What is bankruptcy
Advice
Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding whereby anyone who is insolvent (owing more than all their combined assets are worth) can clear the majority of their debts. It is an option for residents of England and Wales and lasts for a minimum of 12 months. There is a charge of £680 (as of June 2021) to file for bankruptcy. If you have no way of resolving your debts and own few assets then bankruptcy could be a suitable option. However, if you are a homeowner with equity in your property, going bankrupt could mean losing your home.
A bankruptcy order can be made for one of three reasons:
- You cannot pay what you owe and want to declare yourself bankrupt;
- Your creditors apply to make you bankrupt because you owe them £5000 or more; or
- An insolvency practitioner makes you bankrupt because you’ve broken the terms of an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA).
All individuals declared bankrupt will have their details listed in the London Gazette and entered onto the bankruptcy and insolvency register, a free online resource. Unless it is newsworthy, local newspapers will not usually publish the details. You can keep your address private if you fear for the safety of yourself or your family. If this is the case, you can apply for a Persons at Risk of Violence order and submit it to the court dealing with your bankruptcy.
How we can help
Lestons can discuss options with you to resolve the matter, we can, if instructed appoint one of our excellent third-party independent financial advisors who can look at the situation and advise whether going bankrupt is your best option. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a financial brief for them. To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by simply clicking on the link at the top of the page, you will then need to deposit a sum equal to one hour’s usage, upon receipt of these funds you will be assigned your personal caseworker who will telephone you to discuss the matter and make suggestions on how to proceed.
Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed financial advisor and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.