Hi,
Melanie asked me to post some details once I had been to court.
Here we go .. its Ipswich before you ask.
I got down to the court offices a little early so, went and withdrew my last £40 from the back ( RBS ).
Arrived at the County Court at 9:30 am for an arranged appointment, was scanned by security to make sure I was bomb free, I had to wait all of 2 minutes before being seen by one of the court clerks.
The clerk explained that I would have some forms to fill in and that she would help me go through them, she was blown away when I presented her with all the forms already completed, it's the first time someone has done the forms on-line in Ipswich, she asked me if I had discussed the situation with an IP - in my case PayPlan. She got me to take a standard oath then I signed all the forms . BTW although the web site says the original plus 2 copies I only had to give them 2 printouts and signed both . The clerk was well chuffed as she didnt need to photocopy them . She went away for about 5 mins, gave me a folder and asked me to upstairs to the Court waiting room and to come back to see her once I had seen the Judge.
I went up to the waiting room, saw the Usher gave her the folder that the clerk had given me, waited about 5 mins and was taken into the Judge's chambers, had a wee general chat with him, he was a bit older than me ( Im 53 ) , talked about Gordon Brown the new PM comes from my home town ) , chatted about PayPlan, and about me looking at a DMP or an IVA, warned me about the house situation, talked about work ( I work for the local police ) , signed the form and wished me well . All in all it was ok , I was poo-ing meself but he was very pleasent.
I went back downstairs to see the clerk again, she needed about 30mins to process it all , so I went outside had a smoke ( well ok 2 ) and chatted to the security guard (ex copper ). Went back upstairs , the clerk gave me the Bankruptcy Order - I had been BR since 10:07 !!
The clerk then gave me another folder and asked me to pop over to the OR's office, she had phoned them to expect me, and wished me well .
I was expecting the court / judge to be a bit daunting but it all went very well, everyone was pleasent, helpful and informative.
While I was in 3 other folk were doing the same thing !
I went over to the OR's office , again very straightforward, met the OR and had a short chat, a preliminary interview. He would have done the proper interview but they are swamped and reckons that we will do the 'proper ' interview around the end of this month. They will send me the BR pack and will require me to send them lots of bank statements/payslips/credit card statements. We discussed my vehicle situation and was told that I can keep one of them ( I have a car and a motorbike ) and Iam going to need to make up my mind about which to keep and I must not sell either in the meantime. Thats a no brainer - I need to keep the car worth (around £1000 ) to do my shopping transport daughter etc. Damn ! I will miss my bike as use it every day to go to work, it my 'me' thing - been riding since I was 17 .
We also discussed the house, to explain my 'mortgage' is with NR , it consists of 2 parts secured & unsecured, the OR advised me to keep paying the secured part but not to pay the unsecured part . The unsecured part falls under the BR and the secured part doesnt. He did warn me that NR are unlikely to be happy about that and may well get stressed about it. They may well wish to reposses the house ! But in any event I have to notify him of any steps that they take , if NR attempt to profit from it he wont be pleased. we also talked about bank accounts and my employer .. phew and this was the preliminary interview !
Again all very pleasent, the OR was clearly very busy but toook the time out for a decent chat, he is about my age , he gave the impression that he will be firm but fair. He did say that after a quick look at my expenditure list that he will not accept all of it , but he will go into more detail later- I didnt expect him to I had put in £120 for phones and it gives him the chance to decrease some and hopefully increase others.
And that was it !
To put this into a time line.
One Year of worrying about debts, paying all creditors and struggling to buy food /clothes / make ends meet.
2 WEEKS off speaking to PayPlan , finding this forum, reading up on subject, 'speaking' to people on here.
Wednesday last week - PayPlan confirmed that IVA was a waste of time
- Phoned County court to get an appointment
- finished off the on-line BR forms - printed them off
Tuesday (to-day ) - went to County Court BR from 10:07am
- Saw OR for preliminary interview
There's more ...
I popped into the RBS -- my main bank -- as a point of courtesey to explain the situation , there were incredibly sympathetic, I ve been bank at that branch for 17 years and they know me and my situation and considering that a £24.5 debt has just been written off they were great.
Popped into HBOS - again just as a matter of courtesey, they were very confused, and put me on the phone to their Head Office , basically I want to make sure that they will release £78 child benefit when it get s in there , as its too late to stop the Child Benefit folk from sending the money.
Phew
thats enuff for now !
Still got to speak to N/R later today about the house ..
thanks
Mish
Early Discharge is not an illness !
