BR Update I & E

[mish1953]

BR Update I & E

Sorry this is a big post !!

Two weeks ago I went BR and I had my full telephone interview.

My telephone interview with the "examiner" lasted nearly 2 hours !

It was not horrible but it was hard work.
Each of my debts was gone over in depth, what was it spent on etc.
Basically the examiner was making sure that I entered the BR
fraudulently.
While I know that I hadn't done anything wrong I was made to feel
uncomfortable ,
there again my examiner is an ex copper.

We went over the situation with my home, and I must admit to being a
little puzzled about this,
The leaflets and web site say that I could keep the house for up to 1
year, the examiner said that it would be 3 years
before they became interested in the equity , if I wanted to get rid of it before then I would have to speak to my Blding Socy as they were the secured lender.

I have two vehicles, a W reg car worth around £1000 , and an L reg
motorbike worth around £900.
I was allowed to keep one ( I really need a vehicle for work as I do
all hours call out ).
The examiner will arrange for someone from the local vehicle
auctioneers to come and collect my bike
and then sell it.

Once that was sorted out we went over the Income & Expenditure.
The Examiner was clearly referring to a list of acceptable figures but
was willing to adapt when I could justify the difference.

Note - no allowance was permitted for Holidays , birthdays or
contingency. I did query that but was told NO .
If my 7 yr old washing machine packs in I was advised to rent one.

However the 'benefits' that I receive for my daughter Child benefit &
Tax credit were not counted as part of my income

Please bear in mind that I am a single parent, my daughter is 14 yrs
old, she is 5ft 11, has size 11 feet and a 38 bust .
She is adult size and allowances were made on that basis.

These are not the figures that I asked for these are the figures
allowed to me.
Each item of expenditure was gone over.

Housekeeping of £300 is more than normal for 1 adult and 1 child .
But we are both giants and need oor porridge !

Utility bills are backed up by bills/bank statements,
I am having a battle with Npower about my estimated gas bill but was
allowed it as that's what I am paying.

Phones, the OR will cancel any contracts, you must use pay as U go.
I could show phone bills in excess of £100 per month ( I have a teenage daughter ) after discussion was allowed £60 to get a package sorted out .
This includes broadband - used for education and my work ( IT ) .

Clothing - one school polo shirt for my daughter costs £16 ( that's a
state school ! ), the cost of shoes scares me.

Vehicle maintenance and breakdown cover - my breakdown cover is £8
pm.

Hairdressing - Allowed £10 each that means sproglette gets the lot !

Medical/dental/specs - my daughter is under 16 so gets free stuff £5 pm allowed for me. I wear specs.

Pet care - max allowed £20 we have one Jayne Russell and a kitten.


Wages 1500.00
Chb / tax credit 116.00 ( not counted )

Mortgage 457.00
Housekeeping 300.00
Gas 88.00
Electric 50.00
Water 30.00
phone 60.00
petrol/travel 60.00
clothing 60.00
council tax 80.00
vehicle tax/mot 18.00
vehicle Ins 37.00
home ins 17.00
veh maint/breakdown 25.00
breakdown ins
pets care/food 20.00
hairdressing 20.00
medical/dental/specs 5.00
TV license 12.00
hol/birthdays 0.00
contingency white goods 0.00
house maint 0.00
Total 1339.00

Surplus Income less expenditure 1500.00 - 1339.00 = 161.00

IPA payable per month for 3 years £ 80

Once my tax is zero rated I will also have to pay that to the OR until
the end of the current tax year.

My total debt was
£93 k secured N/Rock Together Mortgage
I still continue to pay this .

£20 k unsecured N/rock Together Mortgage
£23 k RBS loan
£2.6 k HBOS credit card
£.9 k RBS credit t card

There is currently about £20 k equity on my house.

My period of BR will last for 12 months or possible less .
=================================
I am still trying to come to terms with it all, we have been struggling for some time , paying the creditors but not managing to do much else.
My 'normal' food bill has been about £27 per week for the two of us and the pets. As you can guess that has been ..errr... difficult.

I get paid tomorrow and am really looking forward to buying a decent
jar of coffee that doesn't say value on it or taste of dust !


Slainge
Mish
[:)]

[aguise]

Well done Mish
Enjoy your coffee and get some bickies to go with it youe deserve them .

AQng

[mish1953]

Thanks Ang,

got to wait until tomorrow ... aawww

Been living on fresh air this month, Im gasping for a ciggie ...

Wonder if my pay will be in at midnight !

Slainge
Mish

[Storm]

Good to see its all sorted Mish.........

[Adam Davies]

Hi Mish
That is interesting reading and thank you for taking the time to post.
Regards

Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson

About me:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

IVA Helpline: 0800 197 4838
http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_helpline.asp

[scaredkez]

mish glad it all went well enjoy your coffee and fag lol
kerri

Please view my blog at: http://scaredkez.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[thebear29uk]

Hi Mish

Hope you are off to the all-night garage at midnight to get some fags.

Love your description of your daughter. The last thing you need to be worried about is money. Sounds like you live with a 14 year old going on 20!! I hope any prospective boyfriends get the gruff Scottish accent to make them respect you.

Tomorrow night I expect you to be in a pub. Its not healthy to go so long without a trip to the local.

The celebratory wine is kicking in for me now so I should go to bed but glad your situation is getting better. I've said it many times before on here that at least for me I've only got to worry about myself and not dependants. I'm in awe of anybody going through IVA/BR with family to support.

