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lotsofquestions
Starting Member
10 Posts |
 Posted - 19 November 2009 : 18:33:54
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| We are in Court on Monday. We have gone through our expenditure for the last year and it certainly looks from credit card statements and our overdraft that we spent it recklessly. I suppose realistically we have but we were just trying to keep up with our friends etc and it was only when the credit ran out that we realised what we were doing. We were still thinking we were receiving the good salary my husband got back in 2006 but he has been in a much lower paid job since then. We have been told that it is possible that we may face a BRO and that this will be published in the local paper. This would be very difficult for me in my job. We have an annuity of £6,790 which we have paid into our co-op cashminder account and the OR is welcome to all of that if necessary. We will be honest with the OR as we have not hidden any money away - we just spent it on nothing in particular and have been careless. We have always supported my daughter (single parent) and young grandson but never by huge amounts of money - only bits and pieces here and there. We are desperately worried. Any advice please?? |
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gettingoutofdebt
forum expert
2418 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 18:48:20
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Hi,
Don't worry, a BRO is no the end of the world. You need to look at your situation now including the amount of money you are writing off in your BR and consider that against the max BRO penalty of 16 years of not being able to be a director, having to declare that you are BR to creditors if you want more than £500 credit, etc. I don't know how much your debts are but for me I would gladly have written off my £55k debt for those restrictions.
There is no guarantee that you will get a BRO. I did pretty much the same as you and used my CCs for every day items. When I declared BR all I has to show for my debt was a £1k car, a computer worth maybe £400 and clothes - that's it for £55k worth of debt!
The money you have in the Cashminder will be taken by the OR and I would recommend that you are completely honest and offer this to the OR. In my experience the OR was very amiable when she knew I was willing to pay towards my debts rather than try to get out of an IPA and only talk about getting an Early Discharge.
With my income I was going to be paying 70% into an IPA and I mentioned to the OR that I was more than happy to do this and it was still a lot less than I would need to pay each month to my creditors and she seemed very satisfied with this and even made a note of it in her report.
Try not to worry about a BRO as it really isn't worth it. If you do get a BRO you won't hear about is for probably 4-6 months after you are BR as it won't be implemented until the OR has completed their investigation. |
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gettingoutofdebt
forum expert
2418 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 18:50:54
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I forgot to mention that BRs are not longer mentioned in the local paper. Even if you get a BRO it is unlikely that it will be advertised unless the OR believes you have been dishonest about your creditors and there may be other creditors out there.
Advertising in the paper costs the OR money and with so many people declaring BR nowadays it is a cost they are trying to cut unless it is really necessary.
Business BRs are still advertised (I believe) but personal BRs aren't although you will appear in the London Gazette. |
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lotsofquestions
Starting Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 19:06:03
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Thanks for your reply. That does make me feel a bit better. We are quite happy for the OR to have our annuity and we are quite happy to have an IPA - do you think we should offer this as an option? Also, do they check all bank statements for the last 2 years. We cannot remember what we've spent money on this year let alone last year.
Another thing - we bought a nice caravan but sold it last year to pay off our overdraft. We then bought a cheap caravan which had damp. This is now used by the rest of my family although we pay for the storage. It is really not worth anything and as it is not soley ours we did not enter this on our forms. Will this be ok? Its technically not ours although we bought it originally. |
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gettingoutofdebt
forum expert
2418 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 19:36:02
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I think you have to put the balance of any bank accounts on the BR forms and you will probably speak to the OR's Assistant on the day you declare BR. They will ask if you have a basic bank account and you can mention the Cashminder. They may also ask if you have any money in it and you can mention the £6k then.
During the OR's interview your I&E will be discussed and whether you will pay an IPA but the OR probably won't send the forms out (if you are liable for an IPA) for at least 2 months.
The caravan is definitely an asset even though it may not be worth much you should still mention it to the OR during the interview. |
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Housing
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1399 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 19:50:29
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Hello lotsofquestions,
You have good advice from this forum and I hope the responses to your initial post assist you.
I am not able to add anything, other than my very good wishes and thoughts will be with you on Monday, Regards, Richard
"There are no problems - only solutions..." |
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In 2 Deep
Junior Member
United Kingdom
161 Posts |
Posted - 19 November 2009 : 20:23:49
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Hi Lotsofquestions,
As others have mentioned do not worry about a BRO - it really isn't the end of the world. When I went BR back in 2004 I had amassed a debt of 115k, and had absolutely nothing of any significance to show for this unsecured debt. To my amazement I did not get a BRO, and my circumstances was not advertised in the local press.
I resigned myself to the fact that their is no point in worrying about something which I have absolutely no control over.
Gd luck on Monday, and be sure to post back on your experience.
