The Paperwork!

So it was Sunday, the day I had set aside to fill in all the paperwork. I had a copy of all the forms and had managed to find all my paperwork relating to the debs I had incurred over previous years.

With a strong coffee next to me I set off, only to stop 5 minutes later. I was completely confused! The front sheet was a declaration and seemed to make sense for businesses for sure but not for individuals. Had I been given the wrong forms? What should I do? Taking a big drink I looked again, right, look at this sensibly and fill in what I can. Names, addresses etc were easy but it went on about 'trading as' and 'abodes'.

I managed to fill in most of the declaration, making my mind up to speak to the court as soon as possible to make sure I was right with what I was putting.

So on to the 'Statement of Affairs', fairly basic stuff to start, names, addresses etc. Then into the bones of things. Who did I owe? When did I take out the debt? How much is left? Account numbers? I'd foreseen all these questions so was prepared and managed to rattle these pages off quite quickly, feeling as I did a little ashamed at the mess I'd managed to get myself in and over how many years I'd been burying my head in the sand! All my unsecured debt went on, then the secured stuff (mortgages etc). I went through all my paperwork making sure I put everything down and hadn't missed anything important.

Satisfied I had everything down i moved on to my assets.

Did I have a pension? Stocks? Shares? Property? The questions went on and I steadily became more and more miserable as I answered 'NO' to pretty much everything. About the only thing I had was a mortgage on a flat that was deep in negative equity. Then questions on Assets I had gotten rid off in the previous two years, again a 'No'. Not exactly a good showing on the Asset front by any means. Then questions about vehicles, had I sold any vehicles in the past two years (I'd scrapped one and luckily had all the details). Did I have use of a vehicle? Was it mine? 

Bank accounts next, I listed the accounts I held and their balances (I knew they would be frozen the day I declared), again depressing. Nothing was left out and on more than one occasion I had to dash updstairs to dig out some paperwork or information to make sure everything was correct.

Not only do they ask for debts and assets presently, they are also very interested in anything you have gotten rid of in the recent past, thinking about it it makes perfect sense, it would be easy to liquidate everything into cash, hide it away then petition for bankruptcy and keep the lot. Thankfully for me I could justify every disposal I had made, (not that there were many, the car was the only thing really). Interestingly they ask if you have sold anything for less than its market value recently, again I hadn't.

All completed I moved onto what was the hardest part. An explanation of why I had ended up in this position. Did I gamble? Were any debts as a result of gambling (thankfully no). Then a space and a prompt to explain the cause of my bankruptcy (with a sobering reminder that putting 'the recession' wasn't acceptable). I sat looking at the page, could I put that I had been a fool for a few years and made some stupid decisions? Then thinking more I realised that although I had made a few bad decisions, made a couple of moves that hadn't paid off, I had also been the victim of old fashioned bad luck, being in the wrong job/company when the recession bit and they folded, moving from one company to another only to find the new company going bump 6 months after joining. As I wrote I began to feel a bit better about my reasons, I was still totally to blame for my position (and will admit that to anyone) but a good percentage of what happened had been beyond my control. Just a combination of bad timing and bad decisions (story of my life!!).

Finishing the forms was fairly straight forward, advice I'd give is to get all your debt paperwork sorted before hand, swallow your pride and be truthful (they aren't going to miss anything for sure) and if you messed up, admit it. It's done, time to try to move on.

Paperwork finished I sat back, ok, thats another stage done. Now for the appointment, first thing Monday morning I'm ringing to get an appointment!