Slainge

Dave

[mish1953]

Thanks Dave,
I hope the celebration wine hasn't given you a hangover - no fags yet - check the time of this post !

Congratulation too .. hopefully theres light at the end of the tunnel now.

Yep daughter is a handful as are the laddies that hover around, most of whom are 17/18/19 ..grrrr .
Im still able to imtimidate the wee sods, Im 6ft2, brickouthouse, size 13 steel toecapped, bike riding , Fife accent, 3 black belts , kick boxing trophies splattered around the house, wear a civvie /police uniform .. heh heh but a big softie with my bairn!

It is hard bringing up a kid on your own , but Ive been doing it for 7 years, so had pleanty practice.

I might well have a pint tonight, but after my Tesco run , cupboards are bare - its been a tough month doing the BR thing .

The I&E is interesting, no allowance for contingency or holidays which is a bit different from what other BR's have said .. but I have a built in contingency of sorts, the tax credits & child benefit ( about £114 pm ) are not counted as income.

Slainge
Mish

[BlueShoes]

Hi Mish
Hope you got your ciggies!
Interesting reading, especially the no holidays bit, with other people have said they were allowed. Sounds like the I & E for bankruptcy is not as clear cut as it should be.
At least you got a reasonable amount for phones!
Best of luck with everything.
Blue

[lily]

best of luck mish

You are keeping your sense of humour and its lovely, cheers us up no end.

Hope you got the ciggy by now.

Its amazing how things differ isnt it??? Whats allowable for some and not others. Seems to be a bit of a lottery to me.


lily

[swardy73]

Hi Mish,

This is a fantastic and extremely helpful post to others, so thanks.

I went BR last wednesday and i am now waiting for a date for the OR'S tel call, so your post helps the likes of me on what to expect. The 2 hours sounds a bit intimidating but i suppose they all vary. I'm a little worried and embarrassed of when i get asked what i have spent my money on, as i honestly cannot remember a lot of things. I have no assets apart from a £500 car (which is hardly an asset!) I spent a lot on travelling to see my ex girlfriend in Edinburgh for 3 years, and the money i spent on travel and hotels etc in this period, i dread to think! I have spent a few thousand on car repairs, but i was always trying to get new loans to consolidate, but as my credit rating had become so bad, i was getting loans with 'stupid per cent' interest rates, but would get the loans over a longer period of time (some 7 years!), so in my naivety, i thought i was ok! So naive! (and stupid!). I really cannot pin-point where all my 34k debts went! Will i get a lot of pressure to remember or provide evidence? Dont know how i would be able to do this!

Anyway, i filled in my I&E forms and handed these in last wednesday, but can i still mention things i have forgot or think might be considered when i speak to my OR?

My Income is £1040 after tax. I moved back to my mum's when i started my IVA 15 months ago, so i pay rent (she is single mother/widow who is still working part-time past retirement age because she needs to). This is what i pay out :-

RENT £280
HOUSEKEEPING/FOOD £220
MOBILE £25
PETROL £120 (I DRIVE APPROX 175 MILES PER WEEK)
CLOTHING £40
MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS £10 (I HAVE NHS YEARLY CARD AS I AM ON 5 LOTS OF TABLETS WHICH WITHOUT THE YEARLY CARD WOULD COST ABOUT £350 PER YEAR!)
DENTIST £10
HAIRCUT £20
OPTICIANS £18 (CONTACT LENS - DIRECT DEBIT)
CAR INSURANCE £33
CAR TAX £13
TOTAL £789

£1040 - £789 = £251 DISP INCOME (MY IVA PAYMENTS WERE £409 P/M)


Now, i didn't mention SKY of £37 p/m as i'm sure this will be laughed off, but i also did not put anything down for car repairs which was stupid. I have paid out £720 since March on my old car (now worth £500) for the simple reason i need it for work and obviously cannot afford to buy something else. I want to mention this to the OR.

The last thing is, as i say i moved back to my mum's at start of IVA, but i want to move back to near where i work soon, so i would be looking to rent somewhere as cheap as possible (1 bed flat). Do i mention this to the OR to consider, because obviously my rent plus bills would be more than my rent now, or would i have to find somewhere first, and then speak to my OR? I want to move around xmas time.

Thanks very much

Sorry for the long post

[MelanieGiles]

Thanks for taking the time to write that post Mish - stuff like this is immensly helpful for other forum members who are perhaps thinking of bankruptcy as an option, and are of particular interest to me as a practitioner.

I am carrying out a project at the moment to compare the attitude of the OR in bankruptcy against the criteria used by the majority of creditors voting on IVA proposals, with regard to allowable expenditure. There does not seem to be any consistency at present.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[Soulgrowth]

Well done Mish ... this makes for very interesting reading. One supposes that such 'allowances' only exist for the length of the period of bankruptcy? So that means that you can go off and blitz your hair after twelve months then!

How is the project going Melanie, is it true that allowances tend to be higher in BR as opposed to IVA?

How far back did the OR need bank statements etc. Mish?

Debbie

[MelanieGiles]

Yes Debbie - I feel that expenditure allowances on the whole are more generous under bankruptcy proceedings than in IVAs.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[n_b]

Hi Mish,

well done for that lengthy post, so how long are you actually stuck to that budget, is that for the 3 years or till you are discharged ??[?]

also why if you don't mind me asking was your food bill so low ??[?] was this the amount allowed in IVA ??

Enjoy your food shop

N_b [:)]