Treat EVERY Penny as a prisoner. |
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averagejoegoesbankrupt
Starting Member
United Kingdom
28 Posts |
Posted - 20 November 2009 : 09:40:52
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quote:
Originally posted by lotsofquestions
We are in Court on Monday. We have gone through our expenditure for the last year and it certainly looks from credit card statements and our overdraft that we spent it recklessly. I suppose realistically we have but we were just trying to keep up with our friends etc and it was only when the credit ran out that we realised what we were doing. We were still thinking we were receiving the good salary my husband got back in 2006 but he has been in a much lower paid job since then. We have been told that it is possible that we may face a BRO and that this will be published in the local paper. This would be very difficult for me in my job. We have an annuity of £6,790 which we have paid into our co-op cashminder account and the OR is welcome to all of that if necessary. We will be honest with the OR as we have not hidden any money away - we just spent it on nothing in particular and have been careless. We have always supported my daughter (single parent) and young grandson but never by huge amounts of money - only bits and pieces here and there. We are desperately worried. Any advice please??
Just remember that your situation is like many thousands of others - you really are not alone! (The prove of that pudding is the comments in this forum)
I went to court on Tuesday - and I was petrified beforehand, and I needn't have been. You can read about my experience in my blog - I covered the time in court in some detail. I hope it helps you be less worried.
All the best for Monday, your friends here will be on your side!
Average Joe
http://averagejoegoesbankrupt.blogspot.com |
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lotsofquestions
Starting Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 20 November 2009 : 19:11:04
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| Thanks Average Joe - have just read your blog and its great! Have decided to try not to worry because everything is now out of our hands anyway (I say that but I know it won't work!) Whatever will be will be!! Will keep you posted. Wish I'd paid more attention to the forum in the run up really as everyone has such good advice. |
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lotsofquestions
Starting Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2009 : 18:17:04
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| Well - went to Court today and it was very painless. We did not have to go before the Judge and the lady in the Court was very nice. The Official Receiver's Administrator was also very nice and helpful. Have to get copies of bank statements etc to send off to them and we will have a telephone interview. We added an additional statement to our Statement of Affairs explaining about the caravan, the annuity and why we got ourselves in to so much debt so hope this will help. |
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Housing
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1399 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2009 : 19:07:30
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Glad it went well - good luck, Richard
"There are no problems - only solutions..." |
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averagejoegoesbankrupt
Starting Member
United Kingdom
28 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2009 : 19:55:21
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quote:
Originally posted by lotsofquestions
Well - went to Court today and it was very painless. We did not have to go before the Judge and the lady in the Court was very nice. The Official Receiver's Administrator was also very nice and helpful. Have to get copies of bank statements etc to send off to them and we will have a telephone interview. We added an additional statement to our Statement of Affairs explaining about the caravan, the annuity and why we got ourselves in to so much debt so hope this will help.
Congratulations on getting it out of the way, (and glad you liked the blog!)
All the very best,
Average Joe
http://averagejoegoesbankrupt.blogs.bankruptcyhelp.org.uk/ |
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chester2005
Average Member
United Kingdom
786 Posts |
Posted - 23 November 2009 : 21:24:42
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let us know how you get on after the OR interview
and well done and welcome to the first day of your debt free life
Dave
Don't worry or know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.(Baz Lurman)
RevivaUK helped me through it all i can't recommend them enough!! |
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lotsofquestions
Starting Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 25 November 2009 : 18:20:11
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| Just heard our OR interview is on 17 December. Dreading it as we can't remember what we spent last week let alone all last year! Have decided not to panic tho because even if we do get a BRO we do not intend to run a company or anything like that so it won't affect us that much. Just relieved that the debt has gone and we can try and get on with our lives. We are fully expecting an IPA which is fine but it seems from the forum that this is not generally set up straight away - can we carry on using our co-op cashminder as we have been or should we be putting money back for the IPA? Am very confused about this. |
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In 2 Deep
Junior Member
United Kingdom
161 Posts |
Posted - 25 November 2009 : 21:42:37
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Hi lotsofquestions,
You do not have to put away money for your IPA, as it will not be back dated. You can wait anything from 2 weeks up to 2 months for your IPA to be finalised. If you get a Nil tax code, then this extra money which would have been payed in tax needs to be saved for a company called moonbeaver.
Regarding your cashminder account, you are free to continue using this banking facility.
Let us know how you go with the OR.
Gd Luck.
quote:
Originally posted by lotsofquestions
Just heard our OR interview is on 17 December. Dreading it as we can't remember what we spent last week let alone all last year! Have decided not to panic tho because even if we do get a BRO we do not intend to run a company or anything like that so it won't affect us that much. Just relieved that the debt has gone and we can try and get on with our lives. We are fully expecting an IPA which is fine but it seems from the forum that this is not generally set up straight away - can we carry on using our co-op cashminder as we have been or should we be putting money back for the IPA? Am very confused about this.
Treat EVERY Penny as a prisoner. |
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frosie90
Junior Member
285 Posts |
Posted - 25 November 2009 : 22:12:25
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Hi lotsofquestions,
I had 2 months of payday before my IPA of £277 was set up so I was able to spend this as I wished. Sure with Christmas you may be the same or at least one month before it set up. Good luck with the interview, sure you will feel much more relaxed afterwards and will be able to enjoy a good Christmas. Best wishes.
Rosie
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Edited by - frosie90 on 25 November 2009 22:13:16 |
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Topic |
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Help! Court on 23rd - and worried about BRO
