Bankruptcy - what will they take from my house and what to expect?

[Tawnyowl]

I think antartica with your circumstances,i would be tempted to send this letter to your creditors.Another to follow which you may also want to consider,Tawnyowl.

The Loan Company

Company House,

Church Street,

Newtown,

Kent,

R1 7HG

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Re Account No/Reference No:− xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Since making that above agreement with you, our circumstances have changed.

 

We cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

 

We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have no money left to make offers of payment to my creditors.

 

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept no payment at present to be reviewed in six months. If interest or other charges are being added to the account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our debt does not increase.

 

Should my circumstances improve we will contact you again.

 

Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

 

Yours faithfully

Mr A N Other

[antarctica]

Hi Tawnyowl

 

Thanks for that. It's very similar to the one I posted off yesterday.

 

No way on this earth they'll go for it but I'm not expecting them to.

 

When we have spoken to CCCS on Monday for our appt and gone through finances properly with them I feel sure that they are going to say that our only option is bankruptcy.

 

We have 100.95 a week to pay for everything and that barely covers utility bills.

[Tawnyowl]

Ask creditors to write off the debt due to your circumstances

 

1 High Street,

Newtown,

Kent

R21 4RH

 

June 28, 2006

The Loan Company

Company House,

Church Street,

Newtown,

Kent,

R1 7HG

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Acc/Ref No 4563210025897412

 

Further to our recent letter, we enclose a copy of our Personal Budget sheet which gives details of our present financial circumstances.

 

As you can see our outgoings are more than our income and we are experiencing extreme financial hardship. We would be very grateful if you would consider writing off the outstanding debt owing. We have always taken very seriously our financial responsibilities but unfortunately our circumstances are so bad that we cannot realistically maintain payments of any kind.

 

Please take the following special information into account when making your decision.

Paragraph outlining the special circumstances you have that you want the creditor to take into account.

 

As you can see our situation is very unlikely to improve in the future, and our continued high debt level may have a serious effect on our physical and mental wellbeing. We would therefore be grateful if you would seriously consider our request for the debt to be written off.

 

We would appreciate any help you can give us.

 

Yours faithfully

Mr A N Other

[Tawnyowl]

Maybe best to choose your own.Good luck Tawnyowl.http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/letter-templates/146154-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

[antarctica]

Do creditors really write off debt though?

 

Has anyone actually had this happen?

 

MBNA and Lloyds have been so persistent!

[antarctica]

Maybe best to choose your own.Good luck Tawnyowl.http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/letter-templates/146154-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

Thank you for that!

 

I'll definitely keep this thread updated of any developments, especially after our appt on Monday afternoon with CCCS.

[Tawnyowl]

I feel in your circumstances which hopefully will improve,its up to them.My last letter when you finally manage to save or hopefully get help with you and your husbands fee would be to split half ---360.00 divide it equally between you and your husbands creditors ,offer them,say 10 creditors-36.00 each take it or leave it in full and final settlement of my debt.The other half throw a CAG party.MMM-i dont know if i should have said that,any of it.Tawnyowl.

[antarctica]

Ha!

 

I'd do that if I thought they would take any notice. The only way to get any of them off our backs is to be BR though.

 

I went through the offering smaller payments thing with the CCCS in 2005. They kept adding interest and charges and calling and sending threatening letters for more than a year. Then when they had finally accepted it My partner and I became unemployed and the cycle started again of using credit cards to get food shopping/rent/bills etc and we got even further into debt.

 

My depression spiraled out of control and I became unable to work and now I am on Prozac to try and cope.

[Tawnyowl]

Yes,i understand,got a bit excited for a moment.Good luck-keep posting Tawnyowl.

[antarctica]

Thank you

 

That's okay, feel free to keep responding, you have been very useful.

[antarctica]

Well just an update:

 

we contacted npower, thames water and community legal service to ask if we could get the BR fees paid.

 

No go so far..

 

Best advice has been to get a crisis loan from the social fund but I am really reluctant to do that.

 

I'll paste in what community legal advice said just in case it helps anyone here.

