Who will find out about my bankruptcy?

In your personal life, the only people who will know about your bankruptcy are those who you choose to inform. The exception to this is if they are a co-signer on a loan or credit card because they are then considered a creditor and must be notified under the bankruptcy laws.

The Government (the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy)
The record of your bankruptcy or consumer proposal stays on the government record indefinitely.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) is a federal agency that keeps a list of individuals and business that have declared bankruptcy in Canada. Records of bankruptcies are considered public and businesses or individuals can pay a fee to the agency and do a check of your name to see if you are bankrupt.

Credit Bureaus
The OSB creates an updated list of bankruptcies each month and notifies the credit bureaus that do business in Canada (see After Bankruptcy: Rebuilding Your Credit for more information on credit bureaus). Typically, the credit bureaus remove your bankruptcy notation after six to seven years from the bankruptcy’s court discharge of your debts.

In Canada, the major credit bureaus are:

• TransUnion Canada
• Equifax Canada

Notice to Creditors
Your bankruptcy trustee must send a Notice to Creditors within five days of receiving a Certificate of Appointment from the OSB. This notification is sent to every creditor listed on your bankruptcy application—credit card companies, banks, department stores, money marts, friends or family who have co-signed loans or made personal loans, etc.

Your work
Your trustee has no reason to notify your employer unless:

• It is necessary to stop a garnishment of wages
• To obtain tax information that you have failed to give to your trustee
• You work in a profession where you are responsible for money
• Your work in a profession that has licensing rules that forbids bankruptcy (usually within a time limit).

If you are concerned about what happens at work if you declare bankruptcy, be sure to bring up these worries with a trustee during your first, free meeting. If your job is affected by bankruptcy, your trustee can usually suggest a solution to work around the problem.

Possible Creditors
This is during the period of being an undischarged bankrupt (be it for 9 months or longer).

By law, you are required to inform any potential lender (credit card, bank, payday lender, computer purchase, a furniture retailer, etc.) that you are bankrupt if you are trying to borrow more than $500. You can be charged with fraud if you do not notify your creditors of your bankruptcy status.

The Press
In a few bankruptcies, where the value of the bankrupt’s assets is high, the trustee may have to publish a notice to creditors in the newspaper. This is rare. Typically, bankruptcies only make the paper or TV when the person involved is considered important enough to be of interest.

Creditors that probably won’t be notified
Your trustee is unlikely to notify the following types of creditors if you are intending to keep their services under an existing account and, in the case of housing, are up to date on rent payments: landlords, gas company, phone company, electricity company, water and sewage, etc.

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