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When you have applied for bankruptcy and an order has been made, there are various procedures that you must follow as part of the bankruptcy order. In brief, these are as follows:
You must be seen to actively comply with the request from the Official Receiver to give all requested information pertaining to your financial affairs. This may be done at the office of the Official Receiver at his/her request - and if this applies to you, the Court at which your case is being heard will provide the address where your interview will take place. Before this interview it is usual to be provided with a questionnaire, which you should take care to complete as fully and accurately as you possibly can to the best of your knowledge. It's worth noting, however, that you cannot submit any questionnaire for this occasion that was previously given to you by a financial advisor or third party before your bankruptcy order was put into effect.
You must also seek to provide the Official Receiver with a complete list of all your assets and full details of any monetary sums you owe to creditors and who these creditors are.
Furthermore, you must then seek to maintain in good care, and then pass over, all your assets to the Official Receiver assigned to your bankruptcy case, alongside all of your personal finance records, books, statements, any policies for insurance etc, and similar documents connected to all of your financial affairs and any property ownership.
You must also seek to tell your trustee the full extent of any assets and income changes that take place during your bankruptcy- particularly if these either increase your income or personal assets. Also be aware that you're legally bound to tell your trustee about any properties which may pass to you during the period of bankruptcy - including any cash lump sum payments received as part of, for example, redundancy payouts, will bequests etc.
Equally, you must immediately cease to use your bank account, credit cards, savings or any investment accounts.
You must not under any circumstances take out credit of more than £500 from anyone, or any institution without first specifically explaining that you are bankrupt - and you may not either make any direct payments to your existing creditors.
Finally, you might also be obliged to attend court and explain why you have entered into debt. If you do not co-operate with such a request, you may find yourself arrested.
These obligations do of course seem severe and a harsh penalty for the situation that you find yourself in, but they are the legal requirements of bankruptcy and are very much seen as the last resort. For this reason it is extremely worthwhile consulting an advisor or debt support agency as soon as you begin experiencing any debt problems, as there are other earlier solutions which may be right for you, and prevent your circumstances ever needing to reach bankruptcy. However, for those that do enter into it, they may take heart from the fact that once the bankruptcy period is expired, they may begin once again with a clean slate - as so many others have successfully done in the past.
