Info - Melanie can probably advise more about the process.......
From Press Release.
Bankruptcy annulment re-mortgage service launched
A bankruptcy annulment re-mortgage service has been launched in association with the Bankruptcy Protection Fund.
Data from the DTI show that bankruptcies are not only continuing to rise but they are rising at a fast rate. There were 13,501 individuals registered as bankrupt in the last three months of 2005 - an 11% increase on the previous three months and a 38% increase on the last three months of 2004.
And individuals are being made bankrupt for lower levels of debt. New research from the Insolvency Service shows that the average debt proved in a bankruptcy reduced to £11,128 in the financial year 2004/05, compared with £22,423 in 2001/02.
Bankruptcy can be very costly for the bankrupt individual, with the Government not only taking 17% of the value of any asset sale in tax but also the Insolvency Practitioner charging fees of typically 20% for acting as the bankruptcy trustee. The Insolvency Practitioner additionally charges 10% of any disbursements. Furthermore, the bankrupt individual is often forced to sell their home, with estate agents, legal and other associated costs being incurred. When all the fees and costs are taken into account, the individual's indebtedness can more than double.
In many cases, property owners are being forced into bankruptcy when they have enough equity available in their property to cover their debts. In the new service, we work with the Bankruptcy Protection Fund and a bankrupt home-owner to arrange for all their unsecured debts to be paid off.
Once it is proved to the Court that the individual no longer has any unsecured debts, the Court annuls the bankruptcy order. The bankruptcy is stricken from the record - it is as if it had never happened. A re-mortgage is arranged with a specialist lender on the basis that, at the end of the process, the individual will no longer be bankrupt and the original bankruptcy is therefore ignored for mortgage purposes. The re-mortgage is completed once the acting solicitor confirms that the bankruptcy no longer appears on the record.
This straightforward and transparent service offers substantial benefits to bankrupts. They don't have to lose their home, their situation is resolved at a much lower cost, they no longer have the stigma of having been a bankrupt and they have a much quicker route back to being a 'prime' credit risk.
There website is -
http://www.bpfltd.co.uk/