Hello
It's time I dealt with my situation after a year or so of being a financial fugitive. At the end of 2007, I split with my fiancee and basically had an emotional breakdown, where all sense went out of the window. I stopped paying our (joint) £90000 mortgage and the joint £25000 unsecured loan attached to it (it was a Northern Rock 'together' mortgage). The arrears mounted up, I moved out and rented a flat on my own. The house was reposessed and I just ignored anything to do with it, Northern Rock did not know my new address, and to this day have never tracked me down. I do have a CCJ from them on my credit file but I was not at the address when the CCJ paperwork probably got there. It gets worse...I also completely abandoned a payment plan to First Direct for loans of £18000 (which I believe became a CCJ too) and I returned a lease car breeching the 3 year rental contract, this I believe left me with a £7000 shortfall on that agreement. There are also a few sub-£500 debts knocking around from utility companies etc. Since the split with my ex, I have moved address 4 times, and I am paying nothing to any of these creditors and nobody seems to be able to find me. I want to move towards dealing with this and having a chance of some normal financial future one day. Advice appreciated!
Welcome to the forum Lee. I'm sure one of the resident experts or someone with similar experience of your position will be able to help. One thing you can be sure of is that you will not be alone or the first to be in your position.
Good luck.
I came into this world with nothing and still have most of it left!
Sorry to hear about all of your problems, and I am sure we will be able to do something to help you sort them out.
I recommend that you speak to a professional. Visi www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews. Give one or two a ring and you will receive free and impartial advice as to all the options open to you and the best way forward for your circumstances.
One of our resident experts will probably be along later with advice as well.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Hi Lee and welcome to the form
You could look at either bankruptcy or an IVA to draw a line under these debts. My guess is that they will catch up with you sooner or later, NR will have upto 12 years to track you down and all creditors use sophisticated tracing methods.
Have a chat with several experts/companies and discuss your options
Regards
The first step to take in the process is to tell yourself to stop feeling guilty about not dealing with your creditors. Given the amount of pressure you must have been under as a result of your separation, it is perfectly understandable to have taken your eye of the ball - and many other people would have done the same thing. They key is that you are now wanting to do something about it - and of course it is now time to move on.
There will be several options available to you - Andy has already mentioned a couple. I suggest that you contact an insolvency practitioner, who is qualified to give advice on all debt solutions and will help you find the right one to suit your current financial circumstances.
The very best of luck - and just remember if creditors have been trying to get hold of you over the last couple of years, they will be delighted to know that you now want to address either a repayment plan or merely draw the line under the debts officially.
Mate the hardest thing I had to do was to admit I had a problem from then on with the help of this forum and the great advice here I had a platform to deal with things. The thought of me hiding from the debts before and the stress it caused makes me wonder why I didn't seek help earlier.my advice would be talk to many and ask as many questions as you want on here to find out what's best for you. Good luck mate your in the right place.
I say well done for opening up on here and you're facing the right direction in facing up to your debts now. Talk to a few IP's and get the best solution for yourself, use the link that Kallis posted to get some impartial reviews. Let us know how you get on won't you?
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
Hi Lee - please take the advice given above and I'm sure you'll find a solution to deal with the debts. I suppose no-one will ever know if the creditors will trace you, but living with that fear must be awful. You have certainly done the right thing in facing up to everything.
I did exactly the same as you and ran away from my debts too for almost four years, moving from one address to the next, county to county. I was eventually found by Barclaycard (they never give up searching) and I just took the bull by the horns and contacted all of my creditors and arranged to sort out my debts through Debt Free Direct. Now I am two years of being debt free (having now satisfactorily completed my IVA) and the relief is immense. My advice to you is to deal with your current situation and get it all out into the open and sorted and draw a line under the past and move on. You can't keep running away forever and don't beat yourself up over it as well. Like others have said before me, your creditors will be delighted that you have now decided to get in touch and should be more than happy to come to a mutual arrangemement with you. I won't lie and say it will be easy, but you will at least be able to sleep at night knowing you have done the right thing.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
I have just come back to the forum to read this, and I must say many thanks to all of the above for your replies.
I do need to deal with it, I qm more aware now because I spent the 18 months of financial subterfuge single, wreckless, wasting money and not caring. Now I have a new patner (who is very understanding and aware of my situation) who I really see a future with, and I want to be able to do all of the normal stuff again, like getting a mortgage and reasonably APR'd car finance! And although my new partner is very understanding, I always see a little disappointment in her eyes knowing we can't buy a house together.
The first problem is, I don't even know who I owe money to and how much anymore! And what liability do I have to debts that are shared with my ex? For example, we had a joint unsecured loan of about 25k....am I liable for just 12.5k of it?
Contact a good IP firm. They will help you to dig to find who you owe, and with regard to joint debts you should put your ex-partner on notice that you are insolvent and that she may need to make separate arrangements with them to pay them. You are both liable for the full amounts of the joint debts unfortunately.
Visit the link I posted earlier in the thread lee - you will get excellent and free advice from there.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
