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[quote][i]Originally posted by grimmy46[/i]
[br]I do not usually get involved or participate in things like this forum, but reading some of the posts on here prior to attending our BR hearing went along way to answering alot of questions and fears myself and my wife about the whole process. I thought i would share our experience with other forum members or newbies thinking about taking the plunge.
In December '07 my wife and i realised that our outgoings were becoming too much to handle, before things got out of hand and we fell into arrears with any of our debts i approached our local CAB for advice. To be honest they were not alot of use, they sat me in front of a computer and read information off of there website to me(which i had already read prior to seeing them) the conclusion was that a debt management plan was the best solution for us. i then went looking for a company to help set one up. i found a company that was prepared to talk to our creditors, agree a monthly payment that we could afford and take Ł60 for themselves in the process. with hindsight this was not the best decision we could have made but felt it was right at the time. we carried on with this agreement paying them Ł500pm for the next twelve months. A phone call from one of our creditors advised us that the management plan was not working as some payments were being missed by this comapany, they did say that the best people i should deal with in this situation are the CCCS who are best at dealing with this kind of thing and would not cream money of the top for themselves. I rang them in December'08, they were very helpfull and advised us to stop paying this other company as we qualified for an IVA and could be debt free in 5 years. this was all going through nicely and was about to kick off until i was unexpectantly made redundant at the beginning of February this year. As there was now a large deficit in our income we could not proceed with the IVA and bankruptcy was the only option. This was not an option we took lightly as we faced loseing our home, my wife's buisness(now our only source of income)and everything we had worked for. Over the next couple of weeks i worked through the SOA on the insovency website and arranged an appointment at the court.
The court day soon came around, we attended our local court with our three copies each and the Ł990 pounds in cash it would cost. I had not been as nervous when i was signing those SOA since i signed my marriage certificate many years ago, but the clerk was friendly and did not make us at all feel like we should be ashamed(even though we did
We were lucky that we were able to go straight into court after and see the judge, as there is usually a few days before the clerk appointment and the hearing. i felt sick as i entered the court as it was the just the judge on his own, i did fell a little intimidated for a short while as he looked down his glasses as us until he spoke. he asked if we minded that he dealt with me and my wife at the same time as they both basically contained the same information. he asked me a few basic questions. he said that he could see from our statements that we had recognised that we had a problem early on and had tried to sort the debts out over the previous 14 months but due to other circumstances we could not cope with the debt anymore. He told us to make sure that we point out to the OR that we have tried to pay back the debts and that our house is in negative equity. He then wished my wife a happy st Patricks day (she is Irish,March 17th) and declared us bankrupt nine minutes after our hearing started. He then told us to stop worrying and go and enjoy our children and the rest of our lives! a really nice man, my wife wanted to give him a big kiss,I could have too!!
We were told to expect a call from the OR that afternoon to arrange an appointment to go an see them. The OR did not make contact for the next 3 days. Again a really nice lady who did not make us feel ashamed at all, she confirmed all of the details on our statement of affairs, at the end she confirmed that the OR has no interest in our house due to the negative equity and the fact we have three children, they are not interested in our cars as i need mine to find work and my wifes is needed for her buisness, we have no other assets they could have and she said that she would write to our bank and tell them we are BR but that they have no interest in closing it down at all, it would be up to the discression of the bank of how to deal with us.I went to see the bank (lloyds) and told them our situation, and they did say that they would let us keep our accounts open for money to be paid in and direct debits to be paid out and keep our debit cards.
So that's it, the OR has said that she has enough information to complete her report, she does not need to see us or contact us again, she said we would get a pack through in about 8 weeks explaining the process of being a BR, she would be writing to our creditors informing them of our BR and there would be no further action.

In total we accrued debts of up to Ł60k, a situation that we are not proud of but the worry and stress of this whole process has been enough to ensure that we have learned from the mistakes we have made and come out of this when we are discharged better people for it.
I guess it worked in our favour that we did not bury our head in the sand and recognised quite early on we had a situation that was getting difficult for us to cope with and acted on it before it got out of hand.
So please do not let this become a monster that ruins your lives, there is out there and it may not be as scary as you think.
i would like to thank all the people that made contributions on this forum that went towards giving us the courage to step up and take the path of bankruptcy.

from now i'm going to do what the judge told us to and go on and enjoy the rest of our lives, just a little bit older and certainly a lot more wiser!

Good Luck

[/quote]

