Condition on which creditor may petition

(1) A creditor shall not be entitled to present a bankruptcy petition against a debtor unless, (a) the debt owing by the debtor to the petitioning creditor, or if two or more creditors join in the petition, the aggregate amount of debts owing to the several petitioning creditors amounts to two hundred and fifty dollars; (b) the debt is a liquidated sum, payable either immediately or at some certain future time; (c) the act of bankruptcy on which the petition is grounded has occurred within three months before the presentation of the petition; and (d) the debtor is domiciled in Belize or, within a year before the date of the presentation of the petition, has ordinarily resided or had a dwelling-house or place of business in Belize. 13 (2) Where the petitioning creditor is a secured creditor, he must in his petition, either state that he is willing to give up his security for the benefit of the creditors, in the event of the debtor being adjudged bankrupt or give an estimate of the value of his security, and in the latter case he may be admitted as a petitioning creditor to the extent of the balance of the debt due to him, after deducting the value so estimated in the same manner as if he were an unsecured creditor.