Hi hoping someone can help. My wife had a house re-possessed 19 years ago with negative equity. This was with her ex-husband. This they were paying off until 5 years ago when he disappeared...literally. My wife spoke to CAB and everything and was advised to set-up a repayment plan with mortgage express for £1 a month. This has always been paid. She was also informed (wrongly I think) by the CAB that mortgage express had split the debt. In the last fortnight she has received letters stating that she owes £35K. Apparently her ex has been paying nothing and has in fact gone bankrupt. We have been sent an income & expenditure form which we have filled in with my wife's details NOT mine. She only works part-time due to illness and may require operations shortly that will stop her working at all. The house is in my name as are both cars that we own. NRAM are quite willing to work out a payment plan but doing that this will never go away. I think this leaves us 2 options - 1 - offer a full & final settlement (Anyone any idea how much / little to offer) or 2 - she goes bankrupt. If she goes bankrupt how would this affect my house & cars. We have a joint bank account but it is only my earnings that go into it. Advice greatly appreciated

I have a charge order placed on my house by Bristol & Wessex Water for £1800. They recently sent me a letter stating that if I don't pay the full amount they will be taking legal action and apply for an order for sale. I then will be sent an order to vacate my property within 28 days. My house is owned outright with no mortgage and currently valued around £200K. I am living on a small private pension with no chance of paying back the debt. I went to the CAB who told me that I will end up homeless and living on the streets as there is no social housing available for single men. The Water company placed a CCJ on my credit record so it's impossible for me to borrow money to pay back the debt and keep my house. I could never understand why there were homeless people on the streets, but I do now. I will be joining them soon. What an idiot I was buying a house. If I had a council house I would have nothing to worry about and a safe roof over my head. I know a chap near here who lives in a housing association bungalow. He owes banks £73k and will not end up homeless. Comments welcome.

Dear cag, I have significant debt in UK. I am overseas and has been 4 years since the default. My house was repossessed. 1-Is it worth declaring bankruptcy now. what are the pros and cons? 2- If i were to declare bankruptcy and came to work in uk ,i am worried that i will not be able to open a bank account with out which i will not be able to get paid among other difficulties. any solution to this problem? 3- What if i continue to work overseas for another couple of years and then come back, will that change anything? I really need some sound advice on how to plan my future.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some urgent guidance if anyone is able, I had a Statutory Demand delivered at around 7pm tonight by a man in a flannel tracksuit. When I asked who he was he said he had been asked to hand deliver a Statutory Demand on behalf of BW Legal. He said that he was a 'courier' though I pointed out he had no ID or uniform (he was basically a bloke off the street by the look of him). Not knowing what the envelope was i refused to take it. He then said that BWlegal told him if i couldn't/wouldn't take the envelope he should still just leave it on the floor inside the door, which he quickly did before i could close the door. To my mind this is not 'hand delivered' so in no way properly served but please correct me if I'm wrong. The envelope just had my name and 'private' scribbled on it, otherwise just a white envelope, no other markings at all, very nondescript. Inside were 6 pages all stapled together in one document which included: - 2 page letter dated 24th September 2013 10 days ago (outlining the SD and threatening a bankruptcy petition) - 4 page SD The SD is for a 2003 Lloyds credit Card Account that has been in dispute since April 2009. I sent in my CCA at the time, got no signed agreement back so sent an in dispute letter. Then a month later I received a 'we've found it now' letter with a copy of the signed agreement with a page of partial terms which did not include all the clauses referred to in the agreement. That being the case i left it thinking still in dispute and never SAR'd Lloyds. Thereafter Lloyds chased repeatedly over the last 3 years, engaged DCAs to chase and eventually sold the debt to Lowell in July this year. Since then I had 3 chase up letters from Lowell then this. I will scan and post the docs but can anyone help me with some burning questions: - I have 7-8 days left of the 18 I'm supposed to have and tomorrow is Friday, what is the first thing I should do immediately?? - not truly hand delivered = not legal service of documents?? - deliberate 10 day delay in delivery something I can use against them? - What is the prescribed format for a statutory demand? - Any usual arguments to set aside SDs? - Signed agreement with unrelated/incomplete terms = defence? - Can I change the 'Appropriate Court for Setting Aside Demand' if it is not my most local court? - Should I send any CCAs or SARs to Lloyds/Lowell/BWLegal? :?: Thanks everyone I hope you can help. Cheers, GF2k

