bankruptcy court hearing, what happens?

[blaufin]

hi, my wife and myself are considering bankruptcy after loosing our business, thanks to the blood suckers at lloydstsb. i've filled in the paper work and need to go to the courts to put it into action, but i was wondering if anyone could tell me what happens at the hearing? how badly do they grill you? and can the bank try and get a charging order against us for more money! the've bled us dry over the past three years and we have lost every thing, i currently work part time and its hard to make ends meet and i don't know if the court baliffs are going to come in and start taking what little we have, would they take the chickens in the garden for example?

[debtinfo]

Hi, i think when you go to court you will be stunned by the lack action, it will be quite a shock. LOL

 

seriously, when you go, you will see the clerk first, pay your money and and the clerk will check to see that you have filled it in correctly. after this point every court is different, In some you have to see the judge in others you do not. In some you wait while the judge looks at the paperwork, some you come back later or even the next day. If you see the judge then they it will be a short conversation just to make sure you understand the consequences and that you have taken advice. after that the judge tamps the rder and you are officialy bankrupt. The court does not administer the bankruptcy and will not deal with any assets, that is the job of the Official Receiver(OR). After the BR order is made the bank can no longer get a charging order or take any other action against you (except where you are in a mortgage, and then only the bank you have the mortgage with, none of the others). After the Order is made you will speak briefly to the OR either immeadiatly or within 2 days. They will check to see if any immeadiate action needs to take place and will arrange for a longer interview to take place, eithre at their office or over the telephone. The OR will not take any household goods unless they have a large value and are not considered "normal"

 

eg

Playstation - Normal

TV - Normal (unless you bought a £1000 within the last week or two)

Chickens - Normal unless you have hundreds and are running a farm

Antique table worth thousands - not normal

Picasso painting - not normal

Cheap print of dogs playing cards - normal

 

you get the idea

if you have any other questions feel free to ask

[blaufin]

thanks debtinfo, you been a great help, we don't own any antiques or picasso's lol. thankfully we rent our home so we don't have worry about mortgages:)

[blaufin]

after much procrastinating, my wife and myself are going to court tomorrow to become bankcrupt, i've filled the forms in, we've borrowed the money from family and its time to bring this mess to an end. my only solace after loosing everything is know the bank are going to lose out as well!

[Ginas1401]

Just wanted to wish you good luck at court. I've been through this too it was painless. The only thing that was painful was the mental torture I did to myself before hand worrying. Please don't worry, you will be fine and this will be a fresh start for you x

[maddiemay]

Great to hear your worries will soon be over and you are on the last leg of a very unpleasant journey. We too ran a business very well until Lloyds decided we needed an overdraft, new vehicles, more staff etc, now we owe them more than I care to think about, thankfully one of the other creditors are making my husb B/R in Nov and Lloyds will be no more.

[phat256]

i echoed what debt info said i was stunned to the lack of action .. i was expecting a bit like tv court room drama like with lot of people saying booo.... lo then ther judges laying onto me for doing a lot of irresponsible action towards my affird but none of that happenned !

 

actually very little , they were very sympathetic and courteous. i was there at 1.30 ask to see the Br clerk. it took amy 3 copies , fill in some of the forms ask me to swear on a bible. took my money then told me to go upstair and wait until i will be called to see the district judge.

 

it was a very tiny room with an office table the judge and me. he asked me if i considered DMP, IVA etcf.. i told him i tried to but all mycreditor refused and i was in no position to repay my debt as i was unemployed. then he told me that i will sign my BR form and ask me if i took some proper advise beforehand i said yes with the cab and national debtline . he expaliend the in and out of BR ,ask me if i have any question .

 

he also said that Br was the right choice for soemoen in my situation and was surprise that i had waited that long to declare myself BR due to large debt i had accumulated as it said it would have save me a lot of stress !

 

then he told that as of 15.00 pm i declare your BR. then went to downstair to a little room while i waited for my BR order and also to introduce myself to the OR by phone.

 

that was it. i felt so relieved once the deed was done .

 

one thing dont forget to bring a bottle of water and something to read while you wait. good luck.

[debtinfo]

Hi blaufin, how did you get on today

[Dodgy Geezer]

the've bled us dry over the past three years and we have lost every thing,

 

after loosing everything is knowing the bank are going to lose out as well!

 

I hope you got on ok today.

 

Sorry to hear of your story.

 

I wondered what people like yourself thought about the notion that your bank were actually the cause of your Bankruptcy.

 

It will be interesting for the likes of you and i after the final decision on the bank charges test case.

 

If deemed excessive and unlawful, will we not, along with countless others, have cause for redress?. Just a thought.

 

Good Luck.

