|
|
 |
 |
FORUM |
|
> Browse and post on our forum |
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
tricer
Starting Member
United Kingdom
43 Posts |
 Posted - 06 October 2010 : 13:29:59
|
Hi Im new to this forum, hope someone can help.
Myself and husband are in the process of petitioning our bankruptcy having struggled for years in an IVA have finally had enough. Im fining the whole process very stressfull and worrying. Ive just about completed our forms and have the fees sorted, ill be ringing the court for an appoinment probably next week. Does anyone know if child tax credits and child benefit is taken in to account as income for working out if IPA/IPO will be due. Any other advice in general about the whole bankruptcy process would be much appreciated. Also what things are allowed on the expenditure list?
Tricer |
|
|
Bigal4787
forum expert
United Kingdom
641 Posts |
Posted - 07 October 2010 : 00:31:14
|
Hi and welcome to the forum which I'm sure you'll find helpful.
In answer to your questions:
1.Child tax credits are taken into account for income purposes. Child benefit isn't, infact benefits of any kinda are not taken into account.
2.Expenditure - the obvious ones are Mortgage/Rent, utility bills, telephone bills, insurance of any kind, housekeeping, others are:
•TV licence
•Household and car insurance
•Car tax
•AA/RAC or similar motoring assistance club membership
•Membership of professional body required in order to carry out employment (unless paid byemployer)
•Hire of TV and/or DVD/video player (no more than one of each appliance per household)
•Prescription charges
•Dental and optical treatment -
•Mobile phone costs -
•Dry cleaning costs -
Not allowed:
•Gym membership, sports expenses or club membership
•Additional pension contributions to enhance a pension
•Private healthcare insurance or similar
•Social and entertainment expenses-
•Satellite TV
•Broadband internet costs (unless shown to be necessary for the bankrupt's paid employment)
•Excessive mortgage payments
•Student Loans
•Regular payments to charitable and religious organizations/tithing
Having got your hearing date, advise your creditors that you are petitioning for bankruptcy and the date.
Once declared bankrupt, the court will send details of your bankruptcy to the Official Receiver(OR) who will contact you shortly after. Infact initially you will be contacted by the case clerk to confirm your details, whether you own a property or rent, and other details.
Later you will be contacted by the insolvency examiner(acting on behalf of the OR), to arrange an interview. If you weren't a trader, or have any other complications, it should be a telephone interview, which with a debtors petition is to go through the statement of affairs, and deal with any assets, e.g. cars, property, insurance policies, investments etc., and to determine if you have any surplus income for an IPA.
The examiner will go through your liabilities, but as an examiner myself I would just concentrate on any larger loans or credit card balances(always being mindful however, that in some cases, balances are inflated by interest and charges). I would expect any examiner to take the same approach, and generally the reasons for using credit varied from using it for day to day expenses as a result of reduced income, illness, redundancy, bereavement in the family etc.
You will also have to sign forms called an NTB2 and TNIDIS.
NTB2 is a notice outlining restrictions that are placed on you in bankruptcy, and TNIDIS is a tax and NI disclosure which the OR sends to HMRC to confirm the bankruptcy and that an NT tax code will be applied( you don't pay any tax for the remainder of the tax year, but the OR claims it for the bankruptcy estate, the examiner should explain this)
If you have a car, then if it is neccesary for your employment, then it can be exempt from the bankruptcy estate under section 283(2)(a) of the insolvency act 1986. A general rule is that as long as it is less than £2,000 in value it an be exempt.
After the interview, a report to creditors will be produced when the OR will become the trustee of your bankruptcy estate, and apart from the IPA, if any, that will generally be it until discharge, and you have a fresh start.
Apologies for it being long winded, but I hope it gives you an idea what to expect, in general the examiners who interview you are not ogres and should try to make it as stress free as possible, but procedures can vary from one OR to another,
Good luck
Big Al |
 |
|
|
tricer
Starting Member
United Kingdom
43 Posts |
Posted - 21 October 2010 : 11:05:17
|
| Thanks Bigal. Ive posted SOA, any comments would be great |
|
|
|
DBRkid
Starting Member
7 Posts |
Posted - 21 October 2010 : 16:15:26
|
Hi,
I went BR in April 2009 - and was discharged in April this year. Pre BR I had the same issues as you pulling together a reasonable SOA list - however after a root around on the net I found a government published document outlining minimums for a family to survive off which I used - it included many things that I never even considered such as hair cuts, prescriptions etc - can't recall its location but may be worth a dig around.
Biggest thing re your court hearing is DONT WORRY - it is not that bad at all - our judge was quite sympathetic and we sat in a closed court with just him. OR interview afterwards was polite and about 30 mins - no accusing, judgement - just fact finding. 18 months on and we never heard from the OR - I had to call to check we had been discharged.
Hope this helps |
|
|
|
tricer
Starting Member
United Kingdom
43 Posts |
Posted - 21 October 2010 : 18:55:05
|
Hi thank you for your reply, ill have a route around see if I can find that info.
Thanks everyone much appreciate any advice |
|
|
|
tricer
Starting Member
United Kingdom
43 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2010 : 10:44:49
|
| Hi since posting my original post we found that we could not go to court without the failure cert from our IVA. We are still waiting for this and have been told that it should be here by the end of this week. I have a question about our utility arrears, we have some outstanding council tax from last year 09/10 and are behind with some of this years payments, our direct debit is now nearley £400 per month, we didnt pay Novs payment as cant afford it, everyday im waiting for the post incase we get a letter off the council. Should I ring them and explain we are in the process of declaring ourselves bankrupt and hope to be going to court MON/Tue next week. Will they then re assess the amount of our direct debit. We also have arrears with EON, should I also advise them the same? Im just going through my forms again,want to make sure Ive filled them in correctly, we dont have any assests as such, my wedding ring is worth £2000 should i put that down or not? Also should I put my new cashminder account on the forms? dont want it to be frozen. Thanks any advice would be great |
|
|
|
tricer
Starting Member
United Kingdom
43 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2010 : 10:55:41
|
| Ive just realised Ive already been advised about not putting the new account on my forms. Apologies. Any advice about the utilities would be very helpfull. Thanks |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
| bankruptcyhelp.org.uk Forum |
© bankruptcyhelp |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Bankruptcy