I need to make a quick decision about this one guys. Basically, I was about to file for bankruptcy as it seems the best option for my situation (renting, safe bank account with under £1000 in, total bank account/card debts of £20K, self-employed but minimal trade until I change career). I had considered an IVA through Payplan but would have ended up paying back 40% or so of the total while I still receive some benefits such as HB, TC and CTC. So, everything was set, I have basic stock left which wouldn't be easy for an OR to sell off...but then I realised that my mother had made around 5 investments for me when I was young, from which the interest was going into her bank account monthly. These investments do total £20K, and thought it best that she close them in case the OR discovers them and puts the blame on me. However, cheques came in my name. What do I do? As the interest was passing to her did they legally become her money? My accounts do actually show I owe her several thousand from loans, but cashing them in then transferring to her looks pretty sneaky no matter what reason. What's the best option for me now, scrap bankruptcy? All replies and opinions on this are hugely important to me right now.

Hi, I would like to ask for some advice regarding bankruptcy. I think my case may well be complicated but I will try and keep it simple without rambling on. My husband and I had our house reposessed last week, we did try and fight it, submitted an N244 etc asking for extra time to sell the property as it has been on the market since June 2013. Unfortunately the judge sided in favour of the lender (Naionwide/UCB). So we had to get out very quickly, less than 48 hrs to be exact. The council could not help us so we were literally homeless!!. Fortunately, a good friend has let us move into one of his vacant properties while it is up for sale. We are paying him rent. Our property has approx £140k equity if sold at the asking price, however, our guess is that we will be lucky to get the mortgage paid off if the house is auctioned off ? We also have £180k business loan (£50k is charges) secured against the property along with approx £60k unsecured debts from various credit cards, car loans etc. So in any case we will be left with quite a substantial debt to repay. Most of which are in joint names with my husband. I am employed and just about to be promoted, which will include a pay rise and car allowance. My salary just covers our rent and living expenses, utility bills etc when combined with my husbands forces pension. My husband is not employed at present but does have a couple of interviews pending. We are considering going bankrupt or may even be made bankrupt by any one of our creditors. But I am worried that if we go bankrupt I will then not be able to get a car with my car allowance which would be a necessity and part of my contract, so I would run the risk of losing my job! I am at my wits end and do not know which way to turn. If just my husband goes bankrupt am I right in saying that I would be liable for any joint debts? Also if my husband goes bankrupt whilst unemployed what happens should he be successful in gaining employment a month or so down the line? Sorry for such a long post, but dont know which way to turn and have had so much to deal with this last 2 weeks. Thank you in advance for any help and advice you can give us.

I have debts of about 22k for which I have been paying £1 pm token payments for several years. I also owe HM revenue for overpayment on Tax Credits but they have agreed to hold back on pursuing for payment as I am 65 and only income is Pension. I would appreciate thoughts on whether I should file for Bankruptcy or can I continue to make token payments forever.

Hi Caggers, Just been reading Wendyboats thread in the legal issues and a question i have is, If a creditor wanted to make my OH bankrupt for a credit card / loan debt,where would that leave me as far as the assets are concerned ie house,car, personnel belongings etc.

Hi all,Just a quick question on filing for bankruptcy… I know from looking around on various websites that there isn't really any help with paying for bankruptcy; I just wanted to know if anyone out there had took out a loan / used there overdraft to pay for it? I know from what I have read that the official receiver wouldn't like it BUT if it was your only option……would you do it?

Following the usual route of a liability order the council went for bankruptcy. I challenged various issues and got two adjournments whilst they came up with answers on the third occasion i challenged that i did not believe the council had followed the correct process. I.E i asked for proof that they had carried out the correct searches and if not the case should be struck out, the searches are; a) The royal courts of justice & b) the central london county court & c) in any county court which it is believed is or was within that period the debtors own county court within the meaning of rule 6.9A (3) i asked this as i believe it is virtually impossible to carry out all three searches see here, http://tremark.co.uk/news-a-views/365-bankruptcy-update-searches-to-be-undertaken-before-issuing-a-petition The councils solicitor did not show up and the judge said upon hearing the evidence it is ordered that The application for bankrupcy be dismissed. the case was dismissed i have since had the registration removed from the land registry. (this was 4th july 2013) The council have now made an application to have the petition re-instated, on the grounds that, they are claiming that they were not made aware of the previous hearing. I need help or advice how to defend this. Surely anyone can say they did'nt now about a hearing, is'nt there a law deeming that a letter sent by post is deemed to be served? can i claim that their internal system failed them? any sugestion or help please

For a variety of personal reasons this is something I am looking at. Can anybody recommend a good advisor/professional who deals in this that is able to discuss my situation with me - not someone who will try and get me to do an IVA because they make money from it, someone who genuinely deals on the bankruptcy side and who is able to have a professional but sympathetic view? Thanks

just been to court and now im bankrupt and it was painless think i was worrying about nothing least ill be debt free now

