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hello from a newbie! This thread spans various aspects of debt, business and lawyers so figured I'd stick it here first and let the mods decide where to move it to!
What follows is a shameless copy and paste from a post I put on the MSE forum earlier - a reply suggested to come here for a couple of aspects of it and I figured the full story is probably going to get the most useful responses..... so, here goes!
Firstly, hello everyone from a newbie. Sorry in advance if this gets a bit long-winded, I don't really know where to start!
OK - so I'm basically life-long self employed (irrespective of business type) and used to the roller-coaster that brings with it but recently I can't seem to do right for wrong. I have two businesses allied to construction, both are small-scale Ltd's, one of which is a 'phoenix' from four years ago when I got divorced and needed to lose my ex as a co-director/shareholder and the other I started last year.
The older business got caught by a bad payer in 2017 for around £25k which was a big hit. I had solicitors check it all over and I've a good case against the client, just can't afford to cash-flow the proceedings to get it back (and it's too complex a construction case to go it alone, sadly). Since then it's been pretty much dormant and turning over the bare minimum to survive. As part of that mess, I had one of our suppliers file a small-claims against me personally for £4k (wrongly, should have gone to the business) which went under the radar because they used an old personal address - hence I now have a personal CCJ for all the wrong reasons, which I'm vaguely aware I could fight to get removed but basically can't afford to, because....
Beginning of last year in my personal world, I had to unexpectedly start legal proceedings against my ex in a custody battle when she decided to with-hold access to my daughter out of the blue. Five court hearings later and it's all sorted for now, leaving me with a £28k bill with my solicitors that they're being very good about but won't wait forever and my original deal with them to pay it down at £500 a month has floundered. I received their very pleasant 'accounts cleared by end of March, please' letter yesterday.
As a way of distracting me from the custody stuff and as a way (I thought) to pay for it, back around Easter I started a new venture with a friend and it went brilliantly..... right up to the point of another recent bad payer leaving me basically £20k out of pocket again and the business not being able to trade for a while due to cashflow and now a very real drop-off in sales that I'm convinced are Brexit related.
So, in real-terms I've acquired debts through no real fault of my own of around £45k. I can't be sensible and structured and borrow my way out of a hole due to the CCJ, yet at the same time I'm owed almost the same amount of money but can't afford to chase it. I've no housing equity as I rent, no family silver spoon and live pretty much hand to mouth whilst now also being behind on things like council tax etc just because of what's gone on - I've just never had the ££'s when they were needed. I don't smoke, gamble, drink, drugs..... this has just been a run of bad luck and one thing after the other.
Seriously contemplating some form of personal bankruptcy and starting afresh (except, I really don't want to upset and alienate my solicitor who's been so amazing in getting my daughter back and genuinely very generous with her time – besides, never know if I may need her again, sadly) given that my credit score is screwed for a while anyway - only in doing so I say goodbye to the two businesses and the money that is owed to 'me' that I've another four years to collect on. Even my accountant said it's worth the punt to keep it all going - but he's not the one with debt collectors starting to prowl.
I've actually started to pro-actively look for full-time roles elsewhere to at least remove the roller-coaster aspect and be able to do some planning/budgeting but in doing that I'm almost certainly going to take a hit in my gross earnings (potential, admittedly) so I still end up looking at the same mountain but even less to service it with.
Hive mind - your thoughts and advice are welcome!
What follows is a shameless copy and paste from a post I put on the MSE forum earlier - a reply suggested to come here for a couple of aspects of it and I figured the full story is probably going to get the most useful responses..... so, here goes!
Firstly, hello everyone from a newbie. Sorry in advance if this gets a bit long-winded, I don't really know where to start!
OK - so I'm basically life-long self employed (irrespective of business type) and used to the roller-coaster that brings with it but recently I can't seem to do right for wrong. I have two businesses allied to construction, both are small-scale Ltd's, one of which is a 'phoenix' from four years ago when I got divorced and needed to lose my ex as a co-director/shareholder and the other I started last year.
The older business got caught by a bad payer in 2017 for around £25k which was a big hit. I had solicitors check it all over and I've a good case against the client, just can't afford to cash-flow the proceedings to get it back (and it's too complex a construction case to go it alone, sadly). Since then it's been pretty much dormant and turning over the bare minimum to survive. As part of that mess, I had one of our suppliers file a small-claims against me personally for £4k (wrongly, should have gone to the business) which went under the radar because they used an old personal address - hence I now have a personal CCJ for all the wrong reasons, which I'm vaguely aware I could fight to get removed but basically can't afford to, because....
Beginning of last year in my personal world, I had to unexpectedly start legal proceedings against my ex in a custody battle when she decided to with-hold access to my daughter out of the blue. Five court hearings later and it's all sorted for now, leaving me with a £28k bill with my solicitors that they're being very good about but won't wait forever and my original deal with them to pay it down at £500 a month has floundered. I received their very pleasant 'accounts cleared by end of March, please' letter yesterday.
As a way of distracting me from the custody stuff and as a way (I thought) to pay for it, back around Easter I started a new venture with a friend and it went brilliantly..... right up to the point of another recent bad payer leaving me basically £20k out of pocket again and the business not being able to trade for a while due to cashflow and now a very real drop-off in sales that I'm convinced are Brexit related.
So, in real-terms I've acquired debts through no real fault of my own of around £45k. I can't be sensible and structured and borrow my way out of a hole due to the CCJ, yet at the same time I'm owed almost the same amount of money but can't afford to chase it. I've no housing equity as I rent, no family silver spoon and live pretty much hand to mouth whilst now also being behind on things like council tax etc just because of what's gone on - I've just never had the ££'s when they were needed. I don't smoke, gamble, drink, drugs..... this has just been a run of bad luck and one thing after the other.
Seriously contemplating some form of personal bankruptcy and starting afresh (except, I really don't want to upset and alienate my solicitor who's been so amazing in getting my daughter back and genuinely very generous with her time – besides, never know if I may need her again, sadly) given that my credit score is screwed for a while anyway - only in doing so I say goodbye to the two businesses and the money that is owed to 'me' that I've another four years to collect on. Even my accountant said it's worth the punt to keep it all going - but he's not the one with debt collectors starting to prowl.
I've actually started to pro-actively look for full-time roles elsewhere to at least remove the roller-coaster aspect and be able to do some planning/budgeting but in doing that I'm almost certainly going to take a hit in my gross earnings (potential, admittedly) so I still end up looking at the same mountain but even less to service it with.
Hive mind - your thoughts and advice are welcome!
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