Posted On: April 22, 2019

In this video, Sean Killen, President of Richard Killen & Associates Ltd., answers frequently-asked questions on consumer proposals and bankruptcies in Mississauga.

Do you see more consumer proposals or bankruptcies in Mississauga?

Over the history of our office in Mississauga, there are about 60% consumer proposals. People coming into us don’t even want to hear anything about bankruptcy although we are required to go through it with them because it is part of the legalities.

Is there a minimum amount of debt required to be eligible for a consumer proposal or bankruptcy in Ontario?

There is a minimum under the law. The minimum would be $1,000. The law says you cannot declare yourself insolvent unless you meet the criteria of owing more than $1,000.

What’s the average duration of a proposal?

Consumer proposals are designed to be over a 5-year period because that’s the restriction that the law puts. They are not allowed to go beyond five years. However, the person has the freedom and the ability to shorten the term if they want with no interest, no penalties and no restrictions. Although most proposals are designed over five years, they end up paying out right around the four-year mark. Most of the time, after they get over about two and a half years, they start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and want to pay it off faster. Therefore, they start ramping up their payments a little bit. Furthermore, they have a chance to get reorganized and start realizing the value in getting things out of the way.

What’s the status of the debt during a consumer proposal?

All the debts still exist. The creditors just agreed to sit back and see whether or not you can satisfy the agreement that was made. Ultimately, the final signatures are in place verifying that you have met the terms of your agreement. The debt still exists and can still blow back on you. Every once in a while, we’ll have a file that does that but very rarely will a file ever get past the halfway mark and then not complete. Most files that don’t make it fail in the first year and that’s just because everybody wants to do it but overextends themselves. They don’t properly accommodate to what the reality of their expenses really are. They think they can find money, they can cut back, and they can make this work just so that they can avoid bankruptcy.

If I go bankrupt, can I get a mortgage?

Getting a mortgage is still difficult because your debts still exist. Getting a mortgage renewal is not a problem. We always advise you to look for automatic renewal. You are already in the mortgage and you are already making payments. As long as you have never missed any payments, they’re just going to renew you, anyway.

If I Go Bankrupt or do a consumer proposal, can I get a car loan?

It’s easier to get a car loan while you’re in a proposal as opposed to bankruptcy. However, most lenders don’t really care whether you’re in a bankruptcy or a proposal. They’re just happy that you’re not dealing with outstanding debts and have creditors looming over you. However, you will always have to pay for it with higher interest rates to make sure they make enough money to cover their risks. They’re happy to lend it to you. Their money is in the car and not in you, necessarily. In general consumer proposals in Mississauga are significantly more popular than bankruptcies.

Posted On: April 21, 2019

Most people don’t want to declare bankruptcy in Ontario. Therefore, when they would go to a licensed insolvency trustee, they would be looking for an alternative to bankruptcy. The alternative that a trustee in bankruptcy would provide is called a consumer proposal in Ontario. A consumer proposal is an agreement between what the debtor is willing to offer and what the creditor is willing to accept to resolve a financial debt problem.  In a consumer proposal, the debtor will have an agreement with creditors through a trustee. This agreement is under the protection of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act Law.

Benefits of A Consumer Proposal

A consumer proposal would allow the debtor to resolve his financial debt problems without going bankrupt. The consumer proposal in Toronto removes the ordinary options that creditors have to collect money from the debtors whenever they are behind with their payments. This means that creditors can’t sue the debtor when he is unable to pay his debts. Through the proposal, creditors are enforced to pay attention to what a debtor offers to them.

Since a consumer proposal is an open contract, the debtor can accelerate his payments. He can pay more than the agreed monthly plan, thus, speeding up the term.

How Consumer Proposal Works In Ontario

If a debtor becomes insolvent and can no longer pay his contracts, the courts are there to try and find a just resolution to it. Hence, the debtor will ask the court to discharge him from his debts.

Creditors can’t just accept any proposal that a debtor offers. It has to something reasonable. Therefore, a consumer proposal involves a process. First, the debtor has to figure out how much he can afford to pay on a monthly basis. As an alternative to bankruptcy, a consumer proposal is a matter of figuring out the budget of the debtor. Once he makes up his mind as to how much he can pay monthly, the trustee has to prepare all the paper works. As soon as the contract is ready, the trustee would give it to the creditors. Then, creditors will decide whether they accept the offer or not. When the creditor accepts the offer within the given period of time, then comes a new deal.