[blaufin]

hello to everyone who has posted since my last message, well went to the courts today, and yes ginas1401, you were right about the amount of mental torture you put yourself through, it's unreal and the guilt and preasure that your creditors heap on is just cruel. I'm so glad we finally went and did the deed, its a huge weight off our shoulders and we're looking forward to actually sleeping again, the whole process at the courts was very straight forward, took the required documents in, swore the oath with the clerk, paid the fees, waited to see the district judge, who was very kind and sympathetic to our case, told us to stop torturing ourselves over this and that the only difference between myself and the banks was the fact that the goverment bailed them out and not ordinaray people! I think if i'd know what was going to happen at the court before regarding BR i'd have done it a lot sooner, and yes dodgygeezer i think if the courts do find that the banks have been acting in an unlawful way I will be looking for redress, unfortunatly the 'good old days' of pitchforks and burning torches are long gone sadly! LOL

Edited October 9, 2009 by blaufin

[blaufin]

debtinfo thanks for your advice, it was a great help, and the judge echoed what you said about house hold goods, that unless thier worth an awful lot of money the OR isn't intrest, to quote the judge "he's not intersted in selling second hand goods, and he's not a used car salesman!" in fact he thought it was very unlikely that OR would bother coming to see what we have as we rent our home, so that was a big relieve, its not that we've got anything to hide, because we've got sweet F.A. any way, but stuff thats personal like books my late father gave me would just be heart breaking to lose. Still onwards and upwards as the say, the bank have lost and they don't get me working as a slave for the rest of my life!

[blaufin]

thanks for your post phat256, what you discribed was exactly how i thought it was going to be! i really thought the judge was going to give us a hard time of it and it would be horrible, but it couldn't have been further from the truth, all the staff we had contact with at the court were very helpful and courteous just like you said! and the judge was very understanding, he explained why the BR had to be published in the paper, and that it really wasn't a form of punishment but a way of stoping any one else coming forward after the BR and demanding money, if they didn't get in touch with the OR during the BR to say they were a creditor, then tuff luck!

[havinastella]

I'm really glad it went well for you.

 

It also seemed like you had a great Judge.

 

Sleep well tonight

 

Jogs

[toddle2u]

Congratulations and well done for finally going through with it.

 

Good luck for the future and now enjoy sending your BR Order to any creditors who write to you and tell them to get stuffed with a big smile on your face

[Aussiechick]

I can see this is an old thread, however I just wanted to say thank you. I am about to fill out the forms for bankruptcy and although I have had plenty of friends telling me not to stress and that it won't be as bad as I think a part of me has thought they were saying that just to make me feel better. After just looking through the posts on here it's made me feel a lot better and that I should be able to cope with the whole process a little better.

[blaufin]

hi Aussiechick, thanks for your post, don't worry about going bankcrupt, it really isn't as bad as you may think, my only regret is that i didn't do it a hell of a lot sooner, instead we put ourselves under a lot more stress and hardship than was necessary and the only ones who benifited from it was the bank! We were discharged after seven months and it really hasn't affected our lives in a negative way at all, so my advice would be go and do it and put an end to your misery, the sooner you do it the sooner you get your life back, also don't be frightend about the OR interview we did ours over the phone and it was fine, they asked for some of our personal paperwork which we provided, job done, just be up front and honest with them and they will help you. if you get any stress from any of your creditors tell them to get in touch with the OR and contact the OR yourself and let them know that a creditor has been in touch, i only had to do this once and it killed the creditor stone dead, they tried the line 'oh but your bankcruptcy doen't apply to us' line, oh yes it does! so once again just go for it, you'll feel a lot better for it once you've done the deed!

[dell109]

I found this forum very informative and helpful.I know that I have to go bankrupt.Most of my reservations have been answered in th forum.

But would like assistance with a couple of queries,What happens if i have forgotten a debt e.g I disputed some mobile phone bills. & dont include it.

Also if I havent documentation for a debt.

Thank You

[blaufin]

hi Dell109, i'm not an expert but i will pass on to you what i was told by the judge who dealt with our bankcruptcy. "from the moment the bankcruptcy order is made no creditor can pursue you any longer for monies owed (there are exceptions such as court fines, council tax, student loans and utility bills etc), also if you have forgoten to list all your creditors the bankcruptcy order applies to them as well." my advice would be if you've got debts that your are disputing, don't bother to continue fighting them just list them with the rest of your creditors when you complete your forms and i'd do the same for any debts that you don't have the paper work for. once the bankcruptcy order is granted the official reciver will contact all your creditors and inform them of the bankcruptcy, anyone who comes forward demanding monies from you, just reffer them to the OR who will deal with them. i hope this helps, if any of this is wrong i'm sure some one who is more versed in this matters will come forward and point out any mistakes, i hope this helps and everything i said to aussiechick applies equally to you, good luck dell109

[Tazman1974]

Hi all

Having been to the courts yesterday to be made bankrupt I thought that it might be helpful to others to know what happens and just how straightforward it is,I must admit that I was very nervous and didn't sleep the night before - I really needn't have worried.