Hello, I wonder if anyone knows an answer to this. I am in the process of becoming bankrupt. I have a partner and he is in full time work I currently have a small part time job. All the debt is in my name. If my partner buys a car for me to use (he can't drive) will I be able to be the registered keeper of the vehicle? Or will it have to be him? Will I be able to take out an insurance policy paid via direct debit? The car will be paid by cash from his wages. He asked me this question I hadn't even considered it as it didn't come up when talking about it through a debt charity advice line. Thanks Flonda

Hello everyone, I am new here and thank you in advance for any help to get me through this nightmare. I built up a debt with IG Index back in 2008. This was built up through a spread betting account I held with them. I did pay a few payments of £50 or so back in 2009 as that is all I could afford. After that I heard nothing from them. On 12/06/2013 I received a letter from their solicitors saying that the balance of £10,712.89 is due immediately. They wanted payment within 7 days or they threatened immediate proceedings against myself. I wrote to them in reply and said I never had a credit account with IG Index so how could I owe them any money. I heard nothing back on that. Today the doorbell rang and I was served with a Statutory demand under section 268(1)(a). It looks like a bankruptcy petition. I am very frightened by this as I am a homeowner and also have 3 children and a wife living here. Also this order is for £10,712.89 + Interest £2,918.29. On the 12/06/2013 there was no interest and it was just mentioned as £10,712.89 and now they suddenly mention interest on this also. a) Can they serve me this notice just like this without asking me for income/liabilities or offer me a payment plan of some sort? b) Can I offer them that now? c) Should I just ask them for all the information I can (all my trade history etc.) under my rights of a "Subject access request" d) Have I got grounds to get this set aside? e) Can I really lose my house? f) What can I do. What should I do. Sorry for bombarding questions but I am so, so worried. I suffer from Crohn's disease which can trigger at anytime with stress and once it triggers its a severe downward spiral. This si why I cannot afford to pay them back any sort of realistic lump sum. I am more than happy to offer them what I can afford, but I cannot see that option here with this service of this notice. Please can anyone help / advise? Many thanks in advance.

Hi i am a new user ,last month i received a statutory demand, i applied for it to be set aside. I have been given a court date for 22nd of august, I need help on how to get this set aside, this is from a french judgement, i lost the case in france, i never understood what even happened. But to cut a long story short we had a charge placed on our property in france. We found it dificult to sell and eventually they told us it would go to auction the amount on the valuation was stupid. We drastically cut the price and managed to find a buyer, they agreed to the sale. They have now come on to us and say there is a shortfall and interest and costs. They also say they have a european enforcement order, we have been given no details of this from England or France. Does anyone know if we would be given details from the court? the first thing we knew was the statutory demand landing on the doorstep, it was served by a bailiff but we were overseas at the time. Any help please.

Hi all. Was wondering if someone could give me some good advice. Right, The plain fact is that i'm up to my ears in it and i need to go bankrupt but can't afford it. I have heard that you can get creditors o bankrupt you but i'm not sure how. Can i do it through council tax arrears etc and if i can how do i do it. Helpful advice much appreciated. Thanks

Hi im new here and need some advice .First off the background i was made bankrupt around 2 years ago and released a year ago. This morning i got a letter from one of my creditors (black horse) advising me that they had sold my secured loan to a company called marlin europe in the same envelope was also a letter from marlin informing me i must contact them in 5 days to arrange a payment plan. This debt was on the bankruptcy order and the house the debt was secured on went back to the mortgage company.Can anybody let me know where i stand with this . many thanks paula

Hi everyone new to forum and couldn't find appropriate forum to post I was until recently a sole trader and unfortunately due to many factors, I had to close that business and start again, only this time as a director of a limited company. the new company is doing very well, and I am very optimistic about the future. problem I have at the moment is that I have one particular supplier (based in Holland) who are chasing me for payment of invoices for the sole trader business. I have been in communication regularly with their uk based solicitors (who I believe are actually acting on behalf of euler hermes credit insurance group). I have made various offers to make payment in full over a period of time but each offer has been refused. the debt is £75,000 circa, and I have always maintained the intention to repay, but couldn't afford to make large payments to begin with as I have had to wait until the new business becomes more profitable before I can afford to repay the debt - on the offer i made the debt would have been repaid within 12 months. I do not own my own home or car (or anything else as substantial as these) and my only asset is the new business itself. after receiving a stat demand a few months ago, I have now received a phone call from someone who wants to serve a bankruptcy petition against me is there a way I can defend the bankruptcy as I would prefer not to go bankrupt - I have been advised by an insolvency practitioner that I would be best to simply sign my shares in the new business to someone I trust and simply make myself bankrupt, but I really want to avoid this type of action as much as possible any help would be very much appreciated

