Interview completed

The interview is over and I feel a mix of regret, shame and foolishness. The interviewer was thorough and diligent and was happy to answer my numerous questions.

Now all I need to do is wait for the outcome of their investigations and see how they decide my case.

Will update with how the bankruptcy is impacting my life soon.

Waiting for a call

Today is my telephone meeting with the official receiver. I sit here with an unreasonable nervousness unsure of what is to come or how my life will be after the call.

In all honesty I can say that I have done all I can to furnish the OR with all documents relating to my finances, though will this be enough. I feel vulnerable, ashamed and naked.

The meeting is happening during work time which means I am losing money. My boss ha just been really nice and told me that I can the morning as holiday yet being in sales I know I have meet my targets and this is getting in the way of that.

Need to focus, need to concentrate on the impending call. The phone rings ...

Drowning in paper

I finally finished compiling the paperwork for the Receiver's office at 3:30am on Thursday. In quantity it was less than I had thought though timewise it took much longer to compile than I had anticipated.

Even after sending my past two years financial records to the Receiver I am still left with a huge pile of paper that needs sorting out and filing. This task as you already may be aware of, fills me with doom and despondency. Filing is second only to washing up for me for the chores I hate. Sure, I have read excellent books about "Taming the Paper Tiger" and "Life Laundering" yet I still seem to be faced with the daily onslaught of paper in my mailbox.

Amazingly I seem to have entered a new marketing category. Within 6 days of being declared Bankrupt, my mailbox is now being filled with offers of "No Win No Fee Legal Help to End Bankruptcy". It strikes me that even when you have declared to the world that you are broke, there are still vultures who want to pick over the pieces.

Having realised that my woeful record keeping is costing me time, I have been wondering if it has also cost me money? Is it a trait among bankrupts that the paperwork gets out of hand? I know that the advice is always to keep opening the mail and keep talking to the creditors though the reality for me at least was that many of the past months letters had gone unopened. This has led to costs for me, although it is now unlikely I will pay them. Late payment charges, unpaid direct debit charges and accumulating interest soon mount up.

For those of you who are not the anal retentive types who have everything filed away, the title of this post serves as a link to a useful guide. Though remember you need two years of bank records for the Receiver in Personal Bankruptcy.

What comes next?

Well another day and more admin to do for the bankruptcy. I have lost my completion statement for the house sale and have had to get my solicitors to send out a copy. One of the banks who I owe money to are still asking me for money even though the order has been made, so I had to fax them a copy of the order to try and get them off my back. Now I have to begin the task of collating all the information for the official receiver.

I know that to do this quickly will be beneficial, the trouble is I hate filing and paperwork. Around my flat are the scattered financial records needed for compliance. Piles and piles of paperwork. I managed to find the latest bills and statements for the Statement of Affairs, though trying to find two years worth should be interesting. Anyway nothing to do but get on with it.

I will let you know how it goes.

Imminent Insolvency

Like many people I am an optimist. I like to think that everything is going to be ok with my world and that any setbacks experienced are only temporary. So ho did I come to be insolvent?

My personal relationship with money has never been good. We meet, we share a short time together and then we part. It's not that I haven't had times when I have had a lot of money, it's just that it has always had other places to go.

I had always taken the view that one can live with a certain amount of debt and that so long as the debt could be serviced then it was ok. In 2002 when I was made redundant from my well paid job, I had enough income to service my debt and live comfortably. What I hadn't anticipated was a long period of unemployment and a failed attempt at starting a business. I lost my job in May 2002 and was unemployed until I established my own business. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any paying clients for the business. In October 2003 I sold my flat and moved abroad to write a book. Throughout this time I managed to pay my debts. I was robbing Peter to pay Paul though. Credit card cash advances were used to make payments for cards. The DSS paid mortgage interest and council tax. Insurances were implemented to pay for loans. It was all being managed.

I knew there was a problem but it was going to be okay. I did talk to an insolvency practitioner, thinking an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) with my creditors might be the way forward, but having no income and insufficient capital meant this was impossible. So it was off to a foreign land to live rent free in a friends house and use the house sale capital to pay the creditors off.

Avoidance is great, it is reassuring, it means not having to deal with the reality of a situation. Sadly, avoidance can only last so long. My capital was running out fast and there was only one thing to do. I came home and reached a financial settlement with my ex-wife. This gave me a bit more breathing space and I got a job at half of my last salary. Now things were going from bad to worse. The settlement soon ran out and I realised I need help.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS see link) were great. They helped to establish a realistic budget and talked me through my options. Their conclusion was that bankruptcy was the best way forward for me. So here I am adjudged bankrupt and attempting to pick up the pieces of my life to make a fresh start.

Next Year - Another Song - Hopeful?

The video of this song contains images of the earth from the moon. I have that picture on my wall and it reminds me that my problems and difficulties are small and momentary in the bigger scheme of life.

If you click the title of this post you will be redirected to the Earthrise image from the Appolo 11 Mission .

Video code provided by MusicVideoCodes.com

Debtors Petition and Statement of Affairs Online

Form filling seems to be a necessary evil with any sort of official application for help. With bankruptcy the forms enter the legal world of affidavits and petitions. When the County Court first sent me the forms and guidance notes my first reaction was to panic about the legal aspects. Unfortunately the guidance notes provided do not include any worked examples of how the forms might be completed.

The Debtors Petition (Form 6.27) had to be completed in triplicate and the Statement of Affairs (Debtors Petition)(Form 6.28)in duplicate. I didn't want to do this all by hand so downloaded the forms from the Insolvency Service website (click title of post), they have them in MS-Word and PDF formats. Completed my forms on the computer and let the printer worry about multiple copies.

Luckily I have a friend who is a solicitor who advised me on completing the legal parts of the documents. When I filed the documents at the county court I could that she was expecting the worse. However, to her surprise and my delight we discovered the forms were completed correctly. Amazingly she complemented me on filling the forms in correctly, stating that even the professionals usually make mistakes.

The Insolvency Service offers the following advice about form filling and filing:
"Note: The Insolvency Service and Official Receivers cannot provide legal or financial advice. You should seek this from a Citizens Advice Bureau, a solicitor, a qualified accountant, an authorised insolvency practitioner a licensed conveyancer or reputable financial adviser or advice centre."

So if you are in any doubt about completing the forms get help. If contacting your local Citizens Advice Bureau make sure you leave enough time to get an appointment.

I tried to send the following message to the Insolvency Service today, via their website but it seems they are having problems, so sent it by e-mail instead:


"Thank you for making the forms available online it is a very useful service. However, having just completed forms 6.27 and 6.28 I would like to suggest that some worked examples be given for the Petition and Affidavit. I know help in completing the forms can obtained from a CAB, Solicitor or Insolvency Practitioner, though a worked example or two for the affidavit and petition might save a lot of time for everyone.

Thank you"

This song gives me comfort

Video code provided by MusicVideoCodes.com

Adjudged Bankrupt

At long last after much agonising, worry and resignation, it has finally happened. On the 11th of March 2005 in my local County Court I was adjudged bankrupt.

This is my story of insolvency, bankruptcy and general indebtedness. Over the next few days I hope to share how I came to this point in my life and also inform others about the people who have been helpful in getting me through the process. The story will end when I am finally discharged from Bankruptcy which will not be later than the 11th of March 2006.

All the references here will be for Bankruptcy in England and Wales. The content is about personal bankruptcy, though comments are welcome from people who have experienced bankruptcy in it's other forms and jurisdictions.