bankruptcy in France

[ang2123]

Hi, Hoping somebody can enlighten me, we arrived in France 7 years ago, with outstanding debts in excess of 30 thousand, kept paying the arranged payments with my creditors. as I was aware that I had no choice, should have declared myself bankrupt in the 1st 3 months of leaving uk.

Have now started a business SARL in france with my husband and a third party, creditors from uk are now contacting me via french debt collectors, the stress is getting to me and I want to know what consequences are there in declaring myself bankrupt in france, for me and my new business, which has nothing to do with debts incurred in uk. Should I just try and keep creditors happy ongoing, or is there a solution for me?????

please help

[BankFodder]

Well I can imagine that your assets can be made accessible to your creditors pretty well wherever they might be.

 

Quite right that you should have sorted this out 7 years ago because you have now acquired new assets and they will have to be put into the pot as well.

 

The constant chase will wear you down and frankly you will be best off trying to negotiate a full settlement deal with the creditors to get them off your back.

 

I expect that if you declare yourself bankrupt in France, you will still have to account for all of your assets which you hold now - to your creditors.

 

I think that you'll need to take specialist advice on both sides of the chunnel.

[kurvaface]

What kind of debts are they?

 

What is the history of the debts?

[ang2123]

thanks in advance for all posts,

the debts are personal credit card and loans, I carried a business in the uk using my money, stupidly!!!

what happens if my creditors petition to make me bankrupt in the uk, does it transfer to france?

it seems so easy to go bankrupt in the uk now, how can i take advantage of this, as france is soooo strict, and to be penalised in france for uk debts seems harsh, as we came here for a fresh start.

[kurvaface]

Were the loans secured?

[kurvaface]

http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/bankruptcy/bankruptcy_fra_en.htm

[ang2123]

no, all unsecured

[kurvaface]

What do you know about the enforcability of the accounts? Is there any way that some of them may have PPI, or unlawful charges etc? What is their age and when were payments made? Like Bankfodder says in #2 this could wear you down so I suggest you start by organising which debts you will have to concede and which ones you can argue....

[ang2123]

all the debts are about 10 yrs old, would the creditors have my original loan or credit card details, as I have no idea now whether i had ppi on them

[kurvaface]

OK this is sounding better.....

 

The way you find out if there is an enforceable agreement in place is to do a CCA request costing £1

 

To find out payment history and unlawful charges etc and also if there are any periods of non payment of more than 6 years ( Which would render the account uneforcable due to the statute of limitations ie Statute barred) then use a SAR (subject access request - a procedure that allows you to request all data regarding your account) costing £10.

 

The problem you have is that living in France, the creditors may argue that they do not have to comply with your requests as they don't recognise your address, although you could argue that they have unleashed DCAs on you at your current address.

 

Send all documents by the most secure option possible (in UK recorded delivery) and under no circumstances speak to them on the phone.

This will do for starters.

[kurvaface]

Edit OOps double post ignore

[kurvaface]

If you believe that there are any periods where you have not acknowledged a debt in writing or by payment for six years then it is Statute Barred.

[ang2123]

have paid the minium monthly since leaving uk, I will try the SAR firstly, and see if I had ppi as can't remember, I thought it was just the last 8 years, I thought my debts were too old

[ang2123]

Hi all again; have just realised something about one of my creditors.

I took out a loan, with ppi over 8 years ago worth nearly 20k, was a bad time shortly after and was on the sick for months

and then lost job, but stupidly never even thought to claim for insurance, just bundled up all loans and put them on payment schemes

with the debt collectors, is there any way to reclaim this back or is it too late??

[kurvaface]

Start with a SAR to the original creditor I thinK