For example, you owe a creditor $40,000 worth of consumer debt. You make a proposal offering to pay $15,000. If the creditor finds it as it’s for their best interest, they would accept the offer. If they don’t accept it, negotiations may take place as part of the process. When the creditor accepts a debtor’s proposal, the court will then approves or ratifies it. The debtor will then make his monthly payments.

The consumer proposal process can take from 9 months to 3 years depending on circumstances. Sometimes, it can take longer than 3 years. However, for most people, the proposal has a straightforward process. It is just following administrative rules and as long as the debtor hasn’t done anything fraudulent, the courts will end up releasing him from his debts.

Consumer Proposal vs Bankruptcy

While both consumer proposal and bankruptcy have some things in common, such as both are court-supervised and release the debtor from being sued when he’s behind from his payments, consumer proposal and bankruptcy are different.  The difference between bankruptcy and consumer proposal is that in the proposal, the debtor makes a deal with the creditor. In bankruptcy, there is no need for a deal with the creditor. The debtor would be asking the courts to release him from his debts. Since the debtor has signed contracts, the creditor has a right to expect those contracts to be fulfilled. Furthermore, the basic laws of contracts are there for a reason and quite valid. The number of Consumer proposals in Ontario exceeds the number of bankruptcies.

Posted On: November 20, 2018

On October 26, 2018, Richard Killen, Bonnie Bryan and Michele Meitz attended the 3^rd annual 2018 Insolvency & Restructuring Exchange in Toronto.

This is the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) largest one day event of 2018. Almost ninety percent of Licensed Insolvency Trustees, licensed under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act are members of CAIRP.

CAIRP was created as a non-profit corporation in 1979 to advocate a fair, transparent and effective system of insolvency/restructuring administration throughout Canada.

This event is the best place for professionals from consumer and corporate restructuring practices to network and learn together.

We were glad to get the opportunity to meet and hear from fellow CAIRP members, lawyers, members of the judiciary, lenders and government officials as part of the days events.

Posted On: July 6, 2018

In this video, Richard Killen, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee in bankruptcy with offices across Toronto answers the question.
I don’t know how many times I have been asked by somebody during the course of the free consultation we provide to consumers at the beginning. What do you think, should I go bankrupt?

My answer is always the same for people. Its not up to me to tell you to go bankrupt.
Bankruptcy is a personal decision. What might work for one person, might not work for another person. Although what you can get from a trustee is a good idea of what is going to happen if you do a bankruptcy opposed to a consumer proposal.

So to answer the question, should I go bankrupt? My answer is you need to decide that.

Posted On: July 3, 2018

In this video, Richard Killen, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee in Ontario with offices in Durham region (Pickering & Oshawa) talks about whether a person’s income tax debt can be included in a personal bankruptcy in Ontario.

Something that comes as a big surprise to a lot of people is when they find out an income tax debt, an ordinary income tax debt is something that is dischargeable in a bankruptcy or can be taken care of in a consumer proposal. The people of Durham or people from across the Greater Toronto Area ask me that question numerous times. It is not a strange thing as ordinary income tax debt is treated as a debt.

There is nothing special about the fact it is a debt owed to the government. A debt to the government is not anything special in a bankruptcy situation. Therefore, in a bankruptcy in Durham or anywhere in Ontario, a tax debt is dischargeable.

If you are behind on your taxes or are have other debt problems, consider talking to one of our trustees and debt experts. We can help you review all your options for debt relief.

Contact our Durham office us for a fresh start at (905) 420-6565

Posted On: February 19, 2018

In this video, Richard explains in simple language how consumer proposals in Toronto work as many people are not terribly familiar with them. First of all, a proposal is a proposal. There are two types, consumer proposals and regular proposals.

The regular one has been around since day one, I think, 1920 or so, however, it was designed mainly for corporate and commercial situations. Instead of the company folding, they made a proposal to their creditors, to stay alive, keep the jobs going, keep the business running. Maybe they turn a corner and eventually everybody is happy.

