A Costly Mistake That Lead to ICBC Debt – Jeff’s Story
It was a typical morning for Jeff. He woke up, went to the gym, made his children breakfast and hurried out the door to get everyone to school and work on time. After school, Jeff carried on to his place of work. This is when Jeff’s day went from “typical” to a nightmare.
When waiting at a red light to turn right, Jeff was careful to ensure there was no traffic coming from the left but in an unusual lapse in judgement, Jeff forgot to check his right side again before he began to turn. This resulted in Jeff striking a pedestrian and causing significant injuries to the man that he hit. Jeff wasn’t speeding, he wasn’t distracted on his cell phone, he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol – he simply made an unfortunate mistake that lead to significant ICBC debt for Jeff.
Due to the severity of the accident, Jeff’s ICBC insurance didn’t cover the extent of the amount awarded to the pedestrian who was hurt, and Jeff was left owing just over $300,000. For Jeff and his young family, this was a devastating debt to owe.
Jeff did his research and learned that debt to ICBC is essentially government debt. There is no expiry on the debt, no statute of limitations applies to forgiving the balance, and ICBC generally is not empowered to make a deal with you to reduce amounts owing, especially if they are trying to recover claims paid out due to an accident.
Armed with this information and knowing that he would be unable to pay the full amount owing, Jeff reached out to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (LIT) to see if a consumer proposal or personal bankruptcy could be used to reduce and/or eliminate his ICBC debt.
Jeff met with a LIT at Smythe Insolvency who, through filing a consumer proposal, was able to work with the ICBC to reduce Jeff’s debt to just $38,500. Because his consumer proposal payments were spread out over five years, it reduced his monthly payments to a manageable amount for him and his family. By filing a consumer proposal, Jeff was able to keep his assets and the interest on his ICBC debt stopped immediately.
With the help of a Licensed Insolvency Trustee, Jeff was able to put his costly mistake and ICBC debt behind him and he and his family are now enjoying a debt-free, happy life.
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