When bankruptcy ends

Your bankruptcy and the restrictions generally end when you’re ‘discharged’, which is usually automatic.

This is usually 12 months after the adjudicator made you bankrupt. It can be longer in some circumstances, for example if you do not co-operate with your trustee.

Check your discharge date online using the Individual Insolvency Register.

If you cancel your bankruptcy, all restrictions will end immediately and your details will be removed from the Individual Insolvency Register.

Proof of discharge

Email the Insolvency Service and ask for a ‘confirmation letter’ to prove your bankruptcy has ended. There’s no fee.

If you’re applying for a mortgage, you’ll need a Certificate of Discharge.

How you get it depends on how you applied for your bankruptcy.

If you applied:

  • at a court, contact the court and pay the £75 fee (£11 for each copy)
  • online, email the Insolvency Service - there’s no fee

Bankruptcy registers

The Individual Insolvency Register is updated within 3 months of your discharge.

You must apply to both Land Charges and HM Land Registry to have your bankruptcy entry removed from any properties you still own after paying your debts.

Bankruptcy entries are automatically removed from the Land Charges register after 5 years if they’re not renewed.

Apply to Land Charges

Send an application to cancel an entry in the Land Register (K11) to the Land Charges Department.

You need to include:

  • a copy of your court order permitting the cancellation (or ‘vacation’) of the entry
  • £1 for each entry you want to cancel

Land Charges Department
Seaton Court
2 William Prance Road
Plymouth
PL6 5WS

Apply to HM Land Registry

You need to send HM Land Registry either:

You must include a copy of your court order.

HM Land Registry Bankruptcy Unit
Seaton Court
2 William Prance Road
Plymouth
PL6 5WS

All forms sent will be destroyed once the registers are updated. You can send copies if you write “I certify that this is a true copy of the original” together with your signature on the first page.

Your credit record

Credit reference agencies will not be told directly when your bankruptcy ends - they’ll get this information from public records.

Get a copy of your credit reference report - contact a credit reference agency if it needs updating.

Your bankruptcy can stay on your credit reference file for 6 years from the date of your bankruptcy.

Debts that will not be written off

When you’re discharged you’ll be released from most, but not all, of the debts you owed at the date of the bankruptcy.

Debts you will not be released from include:

  • debts arising from fraud
  • anything you owe under family proceedings - unless the court decides otherwise
  • damages for personal injuries to anyone - unless the court decides otherwise
  • debts which were not included in the bankruptcy itself, for example a debt to the Student Loans Company