Well this is all new to us. My husband and I are banging our heads that we have not been advised to go B/R before!! We voluntarily handed in the keys of our beautiful five bedroom home over three years ago now and have lived in rented accommodation ever since. He is self employed and I work four days a week. We have two children under 18 and hate not having our own home. We feel like we have achieved absolutely nothing in life. We went under a Debt Management scheme over four years ago now and have since been paying of a small amount each month for them to distribute to our creditors. When I think that if we had gone B/R when this all started we would have been free of debt by now. Its infuriating that we have not had the proper advice. Obviously the credit rating thing is not an issue as we have not been allowed to do anything over the last few years anyway. But we will miss our debit cards. As we only got them back last year. So now in the New Year we are fully intending to get a clean slate. But, we are really scared about telling our Landlord in case he kicks us out and that will be the third house move in as many years - i could not cope with another move. We just don't have the first idea of how to go about things though - we just wish someone would make us bankrupt as we could not afford to do it ourselves. Any ideas would be gratefully accepted.
Hi DIDO, im not sure wht you actually want to know, if you ask a direct question i will do my best to answer, apart from wether you should go bankrupt or not which is a question only you can answer
it does seem that many debt soultions are really a sticking plaster fix when really one needs to have the problem gone.
However it can take people a number of years "drifting" and not prepared to consider the Br solution even though it is probably the solution most people should seriously consider.
As debt info has said please list your individual questions and we will try to give you some useful answers.
Thanks for the replies. I do have specific questions however. My husband is a sole trader in his own Landscaping business (not company registered) How will this be affected? Can he still "trade" under the same name? Does he have to change the name of the business even though it has nothing to do with our bankruptcy?
Do we need to legally inform our Landlord (we do not have any rental arrears).
We are in gas/electric arrears to this current property and the facilities company are threatening to instal a meter for payments and state they do not need permission from our landlord as it is their meters. If we go bankrupt, is this still within their power or can we offset these arrears within the bankruptcy and start afresh?
We are also in council tax arrears for this property. Can this be offset against the bankruptcy and start afresh?
Hi Dido, when he goes bankrupt his business will cease straight away. Any monies owed by customers and the assets of the business become part of the bankruptcy. He may start trading again the next day, this is a new business although he may only trade in the names used prior to the bankruptcy (so people can check him out). The OR may decide to exempt some tools of trade (commonly at least a vehicle) but what is released is down to the OR (with appeal to the court).
The OR will normally inform your landlord, most landlords do not have a problem as with no debts you are more likely to be able to pay your rent.
The gas and elec arrears can go into the bankruptcy, this does not stop them putting in a meter though or in some cases asking for a deposit up front. Unlike Water they do not have to supply you.
Council tax arrears can be a debt in the bankruptcy. There is a very small set of circumstances where they can take goods to settle this debt after the bankruptcy but these are very rarely enforced.
Help
Posted - 27 December 2009 : 17:37:25