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T O P I C R E V I E W
grimmy46	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 07:44:57 I do not usually get involved or participate in things like this forum, but reading some of the posts on here prior to attending our BR hearing went along way to answering alot of questions and fears myself and my wife about the whole process. I thought i would share our experience with other forum members or newbies thinking about taking the plunge. In December '07 my wife and i realised that our outgoings were becoming too much to handle, before things got out of hand and we fell into arrears with any of our debts i approached our local CAB for advice. To be honest they were not alot of use, they sat me in front of a computer and read information off of there website to me(which i had already read prior to seeing them) the conclusion was that a debt management plan was the best solution for us. i then went looking for a company to help set one up. i found a company that was prepared to talk to our creditors, agree a monthly payment that we could afford and take Ł60 for themselves in the process. with hindsight this was not the best decision we could have made but felt it was right at the time. we carried on with this agreement paying them Ł500pm for the next twelve months. A phone call from one of our creditors advised us that the management plan was not working as some payments were being missed by this comapany, they did say that the best people i should deal with in this situation are the CCCS who are best at dealing with this kind of thing and would not cream money of the top for themselves. I rang them in December'08, they were very helpfull and advised us to stop paying this other company as we qualified for an IVA and could be debt free in 5 years. this was all going through nicely and was about to kick off until i was unexpectantly made redundant at the beginning of February this year. As there was now a large deficit in our income we could not proceed with the IVA and bankruptcy was the only option. This was not an option we took lightly as we faced loseing our home, my wife's buisness(now our only source of income)and everything we had worked for. Over the next couple of weeks i worked through the SOA on the insovency website and arranged an appointment at the court. The court day soon came around, we attended our local court with our three copies each and the Ł990 pounds in cash it would cost. I had not been as nervous when i was signing those SOA since i signed my marriage certificate many years ago, but the clerk was friendly and did not make us at all feel like we should be ashamed(even though we did We were lucky that we were able to go straight into court after and see the judge, as there is usually a few days before the clerk appointment and the hearing. i felt sick as i entered the court as it was the just the judge on his own, i did fell a little intimidated for a short while as he looked down his glasses as us until he spoke. he asked if we minded that he dealt with me and my wife at the same time as they both basically contained the same information. he asked me a few basic questions. he said that he could see from our statements that we had recognised that we had a problem early on and had tried to sort the debts out over the previous 14 months but due to other circumstances we could not cope with the debt anymore. He told us to make sure that we point out to the OR that we have tried to pay back the debts and that our house is in negative equity. He then wished my wife a happy st Patricks day (she is Irish,March 17th) and declared us bankrupt nine minutes after our hearing started. He then told us to stop worrying and go and enjoy our children and the rest of our lives! a really nice man, my wife wanted to give him a big kiss,I could have too!! We were told to expect a call from the OR that afternoon to arrange an appointment to go an see them. The OR did not make contact for the next 3 days. Again a really nice lady who did not make us feel ashamed at all, she confirmed all of the details on our statement of affairs, at the end she confirmed that the OR has no interest in our house due to the negative equity and the fact we have three children, they are not interested in our cars as i need mine to find work and my wifes is needed for her buisness, we have no other assets they could have and she said that she would write to our bank and tell them we are BR but that they have no interest in closing it down at all, it would be up to the discression of the bank of how to deal with us.I went to see the bank (lloyds) and told them our situation, and they did say that they would let us keep our accounts open for money to be paid in and direct debits to be paid out and keep our debit cards. So that's it, the OR has said that she has enough information to complete her report, she does not need to see us or contact us again, she said we would get a pack through in about 8 weeks explaining the process of being a BR, she would be writing to our creditors informing them of our BR and there would be no further action. In total we accrued debts of up to Ł60k, a situation that we are not proud of but the worry and stress of this whole process has been enough to ensure that we have learned from the mistakes we have made and come out of this when we are discharged better people for it. I guess it worked in our favour that we did not bury our head in the sand and recognised quite early on we had a situation that was getting difficult for us to cope with and acted on it before it got out of hand. So please do not let this become a monster that ruins your lives, there is out there and it may not be as scary as you think. i would like to thank all the people that made contributions on this forum that went towards giving us the courage to step up and take the path of bankruptcy. from now i'm going to do what the judge told us to and go on and enjoy the rest of our lives, just a little bit older and certainly a lot more wiser! Good Luck
5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
2stressed	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 20:47:56 Cheers Grimmy- Im applying for anything I can get at the moment- I worked in inv banking on a v good salary and ive jsut had to face facts that I can kiss all that goodbye......maybe it will do me some good not being in the rat race working 14hr days I shall let you know how I get on with my B/R.....fingers crossed My only concern is when someone I know spots it in the paper!
grimmy46	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 19:07:15 Hi 2Stressed, The B/R has been a quite quick process for me from start to finish. I filled out the SOA on the Insolvency.gov website and rang our local court to make the appointment. they orginally gave us a date three weeks away, these were only dealt with on two seperate days, the Thursday appointment was for a clerk to check over the SOA sign them in their presance and swear the affadavit. the next appointment on the following Tueday was for the hearing with the judge. However,they rang me back a few days later with a cancellation to get it all over with on the same day which we took. we arrived at the court at 13.30pm and left at 14.15pm with it all over. Keep your chin up mate, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope you manage to find employment soon, i still have not had any luck yet but at least with this out of the way i am not under so much pressure to find a job of up to Ł40k a year that i was on before, because there aint alot out there especially in the industry i was in for the last 16 years. All the best. Grimmy quote: Originally posted by 2stressed Grimmy- what a comfort your post has been. My situation is vert similar. I was going the IVA route and end of Jan one week before the meeting I got laid off!!!!! Finding work is not proving easy and its highly likely when I get it it will be a much lower salary- so I will be looking at B/R( a decision I have only taken this week) I have hit rock bottom where I need to move on and not be constantly worrying It seemed to go through quite quick for you.... Considering it took my IP 12 weeks to get an IVA proposal together Did you just fill out the forms and make a court appointment?
2stressed	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 15:25:24 Grimmy- what a comfort your post has been. My situation is vert similar. I was going the IVA route and end of Jan one week before the meeting I got laid off!!!!! Finding work is not proving easy and its highly likely when I get it it will be a much lower salary- so I will be looking at B/R( a decision I have only taken this week) I have hit rock bottom where I need to move on and not be constantly worrying It seemed to go through quite quick for you.... Considering it took my IP 12 weeks to get an IVA proposal together Did you just fill out the forms and make a court appointment?
John	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 13:02:48 Hi great post that will no doubt give some comfort to those facing financial turmoil. Many thanks grimmy and all the very best to you, your wife and your children for the future. John White England Jackman & Spacey
Niobe	Posted - 21 March 2009 : 11:18:06 What a great post grimmy, good to see that you are so positive. I'm so glad things have worked out for you and your wife. Good luck for the future. The glimmer gets brighter all the time Jan xx

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