For people that have problems with debt, bankruptcy could be an option that is worth considering. The term bankruptcy refers to an order of the court that is issued. Once granted the debtor is not legally obliged to deal with any of his or her creditors. The legal responsibility has now been taken over by the Official Receiver, who will control the debtor’s property and assets. He will in a sense become the middle-man between debtor and creditor.

Why choose bankruptcy?

There are several significant advantages of going down the bankruptcy route. Once procedures are under way, both creditor and debtor must abide by their legal obligations. Advantages include

• Less financial pressure
• The ability to ring-fence certain financial items such as household chattels and enough capital to live on.
• The ability to start afresh
• Money owed is usually written off

Forms

Form 6.28 is the ‘Statement of Affairs’ and form 6.27 is the ‘Debtors bankruptcy petition.’ These can be downloaded from the Gov.UK. When filling out these forms, a list of creditors must be collated, and this should include names even when the debt is either in dispute or has not been clearly identified.Included in the form is a section for details of all building society and bank accounts. It is an offence not to include information in this section that is deemed relevant to a bankruptcy court order.Valuable should also be listed, and these could be sold and shared out among debtors.Included in the statement of affairs form is the ‘statement of truth’ which needs to be signed and is a declaration by the debtor that he has declared everything honestly.If a fact that is deemed relevant is not disclosed, then it is treated as a criminal offence with the liability of a prison sentence. Even though debt in itself is not a crime, non-disclosure on a bankruptcy document is.Both forms should be taken along with fees to the court, and a hearing date will then be fixed. The debtor has no legal obligation to attend such a hearing.