Do you know that if your debtor is made a bankrupt, you only have FOUR (4) months from date of bankruptcy order to file your Proof of Debt with the Official Assignee?
Our client found this out the hard way recently. He and his family and friends had loaned a party more than $600,000.00. Fortunately these loans were evidenced in the written Acknowledgment of Loan signed by the debtor.
Unfortunately the debtor concealed the seriousness of the creditors claim against the debtor and did not inform our client that he had been made bankrupt.
Instead the debtor continued to negotiate and promise instalment payments to our client.
Eventually our client find out that the debtor was a bankrupt. Our client tried to file Proof of Debt but this was rejected as it was nearly 9 months after the bankruptcy order.
After consulting with us, our client believed that the bankrupt had deliberately tried to delay our client from filing Proof of Debt. Our client suspected the bankrupt had done the same thing to other creditors. Our client had reason to believe that while the total debts owed were in excess of $1,000,000.00 only about $30,000.00 had filed in Proof Of Debt.
Our client had reason to believe that the bankrupt was trying to minimise the amount of Proof of Debt filed so that his relatives could then settle in full the Proof of Debt amount. The bankrupt could then be discharged from bankruptcy.
We therefore assembled all the available evidence and appealed to the Official Assignee to extend the time for our client the Proof of Debts.
We are pleased to announce that the Official Assignee granted the appeal. Our client has filed the Proof of Debts thus foiling any plan the bankrupt might have had for early discharge from bankruptcy.