Bankruptcy round the corner. . . HELP!

[happysunshinedays]

Hi,

DC going to have to declare himself bankrupt within next week. A few questions for anyone in the know please!

He runs his own business but it's not ltd so he'll have to go personally bankrupt. There is a bit of money in the business at mo, (but obviously not enough to pay up and coming bills).

I wondered what the implications would be about spending the excess money before bankruptcy declared. I know it sounds imoral but my husband will have no private clients or small businesses as creditors. He will pay back a deposit given by a couple who wanted work done as a priority.

I wanted to buy a family car for about £1000 as my car will be taken after bankruptcy as it's owned by the business.

Also thought I might buy a few Xmas pressies for kids as I'm guessing we'll be pretty brassic by then! Maybe school uniforms for next year and Christening presents for my niece and nephew etc.

I didn't know if the Receiver will look at personal expenditure in last week of trading
and treat us unfavourably. Don't want to piss him off before I meet him!

And might they take the car off me anyway??

Sorry for long ramble but don't know how else to find this stuff out!! CAB etc would not be able to advise any of the above.

Thanks

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

noooooo. don't do it. The receiver will look very carefully at your finances on the run up and trust me when I tell you that they come down on you like a ton of bricks for that sort of thing!

Me and my husband were declared several years ago after our business failed. We had to explain everything.

Fortunately, they could see we had not been spending money unwisely and we were discharged after 6 months (got a paper that said something about investigation unnecessary or concluded) it was quite ok. BUT. If they had felt we were trying to get away with stuff, it would have been bad!

They will take from you anything that will sell for an amount of money that makes it worth them doing it, if that makes any sense! You have to list everything you own. In our case, they didn't take anything because we had nothing worth taking, but if we had a fab car, or expensive jewellery - they'd have taken it.

Just be aware that they will look at what you are doing right now and if they think you are trying to hide money, or put money that is owed to your creditors in other places - they will come after you!