Hi, I just wondered if anyone had any advice. I had a joint mortgage with my ex-wife, and due to various circumstances beyond my control and after a lot of wrangling and confusion the house was voluntarily repossessed and eventually sold in February this year. Since the letter from a solicitors informing me of this I have had no contact from the mortgage company (Britannia). Given the sale price of £60k and the mortgage/arrears of about £95k I assume this leaves debt of around £35k. Due to my relatively low income level and some other unsecured debts I have no realistic ability to repay this unless its spread over a very long period of time. My ex went bankrupt in February. On my credit reports there is no mention of the debt, only that it is satisfied. Now I am unsure of what to do. I believe the mortgage company has to chase me within 6 years from the sale. Should I contact Britannia? Or assume they will just chase at some point within the next 5 ½ years and therefore just declare bankruptcy now? Or wait and see what happens? Another issue that is playing through my head is that my current car is on its way out and will need replacing soon. As I use it alot I would be looking at spending about £2k on a new one so that it will hopefully last a while, but I’m not sure if this is a good idea if I then go bankrupt as I understand if it’s worth any more than £500 they will tell me to sell it and buy a cheaper one, which would leave me in the same (unreliable) boat. Other than that I have no assets – no savings, no pension, no house (I live with family at the minute), and my car is worth under £500. I am also going to be starting a 3 year part-time course in September which is being paid for by my work, so I suppose this would run together with the 3 year payment term of the bankruptcy. However if there’s any chance of avoiding the bankruptcy it would be incredible, although I’m not expecting much on that front! One further worry for me is that my girlfriend currently lives and studies a couple of hours drive away. We alternate the travel at weekends but if I did end up bankrupt would they allow petrol costs for this? If anyone has any advice I would be very grateful.

If your company was to go bankrupt in an EU country, would that prevent you from being able to be a company director in the UK?

Hello, could someone please help me, I am going to declare bankruptcy, I own a shared ownership property which due to me not being able to keep payments up on I rented out, I had to put £100 a month towards the rent to pay the mortgage and rent but for the final few months before the tenants moved out the housing association put the rent up and as I was in overdraft their monthly payment did not get taken and so the mortgage company paid it for me I did not realise this was happening, what will happen about this in bankruptcy? Many thanks

hello everyone, im trying to get some advice for my friend who is in fiancial difficulty at the minute, he got made redunant 2011 after being on the dole a while they helped him set up a business, everything was going well but the work started slowing down, he had a account with a builders merchant that was fine, he asked to pay reduced payments for a while to get himself back on track as work is slow, they agreed but now want silly repayments back £500 per month he said he couldnt afford it and offered £100 they said no but will accept £250 per month, he wrote back saying im sorry payments too high i dont want to say yes then cant pay please accept my payments of £100, received a letter(see attached ) this morning threating bankruptcy hes worried sick, if anybody could give some advice for him would be greatly received

