Bankruptcy

[Rooben]

Bankruptcy

Today, 08:03:AM
Was issues a petition for a debt of £9800 in January 2019

A court date was set for the 5th May 2019...

I paid £5000 3 days prior to the court case to reduce the amount to below £5090 and the council went to court and told me that the order was deferred on the condition that I paid £620 per month which I told them at the time that I could not afford...

Council then issued a bankruptcy order for August and I was not aware of this as the email went to spam and the letter went to another house with the same door number..

Were they in their rights to issue a bankruptcy order based on £9800 when I paid £5000 towards the debt?

The bankruptcy order was fir £9800.. Was this right??
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[pt2537]

Bankruptcy

Today, 08:03:AM
Was issues a petition for a debt of £9800 in January 2019

A court date was set for the 5th May 2019...

I paid £5000 3 days prior to the court case to reduce the amount to below £5090 and the council went to court and told me that the order was deferred on the condition that I paid £620 per month which I told them at the time that I could not afford...

Council then issued a bankruptcy order for August and I was not aware of this as the email went to spam and the letter went to another house with the same door number..

Were they in their rights to issue a bankruptcy order based on £9800 when I paid £5000 towards the debt?

The bankruptcy order was fir £9800.. Was this right??

Its a while since i looked at the rules but if i recall correct, the Court can still make an bankruptcy order in those circumstances.

Have you applied to have the order annulled previously?

[Rooben]

Yes I did and the judge said that the bankruptcy is valid
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[DarrenKealey]

Hello. I know this discussion ran cold a couple of weeks ago but I'm happy to add some detail and clarification to the matter.

The question and answer turns on whether a payment made by a debtor after presentation of the petition, that brings the balance due to the creditor below the threshold of £5k for bankruptcy, invalidates the bankruptcy petition.

This is a circumstance that has been tested in the courts and the answer is not straight-forward and the courts have based decisions on discretion and on the behaviour of debtors.

For the discretionary aspect, we must look to the Insolvency Rules. Just to be clear, there is nothing specifically in the Act or Rules that deals with directly with this issue. Section 271 does not answer the question and nor does Rule 10.24.

So what have the courts said?

If you are at all interested, the leading case is Lilley v American Express Europe Ltd [2000] BPIR 70. The court decided that how they deal with such a case is discretionary and according to the facts.

In summary, the courts said that where a debtor has indulged in a game of cat and mouse with the creditor, the court is entitled to make an order, notwithstanding that the debt has been reduced below the bankruptcy threshold. But that the court ought not normally make an order when the debtor has made a payment bringing the debt below the bankruptcy level.

Therefore, if you have been playing something akin to a game of cat and mouse, the court can make the order. But if you have not and you've managed to scrape the money together to make a payment against the debt in good faith with no prior cat and mouse games, the court would not normally make the order.

[pt2537]

But it is within the Courts discretion whether to make an order, that is clear from among others Allen v London Borough of Haringey [2017] EWHC 2664(CH) so the Court had discretion to make the order

[DarrenKealey]

Yes, that's what I said. But the how the discretion is exercised rests on the facts of the case. Again, like I said.

[Lilly00]

Oh, I was in nearly the same situation. I was also trying to stabilize my financial state, however the same thing with spam letter happened to me. I was really confused and disappointed in that case and to tell you the truth, I was ready to pull a long face and stop trying doing everything possible. However, I suddenly came up with an idea: why not paying for lawyer's services and get everything I'd already lost? The most miserable thing remained to do- to find a reliable highly qualified bankruptcy attorney, lol. I'd been visiting so many of them before I did finally find blclawcenter.com. This bankruptcy attorney was salvation for me. I appreciated their help for affordable price and real professionals dealing with your case. Owing to this attorney, I managed to get back my firm and get rid of all debts!