I visited the court and handed my forms in last week ( three copies ) and was given an appointment for a week later ( yesterday) The court clerk was very friendly and not at all judgemental or patronizing, on meeting with her she took the fee ( £600 ) and gave me a receipt, she then explained what would happen clearly and simply.

The forms were taken to the judge who, as she explained, does not usually even meet with the petitioner, on this occasion though it was a new district judge who has a policy of meeting everyone - the thought of meeting a judge was more than a little bit scary but in reality he was a pleasant, understanding man who was wearing a normal suit and was sitting on his own in a normal office. The judge offered me a seat, asked me if I had taken any advise on going bankrupt and from whom, he then made the order and told me that should I get any annoying calls from creditors to refer them to the Official Receiver, he handed my file back and asked me to take it back down to the clerk...I was in the room with the judge for less than 5 minutes!!!

The clerk then showed me into a room with a telephone and I was told that the official receiver would call, they duly did and asked me a few very basic questions including details of my bank account and anything that needed actioning urgently (any bailiffs due to turn up on my door etc) after about 5 minutes conversation that was it! The OR said that they will call again over the next few days to make another appointment for a longer telephone interview and then I was on my way home - bankrupt and hugely relieved, I slept better last night than I have for years!!

So if bankruptcy is your only choice please do not spend weeks agonizing over it and working yourself up into a nervous wreck like I did - the process is no where near as bad as your imagination would have you believe.- Good Luck

[blaufin]

Hi Tazman1974, i'm glad that you found going bankcrupt isn't nearly as bad as you thought it would be beforehand, it is a huge relief once you step outside the court house with your bankcruptcy order in your hand and sudenly all the worry and stress seems to just disapear. Well done and enjoy your new found freedom!

[charlie*]

Good morning people...

 

... after much worry and scheming my son has decided to go for it.... he was truly stitched

up by a very well known bank concerning a graduate business loan to help finance a franchise

that also turned out to be a load of lies. That's by the by.

 

He has a bike that is 10 years old (might fetch £1000 on a nice day) which he needs to get to a

job when he finds one... does anyone know if they are likely to sell it? - he has no other assets

and lives at home.

 

Do they enquire what happened - how the state of affairs came about?

 

He has no money - and his mother is getting poorer by the day, I have read that if your income

is under £13,000 there are no fees to pay... anyone know if this is so?

 

Be obliged for some thoughts here.

 

I have only just found this forum and he has gone thru it, it has completely changed his attitude,

much more cheerful now.

 

Thanks

 

charlie

[Tazman1974]

Hi Charlie

From my own experience ( rather than any hard fact ) I would suggest that the bike would probably not be worth the OR selling, especially if your son needs it for work, the chances are that he would be able to keep that, I have read that the guideline value is around £2k before the OR is interested. As for the fees I think that the OR will still want to be paid ( £450) but the Court Fees ( £150 may be waived depending on if he is on job seekers allowance )

The judge had no real interest in how I cam to be sat before him, the bankruptcy forms have a section asking you to explain in brief the circumstances but the judge certainly made no reference to it in my case, I would think the reasoning behind your sons bankruptcy is that he has debts over £750 and cannot pay it back - the why's and wherefores are almost irrelevant (unless gambling or reckless behaviour was involved )

I would suggest you do lots and lots of reading on this forum as it's really helpful, certainly I wouldn't take what I have written as gospel but if you need anymore info on my circumstance and what happened at court etc I'm happy to help

[charlie*]

Thanks for that Taz... there are no more ?'s at this time, his next

move must be to get a basic bank a/c.

 

I will keep an eye on this thread...

 

Ta again,

charlie

[Aussiechick]

Hi, I'm back again.

 

I'm filing for bankruptcy tomorrow. I've had a couple of weeks of stress with it since I booked the appointment. This week I've managed the magic trick of not thinking about it, but now it's suddenly upon me I'm stressing again.

 

I've reread through all the posts on here again and they've helped, thank you, especially the new ones. Mainly it's the OR interview I'm worried about, just can't wait till it's all over. Plus I've never had a speeding fine let alone had to go to court for anything. I will say the CAB have been really good with advice and help too.

 

Anyway thanks again.

 

Steph

[sequenci]

Hi there.

 

The process is relatively straightforward, the action court hearing will last in the region of 5 minutes. It's a civil court and the bankruptcy judges are invariably quite nice. The OR interview may be over the telephone, again it's quite a simple process. The Insolvency Service have compiled various leaflets outlining the various aspects to it all. Take a look:

 

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/guidanceleaflets/Guides.htm