[antarctica]

This is what community legal advice said:

 

 

"When you petition for your own bankruptcy, you have to pay a court fee of £150. This fee may be waived or reduced if you have a particularly low income, and if you think this might be the case you can apply to waiver part or this entire fee using the form EX160. You must also pay a deposit with the petition which is £360 each, and this cannot be waived or reduced. However, it may be possible to raise this in other ways- for instance:

 

 

 

You could try to obtain a social fund loan. I would not recommend that you tell the jobcentre that the loan is for your bankruptcy petition, however.

If you take out credit for this purpose, for instance from a sub prime lender like Provident, this would be included in the bankruptcy but may be the cause of a bankruptcy restriction. Generally this would mean that you remain bankrupt for an extended period.

 

As you have credit cards, it may be possible to reclaim your charges, and I would recommend that you look at specialist sites like Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more for advice on this. Other sites may charge to assist you in this. Although the companies you have outstanding balances with at present may just reduce the amount you owe, the reclamation period goes back for a 6 year period and if you have paid off any cards in the past they are likely to refund the charges. There is also information on the site about reclaiming bank charges on grounds of hardship- in this case you can argue that the current ‘hold’ should not apply to you.

 

I checked your fuel provider because some companies have ‘trust funds’ which you could apply to for assistance. Unfortunately NPower do not.

 

I have checked for charities in your area using a site called GuideStar UK | Database of UK charities, I have not found anything applicable but you could certainly check this yourself.

 

You could consider claiming disability living allowance or Employment and Support Allowance for your health problems, and advice on this is provided here, on the Website of the UK government : Directgov service website.

 

Alternatively, you could ask family or friends for assistance."

[wurzelyzf]

So basically telling you what you already knew. With reference to getting a loan ie provident,i seem to remember in the bankruptcy pack it mentions something about aquiring credit just before you go bankrupt,i think it says that it will still be payable,there is also the other opinion that if you take out credit in the knowledge that you have no intention of re paying it then it will count as fraud/dishonest behaviour and again will not be included and therefore still payable, i think?

[antarctica]

Yeah, all the advice was crap really!

 

I reclaimed my bank(about £600) charges years ago when I had a DMP with the CCCS and I put all the money towards my debt anyway.

 

It is a bit dodgy that thy say you might want to get credit from provident. They actually have the highest interest rate I have ever seen, something like 200%

 

Why would they advocate credit anyway, it's madness!!

[sequenci]

 

It is a bit dodgy that thy say you might want to get credit from provident.

 

 

This is likely to land you with a Bankruptcy Restriction Undertaking/Order.

[antarctica]

I wouldn't do it. It seems very dishonest to me.

[sequenci]

I wouldn't do it. It seems very dishonest to me.

 

It's a difficult one to call as I appreciate that those who NEED to go bankrupt the most are the ones who will struggle to find the fees.

 

It's one of the most frustration paradoxes I come across in my job.

[antarctica]

It's a difficult one to call as I appreciate that those who NEED to go bankrupt the most are the ones who will struggle to find the fees.

 

It's one of the most frustration paradoxes I come across in my job.

 

Yes, that is true, and we are pretty desperate. I would be worried about getting into more trouble by taking out more credit though.

 

Luckily we can probably get the money from relatives. Although I feel bad about doing that too as we have borrowed enough money from them over the years and they have money problems too.

[will.t]

hi,tawneyowl is spot on i went bankrupt 3 years ago, ok it was a bit different as i owned my house so that had to go but i did keep everything else it wrote off £135,000 and as you can imagine its a big load of your mind,good luck with everything

[babydoll0141917]

subbing

[GottaDoit]

I agree, getting credit to pay for the bankruptcy is not a good idea at all, and could land you in trouble.

Edited July 9, 2009 by GottaDoit

[antarctica]

Well we did it!

 

Apart from having a massive headache it went quite well.

 

Paid our fees around 10am then went off to get our forms checked an swear the SOA into court (which just consists of saying a few words after someone else, over a counter!)

Then headed home at 11am, had to be back to hear the outcome at 2.30pm.

 

The Royal courts of justice are bloody massive and we needed a map to get around.

 

2.30pm came, we all sat about in a room for 15 minutes, must have been about 30 of us waiting pensively.

 

Then about 2.50 we were all handed back our SOA's with a bit of paper stuck to the front saying that we have been judged bankrupt. No interview with the judge or anything for anyone.

 

So now waiting for the Official Receiver to call us at some point.

