Webby
The first thing to say is if you do not intend to return to the UK, then it is most unlikely that your UK creditors will ever pursue you to New Zealand. As such, one option is to just orget about the debt and have done with it.
However, i realise that this startegy does not sit well with many people. Odowning has suggested bankruptcy. This may be a possible solution. However, you need to be aware of a few more details:
1. If you have a property, even if it is located in New Zealand, and it has any equity in it, then it is possible that the UK Official Receiver (OR) would consider this a ligitimate asset and try to realise it (ie take the house from you and force sell it to release the equity to repay your creditors). Any action taken by the OR will depend on the amount of equity in the property and therefore whether it is worth the hassel to try and get it. As such, if you have little or no equity in your property, then the OR will likely not be interested and Bankruoptcy would be a sensible option.
2. If both you an your partner have debts and you you want to go down the bankruptcy route, then you will both need to declare bankruptcy. This can not be done remotely. ie you would both have to make a trip back to the UK and present your petition in the High Court of London. This is not really a big deal and I have hand held people through the process who are currently living in far flung places such as Mosco and Sydney. However, it does mean making the trip which of course is a cost in itself.
Then you would both have to pay bankruptcy fees to the court which would likely be £490 each.
Given this, once you have added the cost of the tickets and accommodation to get back to the UK and the cost of the bankruptcy fees themselves, it almost seems rediculous to go through all this expence for just £11000 of debt
As such, if you are resigned to try and resolve your debt problem, the only other route available to you will be to undertake an informal repayment plan. This is where you repay what you can afford on a monthly basis to your creditors until the debts are cleared.
It is not easy to make this type of solution work even if you are on hand in the UK to manage things. As such, this strategy could well be the start of a long path of pain. However, if you want to give it a go, you will need to use a 3rd party who can manage the negitations and payments on your behalf. I agree with Odowning that a good organisation to contact to this end would be the CCCS. They are geared up to put in place informal payment plans and will not charge you anything as they are funded by the banks themselves.
However, I suggest that you should be very wary of giving out your NZ postal address or telephone details to the CCCS. They could get back to your creditors and then you will start being bombarded with collection letters from the UK which is the last thing you want.
Hope this helps
If you would like further information about IVAs or other debt solutions, please feel free to contact us.
James Falla
www.thomascharles.com
