On the 25th November 2009, I, along with my husband were declared bankrupt. I have written my experience to show how I felt and dealt with the situation. I hope this helps someone.
My husband had to liquidate his company in July 2009. That in itself was a tough decision to take. Following the liquidation we knew that we would be left with lots of debt and be totally responsible for it.
After lots of discussions and research, we decided jointly that the only way forward was bankruptcy.
My husband due to his business dealings was fairly relaxed with the situation; I however was initially very worried. What would people say? Where would we live? Would we be able to survive this? Would our two teenage children suffer?
My husband found a great website called ‘Piggy bankrupt’. This was the start to feeling better, although the unknown of where we would live was at the forefront of my mind. We emailed the Piggy website and a really nice guy who created the site contacted us (a bankrupt himself). He spoke at length and then said he would get a lady called Ann Marie to ring us.
Ann Marie spoke at length to my husband and then she phoned me at home and I asked questions that were on my mind. What will happen to my family allowance and tax credits? What do I say when creditors phone us? What would happen to our house? Will they come and see what we have in it? Would they want items that belonged to our children? What do I do about my bank account?
Ann Marie cleared up my questions, but then I found I had others, but she was always at the end of a phone or we emailed her our questions and then she either emailed or phoned back and it didn’t matter how trivia my questions were. So things were starting to feel better. Having someone who knows really helped.
We looked for properties to rent and we were honest to the landlord about the bankruptcy. We soon found ourselves a lovely house and moved in. We then gave the keys back to the mortgage company. My first worry over. Everything after that started to fall into place.
The bankruptcy itself was painless. Our forms (which Ann Marie did for us) were checked with us, in a small room and we swore on oath. The forms were taken to the judge and he asked to see us. We were in there 2 minutes. He asked us if we had looked into an IVA. We said we had and on advice it wasn’t for us. So he granted our bankruptcy. We then went back to the small room where we then spoke to the official receiver by phone. They just asked us basic questions which were easy to answer, like, which are your banks, account numbers, about our vehicles etc. We will have to work with the official receiver over the next few months.
We are waiting to have an interview with the official receiver, this is something I am not looking forward to, as I don’t know how far they look into things, but as my husband as said “the worst is over, they can’t lock you up for spending at BHS last year”. We have had to fill in some forms and provide bank, credit card and loan information. They have informed our banks who have shut our accounts down.
My life had changed and I realised that I had to change with it, or I would never be able to move forward! I am feeling relieved and actually feeling excited about our future.
In 2008 I was repossessed by Northern Rock. In 2009 Northern Rocks debt collection agency started to chase me for the outstanding debt – they got my home, and still wanted me to pay the deficit on their low value sale! I also had some credit card debts.
I struggled with this for a while, until I had to take steps. I found Piggy Bankrupts site and after talking to Piggy Bankrupt – things had got so bad that I was scared of opening the post – my worst fear was confirmed, with combined debts over £75,000 my only real option was bankruptcy.
I had never thought things would get to that point. The stigma of bankruptcy was not something I wanted hanging over me, but the fact that I owed so much had to make me think about which was worse.
After discussing this with my wife – none of the debt was in her name I hasten to add – we decided it was the only way.
Mark put me in touch with Ann Marie, who organised my papers – Thank you Ann Marie! I got my court date and time and expected it to be a proper court room with me getting a serious dressing down for things getting to this point. I don’t think I slept the night before the court attendance.
When I arrived at the court, I was sent up to the offices and walked into a waiting room with about 10 other people also waiting in there, all waiting to be declared bankrupt – and it was a very broad spectrum of people. I handed my papers into the lady behind the glass window with my money and she informed me that the judge would not be able to see me and to return in about 90 minutes time.
When I returned I got my Declaration and left – that was it, no scares, no dressing down. I was just informed the Official Receiver would contact me in about 2 to 3 days time.
I have now been bankrupt for 9 months, I am due to come out of it in August 2010. I was put on a nil tax code and my tax for three months to the end of the financial year went to the official receiver. I told my landlady in person about my bankruptcy prior to going to court, and she was ok – in fact she was really supportive.
Bankruptcy, can feel like the worst failure possible. It isn’t it. It is a route by which you reclaim your life, your health and your self-respect. Under no circumstance is it a stigma upon you. People like Mark and Ann Marie do not push you into it, they are supportive and incredibly knowledgeable about a side of finance most of us do not know anything about. Without both of them I would still be sinking.
I declared myself bankrupt in 2008. I had a mortgage at 19 and due to having a stroke after I moved into my new property I was obviously struggling to keep up the payments due to not being able to work and my mortgage lender not offering me any help.
I have since been discharged from bankruptcy in March 2009 however I was only made aware of this about 3 months, I thought it would be a fresh start however I felt I could not have been more wrong.
I have found the experience very difficult to deal with and sometimes I feel like I’m stuck in a hole with nowhere to turn. I have written to all my creditors as advised however 50% of them have not bothered to update their records and have not even responded to my letters.
I do have the pre paid master card that piggy bankrupt suggests which is great however I do not feel this is enough to get me back to scratch.
I do not recommend bankruptcy, however sometimes we just have no other options.
I became discharged from bankruptcy on Dec 2009 it was the best thing I ever did. Losing everything I had tried so hard to keep hold of was liberating. I felt I walked out of my old bogged down with debt life and into a new positive beginning.
It was awful on the lead up to my court date but it was just fear of the unknown. I felt guilt that I had failed I walked out feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted.
This is a particularly relevant bankruptcy restriction undertaking case due to the fact that the circumstances of the case are unlikely to be unique to Mr Williams only. In November of 2006 Mr Thompson made a false and misleading statement in order to obtain a mortgage. The Official Receiver alleged that this amounted to fraud or fraudulent breach of trust. Mr Thompson accepted these allegations and his bankruptcy restrictions were prolonged for a period of eight years.
Mr Thompson applied to a mortgage company claiming that he was a self employed owner of a plumbing business and that he had made a profit of £55,000 in the previous tax year. He was unable to keep up the repayments and the property was repossessed. The mortgage was approximately £172,000 and the sale of the property gave rise to a shortfall of £91,000 to the mortgage company and a liability to a second secured lender of approximately £15,000.
It is worth noting that in serious cases of fraud that you should expect the length of the bankruptcy restrictions order or undertaking to be closer to the 15 year mark. You may also attract a criminal liability punishable by imprisonment, fine or both.
As a separate warning it is worth noting that debts incurred by way of fraud or fraudulent breach of trust cannot be discharged through bankruptcy and as such will remain payable after your discharge. It is unclear whether this was in fact the case with Mr Thompson. There are a number of legal matters that need consideration in these instances.
If you require help understanding any of the matters discussed here please feel free to call the bankruptcy helpline. You may also like to look at the consequences of bankruptcy page.