 

Glad it's over

 

Oh and we headed straight off to co-op to open our cashminder accounts.

[antarctica]

This is my husbands account of yesterday:

 

"

We got the tube to the Royal Courts Of Justice. When we got there, the man objecting to actors smoking was outside the court building with his placard. This is the same gentleman who interrupted the opening of the 4th Plinth at Trafalgar Square.

 

When we got inside, we had to go through the security checks. When we went to find the Court Fees Office, a woman offered to show us. She took us to a corridor and then gave us a whole mass of directions, so we just followed the signs as best we could. It is a rabbit-warren over there.

 

The sorted out the Remission for Court Fees and the Sworn Affidavit in one office and then paid the Official Receivers Deposit in the office next door. We were then told that we had to take our receipt and the Remission Document to the Thomas More Building all the way over on the other side of the complex. Fortunately they gave us a map which we followed. My wife is directionally-challenged but even I would have had a problem finding the place. You go through impressive looking corridors with many impressive doorways, only to exit from a poky corner door and then up some tiny stairs. There are lots of signs saying "Not This Door" because of the no-doubt many lost people going through the wrong door. We made jokes about all the men we saw in gowns and wigs.

 

We found the Bankruptcy Office which has its own wood and window screen inside the room, with its own internal doors, I kid you not. We all queued up so that they could check our forms, get us to sign bits and then make us formally swear that we are telling the truth, including on Exbibit Z (?!?). My wife and I did ours separately together at the same counter. We were then told to be back on the first floor at 0230pm, so we went home rather than wait there. It was about 1055am, after all.

 

It was a winding journey home as there is no sub-surface interchange at Bank. At least it gave us a chance to pick up a McDonalds to eat. My wife was already very tired from her several-day headache and so she went to bed for a bit after eating.

 

We got back to the First Floor at 0220pm and had to wait which was very boring. Most of the complex is a bit decrepit-looking, even the new bits. Even the grand bits have a dusty feel. I suppose the Legal fraternity like it that way. The Thomas More building is relatively "new", in that it was built at some point following the Second World War. But the Bankruptcy Court on the first floor looks really down-at-heel. Everyone was really quiet, even the staff. It was worse than a Doctors Waiting Room. Some people were very nervous, one couple was obviously not talking to each other in a very pointed way. We were kept waiting for ages without being told anything, until one of the staff from the second floor turned up quarter-hour late, apologised and started handing out the Bankruptcy Orders. It felt like a University Graduation, with people being called up, being given their Orders, and told they can go home now. One chap even shook the staff members hand.

 

Everyone rushed out with their Orders as soon as possible. I ducked around the corner to read through the front page, just to make sure I has been made bankrupt. I have been "adjudged bankrupt". There are small and tiny stamps and initials all over it, so we are officially debt-free now. The Order comprises several top-sheets stapled to one of the Statements-Of-Affairs that we submitted. One top-sheet is the Bankruptcy Petition that was made when we visited the second-floor office in the morning. The Top-top-sheet is the actual Bankruptcy Office.

 

There was a general scrabble for the nearest lift, not the ones that everyone had come up by. Everyone just wanted to get away as quickly as possible, as I joked "before they change their minds". Ourselves and everyone else just seemed to be in a race to get away as quickly as possible. Everyone seemed to be suddenly smiling, though, and wanted a drink to celebrate. It was 0255pm by the time we exited the Royal Courts, so we hadn't been there long at all. We made our way to sign-up for our Co-Op Bank Cashminder Accounts.

 

The form took about 5mins to fill-in. They took photocopies of our passports and told us that the process would take up to 2 weeks to finish. There would be a letter asking us to send in some ID, which we could ignore as we had done that in the branch. There would also be a subsequent letter with our account details. We activate the account by depositing some money at that point.

"

[jordash57]

Hi I am new to website so here goes. My husband and I are in the process of becoming bankrupt, could someone tell me I own my own home with negative equity have a secured loan and many other loans totalling to the region of 200k (including Mortgage) could i move out before declaring ourselves bankrupt or have i got to wait until its in motion. Also what is the procedure if i want creditors to make us bankrupt. I have a rented property that i can move into straight away. Please please help i am at my wits end

[antarctica]

Hi Jordash57 and welcome. You should start a new post as otherwise your question could get missed.

 

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