Can I live in Eire and Go bankrupt in Northern Ireland

I am getting an increasing number of calls and emails from people asking if they can remain living in Eire and yet travel across the border to declare bankruptcy in Belfast. The short answer is no.
If you are an Irish citizen and you wish to avail yourself of the Northern Irish bankruptcy laws then the plain fact is that you must establish that your centre of main interest is in the province. This would be the same if you were moving to Liverpool for the same purpose.
It doesn’t matter that the reason that you are moving from the South to the North is simply to go bankrupt, the fact that you have relocated gives you the legal right to declare bankruptcy using EU law.
So for establishing Comi purposes you should ensure that you obtain a National Insurance number. This enables you to look for work, or work on a self employed basis. It forms the mechanism by which you will make contributions to the national insurance fund and hence latterly become entitled to benefits.
If you are living in Northern Ireland, you need to obtain accommodation. This should be at a reasonable rent and of a permanent or semi permanent basis. A six month assured short hold tenancy would be ideal.
With a place to live you need a bank account. I often recommend the Co-op but also increasingly an account which costs a small fee to administer each month but also may be easier to open.
With the bank account you can register for utilities and indeed vice versa.
With these items you are laying the ground work to showing that you have a comi in your new home.
Your bankruptcy petition asks you where you have lived for the greater part of the last six months. You therefore need to be in the address which falls in the jurisdiction of your county court for at least three months and a day before you even contemplate seeking a bankruptcy order.
Many on the net say that it must be twelve months, others six months. I have not seen any reason or explanation for these times. It may simply be that writers are churning out the same times without thought, just because someone else has quoted it.
The fact is that that if you have lived in the UK for less than 12 months, the OR can look into whether you are living here. It doesn’t mean he will. If you have settled and there is evidence of that you are entitled to present your petition to the court in which you reside after three months. From there it is all about evidence and fact.