Hello, I’m looking for some help in sorting out my CRF. I ran into financial difficulties as far back as 2006 but continued making payments as best I could before finally petitioning for bankruptcy in 2009 to get some peace from my creditors. Although it was a relief at the time, the issues have still continued to this day. I want to get my CRF sorted so that when I try to obtain a mortgage later down the line, I don't have too many issues. I was declared bankrupt in February 2009 and discharged in October 2009. Two of my three creditors behaved well, but the third – Egg – continued to harass me up until November 2010 with Arrears and Default notices every few months. It was eventually sorted with a complaint to the FOS - Egg acknowledged that a fault on their system kept sending out these letters and they said they had corrected the issue plus they paid £50 compensation. However, in June 2011 they contacted me to tell me that my Egg Loan was being transferred to Britannia Recoveries – Arrow. Britannia-Arrow wrote as well to confirm this. They stated their knowledge in the Notice of Assignment that I had been made bankrupt and that any payments would have to come from the Official Receiver. The validity of Egg selling on a debt that had been included in a bankruptcy – and discharged 20 months before – did not occur to me at the time. In May 2013, while checking my credit file on Experian, I noticed in my credit account that not only did I have the original Egg loan which was defaulted, balance marked as Satisfied, but Arrow-Global were listing that I had a defaulted account with a balance of nearly £7000 (the sum that I originally owed Egg). So I have two defaulted accounts due to the same debt. I have also just received another Notice of Assignment which seems to be sent on the pretext of my account being purchased by Arrow Global from Britannica Recoveries (Britannica-Arrow). Quite bizarre since both Notices of Assignment are on Arrow Global headed paper and is essentially a transfer between slightly separate divisions of the same parent company. This Notice of Assignment is different to before. They mention the debt amount owed, they state that their records show that I have a repayment plan in place (obviously NOT true) and the account is now managed for them by Debt Managers (Services) Ltd. How can Egg knowingly sell on my “debt” 20 months after I am discharged from bankruptcy? How can a debt that is wiped clean in a bankruptcy be sold on? As I understand it, my Egg Loan account should have been marked as “Satisfied” once I was discharged, with a settlement date shown as no later than the discharge date. What has actually happened is that Egg has marked the Egg loan account with a satisfaction date of 11/2010 (linked to FOS complaint?) and a partial settlement date of 04/2011 (debt sold to Arrow). Can I write to Arrow-Global – with copies of my discharge notice - to request the removal of this default account from my CRF? If so, do I write to the Compliance Manager at Debt Managers or bypass them and send it to Arrow-Global’s head office. A further issue is that the default date on the Arrow-Global account AND the original Egg account from which it originated, is shown as 5 months after my bankruptcy petition. Can I instruct Egg to amend this date to the date of my bankruptcy as per ICO guidelines on Defaults? If they don’t deal with the complaint and update my information, do I just complain to the ICO initially or do I involve the FOS as well. Is it not illegal for DCAs to chase up debts post-bankruptcy? If so, is there not a Regulatory body to complain to so that they are fined? I know that Barclays got hit with a big fine over “silent” phone calls. Am I entitled to compensation? How can this be enforced? Based on threads on this site ICO or FOS seem to support only paltry settlements? It was also suggested that even without being able to prove specific financial loss, compensation could be sought in the Small Claims Court over general damage to creditworthiness. I would be grateful for any advice on the best course of action to take and legal perspective to use in my letters. It’s obviously much easier to argue your case when you are crystal-clear on your legal rights.

Can someone please advise me on some issues as i am very confused. I was adjudged bankrupt in December 2010 actually to my relief. I was then discharged in December 2011. I have today registered on checkmyfile.com to look at my credit score as i am needing to open a bank account (i do not want credit just simply one to use for day to day payments and bills). Upon checking this i have found that there are a number of accounts that are still on there that were included in my bankruptcy, should they still be there? If not how do i get them removed or have notes added that they were included in the bankruptcy? Also they are all still showing as 'open', surely this should not be the case if they were in the bankruptcy?! Secondly it appears that there has been County Court judgement made in a different court for something also included in the bankruptcy...is it right that they can do this? Can i write to the courts to have this altered? I have not received any notice in writing about it either. So i am not even sure who it is for, how can i find this out?

Hello everyone, Not sure if I have put this in the right place, but I need some proper advice on a serious matter that has arisen. Last year, I sadly lost my business of 8 years due to various reasons and it went into administration. This cost me in excess of £100k that myself and my family had invested in to it. This has caused serious issuEs for me financially, and only this January did I manage to find work, all be it part time as I have 2 children to look after and provide child care for. Yesterday, I received a letter addressed to me personally at my home address from a creditor of my previous business (now closed) asking me for the payment in full of the debt. This debt was in the name of my previous company, not myself personally. The letter is from an accountancy firm which used to represent the company I owned and relates to monies owed by that now closed business, yet this is addressed to myself and demanding the money from myself. The letter is very threatening and asks for the amount of £2650 to be paid within 7 days , or they will issue a statutory demand for full payment, going on to say, in bold type, that failure to deal with the demand within 18 days, they will immediately file a bankruptcy bankruptcy petition against myself personally. This is repeated again in bold type, stating, " I can assure you that if we do not receive payment in full we will issue these demands without any further re-course and cost me an additional £1000. This is very worrying and I feel very threatened by this letter and the threats on it. I have 2 young children to support and I only have a part time job. I have no spare income every month and receive housing benefits to help with bills. Every month I have nothing at all remaining and have no way of paying this bill. Also, as this bill was of the previous business and not in my own name, should this not be the liability of that company as it was a ltd company. They have claimed I signed a personal guarantee but have no paperwork or no recollection of this and certainly did not receive any legal advice for this even if I did. Can anyone help me or advise me to my response. I really don't want to be made bankrupt as I hope that in the near future my situation will be better and I can live normally again. Thanks for reading this and I hope to hear your advice Thank you