debt advice

[theone]

i have brought up three young children on my own in the uk and gradually i have got further into debt as the years have passed,credit cards and a loan totaling about 30k.i have been struggling each month to meet the payments working in between looking after my children and have been ill with worry.i have been offered a fresh start and a new job in Australia which i am considering locating too with my three children aged 2,4 and 6.what will happen to my debt if i dont pay it off before i leave the uk,will they come after me of wait for me should i ever visit in a few years time,thanks

[Bitbucket]

If you have assets , like a house , then they can get a charging order and an order for sale to get their debt back.

I know this because I kicked out some guy from a flat I owned because he was using it to distribute porn DVD's.

He sued me for about 2.5K and my solicitor told me that if I didnt pay then he could get a charging order and an order for sale , I paid him off and then wrote a letter to the local papers , who wrote a big spread on it.

There are some creditors you have got to pay like Council Tax and any fines you have from a court for things like parking or driving offences otherwise you can be put in prison for non payment.

Everyone else including Income tax you can either make an offer or use an IVA before they try and make you bankrupt , which is the only way they can then get your assets.

If you go to court and make an offer of payment and the courts accept that then providing you keep the payments up its end of story.

If you have no assets then you will find that most creditors wont bother , there is no point in spending more money to get nothing back, and making you bankrupt will cost them 2-3K at least. You will just end up with a lot of CCJ's and no line of credit for 6 years.

Also the courts have to be certain that you have been served any papers , the creditors have to prove that you personally received the court papers before they can go much further , so if you scarper then no court action in theory could be taken against you although I wouldnt trust judges to abide by this courts are nothing but a lottery , do not expect them to uphold the law , you will be lucky to find a judge who knows the law.

I would advise you to write to your creditors and tell them about your situation and offer something , even if its only 5%. Write out a budget that you can stick to. Most creditors know that taking you to court will only result in the same thing at court so might save themselves time and money and accept your offer.

I would advise against just taking off , back in 1980 I lived in Aus for over 4 years (Not because of any financial problems) and found that although its a great place you will find it to be quite isolated , my wife also found that making friends there was quite hard so you might find yourself wanting to go back , you will also find Sydney expensive.

[Joe Black]

I do hope this is not another "I'm an antipodean, what happens if I fly back home and not pay any taxes" threads.

[cojak]

Good reponse bitbucket.

[wendigo100]

What on earth brought you to CUK for such advice?

[DodgyAgent]

i have brought up three young children on my own in the uk and gradually i have got further into debt as the years have passed,credit cards and a loan totaling about 30k.i have been struggling each month to meet the payments working in between looking after my children and have been ill with worry.i have been offered a fresh start and a new job in Australia which i am considering locating too with my three children aged 2,4 and 6.what will happen to my debt if i dont pay it off before i leave the uk,will they come after me of wait for me should i ever visit in a few years time,thanks

Are you male or female and where is your ex in all this?

[Bitbucket]

What on earth brought you to CUK for such advice?

You know , that was my first reaction as well , but if you consider that the cross section of people on here probably do represent a fair view of Brit society then I would expect that there are some in financial trouble as well.

theone is probably not alone, debt is a big problem over there right now.

[Defamator]

Ok - I feel nice today for a change...........

My advice is:

1.] Make an appointment with the CAB - Citizens Advice Bureau
*** they will advise on the options available and this is a FREE service.

2.] The CAB and support from you will write to X, Y, Z whom you owe money too....... and try and work out a future repayment plan.

3.] Don't just skip the country as you will have a ZERO Credit history/ rating and plus you do have a role/ responsibility/ obligation to re-pay this money whether it is in 5 yrs or 30 yrs.

*** MOST IMPORTANTLY talk to the CAB people as the aim is to freeze the re-occuring interest charges on top on the 30K amount each month.

Good Luck...... and please pop a reply in terms of how you get on.


DEFAMATOR

[BlasterBates]

I would go and seek help, through some debt advisor preferably some governmental advisor that would be free. They might help you either to reschedule your debt, which is possible or at worst declare yourself bankrupt. It wouldn't be a good idea to cut and run, the chances of it catching up with you are high if you return regularly to the UK.

[threaded]

When I decided to go and live in Denmark you would not believe the amount of paperwork in the UK I had to do, and make sure all the tax affairs were set straight etc. etc. and at least one department still screwed it up anyways, (which may have been embarrasing if it weren't so funny). I think it might be easier to wind up an estate when someones died. Also it was really quite an expensive process.

I have since come across many people who just skipped the UK, regularly travel back and not one has had problems. Whereas I, muggins, did the right thing and get grief constantly. (UK bank accounts, tax on interest at source, no I don't need that, well you need form xyz and uvw and abc and ...)

Just my 2c.