Can I defend a bankrupty petition? Advice needed please.

[Stevesmith74]

I have just found this forum (and have to say it looks really good and helpful).

 

I have a bankruptcy petition scheduled for monday 17th at my local court and want to know if I have any chance at all in defending it.

 

The basic story: Had a business was doing well even though it was started after the crash we grew very quickly (to quickly) and eventually cash flow got tricky so signed a personal guarantee on a large over draft with HSBC, anyway long story short as possible.

 

Stress of running the business made me ill, ended up in hospital with suspected heart attack (never had more than a day a year off sick in my life so am not one for being ill) so got over that went back to running the coompany but it was getting harder to manage and I didnt want to make myself ill (I have young children) so decided enough was enough and got myself a full time "normal" job and tried to manage the comapny part time but it was never going to work so sought advice and was advised voluntary liquidation which I took as I couldnt take any more nor could my family.

 

Liquidators come in take my stock £50-70k at retail and I sign a guarantee for their fees and expenses. They sell said stock at auction for circa £4k just enough to cover thier solicitor fees and auctioneer fees. So I am left with a £28k overdraft to clear and thier fees of £7k. I sort the £28k with a charge on my property (which is in negative equity anyway so they wont get anything if a sale is forced) and I get a stat demand from liquidators for their fees but I now dont have a penny to pay them so send all my details in to them offering £700 lump sum to clear it (10p in the pound much better than they got for my business) or £35/month for a slong as it took but they never replied then just been hit with a bankruptcy petition.

 

I dotn want to be made bankrupt as it gets complex with the house as still in my name and my ex wifes and dont want her anywhere near us as she made my life a living hell for years and I have always paid the mortgage and am up to date with all my bills with no arrears just no surplus cash and no credit raiting to raise the £7k the liquidators want from me.

 

Had they of looked into the company surely a CVA would of been better suited as I could of just used the stock (business was 95% online sales anyway) and traded in the evenings until the stock was gone to pay all the creditors and am pretty sure they would of all got thier money back unlike what the liquidators did. I found out that nearly a year after they started the liquidation they still hadnt picked up all my VAT and PAYE records and invoices from the company accountant so dont even know how they managed to get it all sorted without that paperwork for so long.

 

Do I have a defence or not do you think? I have offered a payment plan but still to hear if it will be accepted.

 

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Edited February 8, 2014 by citizenB
a little bit of formatting supplied

[mjt2013]

You don't seem to take any issue with the enforceability of the personal guarantee and therefore I think you're going to struggle here. Were you served with a statutory demand and if so why didn't you do anything to dispute the debt then rather than now?

[Andyorch]

Hi stevesmith and welcome to CAG (Is that your real name?)

 

 

Useful thread :-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?397017-Help-with-bankruptcy-petition-can-i-defend

 

Regards

 

Andy