Bankrupcy whilst abroad

[lionbait]

I am moving abroad in a couple of months (outside the EU) and have lots of debt with IVA's over here. (45k ish) I have a job to move to.

I'm contemplating sending our UK finances bankrupt once we've moved.

We are renting at the mo and have no equity or income until we move and will move any cash (which won't be much) we have to our new bank account abroad.

 

We intend on using a solicitor back in the UK to attend court on our behalf.

 

Can anyone give us advice on what may happen if we do this and what pitfalls there may be.

[Gingerheid]

Normally I'd say do it yourself with all bankruptcy matters, but with going abroad adding an extra complication on top of the IVA I'd recommend speaking to the office holder for your IVA in the first instance, or else How to Go Bankrupt From Outside the UK for some advice.

 

Bankruptcy petitions for persons living abroad have to be presented at the High Court, and it's not something I'd personally recommend anyone got involved in unless it was unavoidable.

[lionbait]

Could the bankrupcy officer sieze our stuff that will be in the container on the ship on it's way to our new home?

If not maybe it would be wiser if we do it just before we leave?

 

Thanks for the link, I'll give them a ring.

[Gingerheid]

Would they want to take the container? Is there anything in it that they'd be interested in? They aren't interested in ordinary household possessions. Indeed; they wouldn't be able to do anything with ordinary household possessions even if they wanted (which they wouldn't).

 

It's obviously important that you get the best possible advice, but this is a complicated area at the best of times, and because of the extra complication of the possibility of going abroad you have too many issues here for anyone to be able to reliably deal with them all on a message board.

 

However the very first matter to look at is probably the IVAs. You say you are in IVAs but that you have no income. What is happening with these IVAs? Are they failing? If yes is the office holder going to petition for your bankruptcy?

 

I suspect that your best options (in order) are:

 

- Let the Insolvency Practitioner bankrupt you

- Go bankrupt before you go

 

But you need to speak to someone to check this out.

 

The one thing that I would add would be that if you do become bankrupt you will still need to co-operate with the Official Receiver even if from abroad; otherwise you could come back to the UK in a few years time and get a nasty surprise on finding out that you are still bankrupt!

 

Other thoughts in my mind include that if you are leaving in a few months and do want to bankrupt yourself before you leave, you might be looking to act sort of fastish. Depending on where you live in the country these things might take a lot longer than you think.

[lionbait]

Good...so the container isn't a problem.

It's 58 days 'till the off so I'm guessing, from your commments Gingerheid, that we're leaving it a little late to do it before we go.

I have no income because I was made redendent at the end of last year so am living off the redundency pay until I find another job (now it looks like this new job is abroad) I've carried on paying the creditors using the monies from the redundency as if it were an income.

The IVA's were arranged through the CAB so there's no practitioner as such...just me acting on my own behalf.

I'll phone the people you recommended above for some advice.

 

Any idea if it would affect my assets or money abroad? The advise so far is that it wouldn't.

 

Many thanks Gingerheid

[miss muppet]

Have you cca'd the creditors for the properly executed agreements, this costs £1 and you have to give them 12+2 days whereupon if they don't come up with the agreement you can stop paying them, 30 calendar days on from then without the agreement being provided the debt becomes unenforceable - just doable in your time left, send everything recorded or special delivery and then just do the count down. The very best of luck with your move abroad, I'm sure it will be a great new start for all of you. Lots of information and template letters re agreements on here, go for it!

[lionbait]

Thanks...I'll give it a go and hope they don't reply.

[Gingerheid]

I take it you don't actually have an IVA then, just an informal agreement? That makes things simpler in a sense, but means that you won;t get someone else to make you bankrupt for you!

 

If you had an IVA your name would be on http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/eiir/IIRNameSearchMapIE.asp

 

Bankruptcy may be doable in 58 days, but you'd want to find out how quickly your local court would give you an appointment. Some are really slow.

 

Assets abroad becomes a murky area. Technically it could, but in practical terms it probably wouldn't - not unless the assets were of significant value.