But, what about the ordinary person? Until 1992, there was no mechanism in place for a similar approach to the debt. So, in 1992, Parliament amended the Bankruptcy Act, as it was called then and introduced something called a Consumer Proposal.

The proposal was designed for an ordinary person, instead of going bankrupt, which is what they did in those days, they could say “no, I don’t want to go bankrupt, I think I will try to reach a deal with my unsecured creditors”.

And the process is simple, it is streamlined compared to the commercial proposal. And it is really designed to make it as easy as possible for a person to make that accommodation. It’s supposed to end up with a better result for everybody concerned. That is the whole idea what Parliament was trying to achieve.

Today consumer proposals from a Licensed Insolvency Trustee are more popular than personal bankruptcy in Toronto.

Posted On: February 13, 2018

And most often, one of the reasons why I was a little late today, I had to go to my Mississauga office to meet with a person doing a proposal, consumer proposal, and I signed the report before I left, and the main argument is quite simple, the proposal is offering a net dividend, money in your pocket kind of thing, which is going to be twice as much as anything we can foresee out of the bankruptcy, best case scenario. So whether you think that is sufficient reason to accept the terms offered, that is your business. My call is, if the proposal is offering twice as much as the bankruptcy, I see that as a better deal for you guys. Now, you may be using a very different criteria to determine what is a good deal for you. The Administrator’s opinion on that question is not anything other than an opinion. It’s the old thing, where that opinion and a dollar ninety will get me a large coffee at Tim Horton’s.

Posted On: November 7, 2017

In this video, Lucy Zilio talks with Richard Killen on Richard Killen & Associated 25th Anniversary.

Richard, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT) talks about more and more people with debt challenges choose a consumer proposal over bankruptcy in Toronto. Watch the video for more information.

Posted On: August 4, 2017

In this video, Richard Killen, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee in bankruptcy in Toronto talks about, Do I Have To Pay a Minimum Portion?.

Some people are under the impression that they go bankrupt or for that matter they do a consumer proposal, they are required to pay a certain percentage of what they owe, what their overall debts are. That’s not quite the way it works. In a bankruptcy, it’s not that at all. In a bankruptcy, there is a mechanism that will determine whether or not if you have to make any payments for your creditors into the bankruptcy. It’s based on what you earn, what your monthly salary is. There’s a formula for all that, and a Trustee explains that to you and a Trustee does the calculation and all that. In a proposal, it can be a little bit of a factor trying to determine how much you are going to offer the creditors and all that. But, there is no fixed idea that you have to pay 20% or 10% or 50% of whatever you owe. In a proposal, you offer the best you can, and you try to work out a deal with the creditors that they are willing to accept of what you are going to pay. In a bankruptcy, this formula is applied, if you earn enough money you will pay that money into the bankruptcy in order to obtain your discharge. It doesn’t matter what percentage it is.

If you are uneasy about bankruptcy you should definitely visit a licensed insolvency trustee so that you will be given an advice about your bankruptcy problems.

Posted On: July 14, 2017

In this video, Richard Killen, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee in bankruptcy in Ontario talks about if the boss can find out about the bankruptcy.

The only time that a person’s employer is officially told, that they have gone bankrupt or that they have done a consumer proposal, if they have been sued and garnished by somebody, and your employer is having to deduct money from your pay to send to the court because of the garnishee. The person going bankrupt is basically going bankrupt or doing a consumer proposal, that’s one of the big thing that they are trying to stop that garnishee. A bankruptcy and consumer proposal will do that but isn’t going to stop if we don’t tell the employer to stop it. Yes, the employer would get notified in that case. The other thing I can think of is offhand, and where we would have this kind of contact with an employer, is if we had to contact an employer to find out some information that is of important to the creditors. Like for instance, say you have a profit sharing plan at work, and your employer is the only one who has the details of it, the profit sharing might be money that belongs to the creditors in a bankruptcy, you see the trustee has to verify this information. Now, there are different ways of verifying it, we might be able to verify it by having you get the information and providing it to us so there is no direct contact with your employer. We prefer to do it that way as long as we can get the facts. Generally speaking, an employer is not, I can’t even remember the last time that we contacted an employer when there was no garnishee involved.

If you are uneasy about your bankruptcy you should definitely visit a licensed insolvency trustee so that you will be given an advice about consumer proposal and debt problems.