Please someone advise if IVA is best for us

I am new to this website and hope there is someone here with the time and experience to advise me.

We have a small business (not limited just me and the wife trading as...) that was doing well until the credit crunch started to kick in and since May 08 our sales have gone down and down. It is now at the stage that the wife cannot take the stress any longer and I cannot see how we can possibly carry on trading as we are on stop with our main suppliers, one just sent a Court claim form today (£17k).

Our situation is as follows:-

Creditors:-
Suppliers £27,000 (main one has put court claim in for £17k)
Business bank overdraft £17,000
Credit cards £9,500
Inland Rev and VAT £13,500
PAYE £1,000
Domestic gas and electric £1,000
Workshop rent arrears £1,200
Personal loan (owe to relative from years ago but they don't want it back unless we can afford it) ???should we include this in IVA - would it helpto do so???£3,000
Total - £73,200

Assets:-

Cheque to come from insurance company for recent theft from business £1,500
Money to come in owed to business £1,000
Car (paid for in full) £7,500
Stock and equipment not needed £3,500
Tools needed for new job £500
Trailer £1,000
Home valued this week at £125,000
Mortgage remaining to pay £62,000 (£422 per month)
Secured loan remaining to pay £5,000 (£333 per month for another 14 months - our son has offered to take this over if it means we can keep our home)
Total - £65,000 inc equity in house (assuming we could sell for asking price)

Business equipment/vehicle on lease hire/finance estimated settlement £7,000 (actually worth approx £4,000)


So, on paper we are at this moment in time insolvent. I was considering going bankrupt as we have no means of paying our mortgage etc next month (up to now we have never missed payment on this or secured loan) However I have today been offered a job with salary of £20,000 plus commission. My wife's only income now is £50 a week carers allowance which she would now qualify if we cease trading.

Our main priority is to protect our home - it is very important to both of us that we keep it if we possibly can. So we are thinking of going down the IVA route (or Partnership Vol Agreement)

The advice we have had so far after they worked out a budget for us is that this is a definite possibility but probably only if our son did take over the secured loan payment otherwise we would not have sufficient monthly income to meet the payments. The debtline we have spoken to today worked it out that we would pay £138 per month - 64p/£1 off? They explained we would be expected to remortgage in the fourth year but if we were not in financial position to do this we would probably have to carry on paying for another year.

Basically can someone just reitterate that what we have been told is correct. If it is it will be a huge relief and we might be able to get some sleep tonight. We were dreading losing our home in bankruptcy but if it means we can stay in it for as long as we can keep up payments then that is definitely what we would like to do.

Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read all of the above!