Your bankruptcy ends automatically after a year from the date of your bankruptcy order, unless the TIB applies to court to postpone this. The TIB may only do this if you didn't do the things required by insolvency legislation. The court will only postpone your discharge from bankruptcy if it is in the interest of the public to do so. The court should not postpone the discharge simply to punish you.

When the bankruptcy order is discharged, your bankruptcy comes to an end and you are released from most of your previous debts and freed from most of the disqualifications that affected you during your bankruptcy. The discharge however, does not affect the right of any of your creditors to prove in the bankruptcy for a debt that you are released from. The discharge also doesn't affect the rights of any of your secured creditors to enforce their security for the payment of a debt from which you are released.

Certain claims are non-provable in the bankruptcy and will therefore not be affected by your discharge from bankruptcy. Creditors with non-provable debts can with the consent of the court, proceed with action against you during the course of your bankruptcy, or may proceed with action against you after your discharge from bankruptcy without the need to get consent from the court. Some non-provable debts are:

• Any fine imposed for an offence
• The obligation to make payment of any sum under an order made in any family proceedings
• The obligation to make payment of a maintenance assessment under child support legislation
• Any liability under a confiscation order
• Any liability to pay damages under consumer protection laws for the death or personal injury of a person
• A student loan
• Social fund loans

Any assets that have vested in the TIB and that have not yet been converted to money and distributed to the creditors, remain so vested, and are, subject to the rules applying to your home, not returned to you. After your discharge from bankruptcy the TIB will continue realising assets and distributing funds to creditors until all value in your bankrupt estate has been distributed.

Any assets acquired by you after discharge of the bankruptcy order do not vest in the TIB, but belong to you.