarrassing they may seem to be. I'm sure that you'll look back at this moment in 12 months time and realise that it was when you started to take control of your situation, instead of just responding to it.

Best regards

Richard

RAS

wot_a_life wrote: »

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 520
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 889
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1409



Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 1175

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 169000......(1175).....7.9
Total secured debts........... 169000.......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
CCJ ...........................1276.57...5.........0
Orange.........................360.12....5........ .0
Vets...........................469.9.....5........ .0
Storecard......................846.71....5........ .0
Storecard......................1044.71...5........ .0
Barclays Loan..................954.71....10........0
CallServe......................3447.11...5........ .0
Debt Managers..................744.32....5.........0
Storecard......................555.......0........ .0
Barclaycard....................NaN.......5........ .0
Charging order.................2100.......0.........0
CCJ............................1904.76...0........ .0
CCJ............................928.99....0........ .0
Callserve......................1034.96...5........ .0
CCJ............................691.72....0........ .0
Statutory Demand...............NaN.......50........0
Business Card..................4120.7....20........0
Overdraft......................6346.95...10....... .0
Yell.com.......................527.59....5........ .0
Vodafone.......................2080.13...5........ .0
Total unsecured debts..........NaN.......145.......-


I know the unsecured debt is alot, only 7 of them are actually mine! so please don't be too hard on me x

hi can you indicate above which debts are yours and which
are OH's, plus any joint?

wot_a_life

My personal debts are -

Barclaycard - £2,973.75
Storecard - £555.00
Debt Managers - 744.32
CallServe - £3,447.11
Blair Oliver & Scott - 954.71
Thames Credit - £1044.71
Thames Credit - £826.71

Total = £10,546.31 - This has come down massively as I have been making regular monthly payments

I also had a Statutory Demand served on me last August for around £6,000 - this is not my debt but because I signed the paperwork for a business I worked for, I am liable so I have been paying them £50.00 per month to avoid Bankruptcy

Total = £16,546.31

wot_a_life

Thank-you Richard,

Can I just ask........

When do we actually apply for Bankruptcy?
Would it be before, after or during the repossesion hearing?

Also, should we both declare bankruptcy or just one of us?
I've posted my personal debts

The mortgage company did apply for repossesion before but we managed to keep out of court by offering them an extra £105 per month on top of the mortgage repayments so I don't think it will be long before they get us into court

Richard_S

wot_a_life wrote: »

My personal debts are -

Barclaycard - £2,973.75
Storecard - £555.00
Debt Managers - 744.32
CallServe - £3,447.11
Blair Oliver & Scott - 954.71
Thames Credit - £1044.71
Thames Credit - £826.71

Total = £10,546.31 - This has come down massively as I have been making regular monthly payments

I also had a Statutory Demand served on me last August for around £6,000 - this is not my debt but because I signed the paperwork for a business I worked for, I am liable so I have been paying them £50.00 per month to avoid Bankruptcy

Total = £16,546.31

Hi Wot a life,

If it's at all possible it's better if one person in a couple can avoid bankruptcy, but it's not critical, and after reading through your SOA I can't really see any point in either one of you not declaring bankruptcy.

I don't have any idea of your ages or your attitude to bankruptcy, but it was obvious from your first post that you were utterly ashamed of the situation you found yourself in. My wife and I are uncomfortably close to 50yrs old, and we've had some very succesful businesses over the years, so it came as something of a shock to find ourselves bankrupt, when we'd been planning on taking things easier and possibly moving abroad once the kids had moved out.

If that rings a bell with you then perhaps some "philosophy" might help. We have completely shut out of our minds that things have not gone according to plan. We never, under any circumstances look back at the mistakes we've made and crucify ourselves with "what iffs, and iff onlys," the only things that matter to us now, are how we're going to achieve the re-defined goals we've set ourselves? It's unthinkable that we're going to spoil today, or tomorrow, by dwelling on the m,istakes we made yesterday.

I've been on this site for a lot longer than I ever intended to be, and the most significant thing that sticks in my mind, is how hard people are on themselves, how they never cease to punish themselves for making mistakes, that in most cases weren't anywhere close to entirely their own making.

I don't know who manages the finances in your relationship, or makes the major financial decisions, but I suspect it's you, and if it is, then you need to confront your demons and "throttle the life out of them". Your demons are your debts; bankruptcy could well be the tool to slay them.

Best regards

Richard

Richard_S

wot_a_life wrote: »

Thank-you Richard,

Can I just ask........

When do we actually apply for Bankruptcy?There's nothing to be gained by waiting. My O.H wanted us to declare bankruptcy almost a year before I accepted the inevitable, and all I succeeded in doing was prolonging the agony, and forcing us to live in a completely unnecessary purgatory.
Would it be before, after or during the repossesion hearing?If you do it sooner rather than later then it would probably be before you got to Court, but it wouldn't make any difference.

Also, should we both declare bankruptcy or just one of us?From reading your SOA there doesn't seem any point in either of you trying to avoid bankruptcy; you haven't got the spare cash to keep either of your crediors at bay.
I've posted my personal debts

The mortgage company did apply for repossesion before but we managed to keep out of court by offering them an extra £105 per month on top of the mortgage repayments so I don't think it will be long before they get us into courtIt took our bank six months before they managed to get us to Court, and then I phoned the Court with a phoney illness and it was delayed for another 3 months. I have to admit to being completely shameless when it comes to "stretching the truth", but if you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing it's going to be at least three months before they get a Court date set, and more likely six months.

Hi Wot a life,

None of my posts on here are made lightly; I'm painfully aware of the fact that you must be going through a "living hell" at the moment, and I won't post anything that I'm not 110% certain about.

There are a lot of very competent people who read the Threads on this Forum, and you can be assured that we've all felt the same desperation and sheer misery or terror that you're feeling at the moment. You're with people who understand, and you can get out of the mire, as we all have.

Best regards

Richard

wot_a_life

Tahnks for your posts Richard, forgive me for leaning on you at this difficult time........

In my mortgage handbook, one of the conditions is that if one of us to go Bankrupt, we have to inform them immediately, why? wouldn't the OR do that for us?

Richard_S

wot_a_life wrote: »

Tahnks for your posts Richard, forgive me for leaning on you at this difficult time........

In my mortgage handbook, one of the conditions is that if one of us to go Bankrupt, we have to inform them immediately, why? wouldn't the OR do that for us?

Hi Wot a life,

It's a pleasure to be able to help, and I know just how difficult it can get.

It's just one of those terms & conditions that's written into any financial agreement. It was in ours, but I completely overlooked it, and it didn't make a scrap of difference.

The O.R would write to them, and there's every chance they'd know before then anyway, so nothing to be bothered about.

Richard

wot_a_life

Also, if we both declared bankruptcy, then could either of us still apply to buy the BI? We have no family that could do this for us