iva's and bankruptcy

forest6

I was lying in my bed yesterday feeling quite depressed about my partners debts and the fact that i have no money either, when i saw an advert from debtfreedirect. I went to their website and it mentioned something called an IVA. I'd never heard of one of these before but it looked quite good. My boyfriend had considered going bankrupt but it all seems a bit scary. He has no assets accept his work van so we wouldnt be losing much and thought about putting the van in my dads name so he could continue to work.

His mum died a few months ago and he hasnt quite had the get up and go to go out and find work. He is self employed so its not like his income is stable. The debts have mounted up to nearly 20k.

Also i am so worried that he hasnt been to do his tax return yet. That could really put the mail in the coffin but he just doesnt seem up to sorting things out so i do my best to help.

Anyway, does anyone know about these iva's? I saw an article on here that said not to trust these companies that advertise on tv so although we have contacted these people i want to know what other people think.

Should he go bankrupt?Can he still be self employed if he does?

We have been shuffling credit cards but now he has a bad credit rating although he has never missed a payment, we can no longer get a new one to move the debts too. It seems like we are not getting anywhere with these debts.

Any advice welcome,

Thanks xx

jellycat40

Hi there

Try not to panic the first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem. The second step is to approach a company like Payplan who are free to use.Payplan are a charity and you can find out about them on https://www.payplan.co.uk. I am arranging an iva with them, but they will give you the advice you need for your situation. You have a few choices but if bankruptcy does happen then my husband is self employed and he is now discharged but it did not stop him from going bankrupt and it did not effect his day to day business.

Before you call payplan or any other company have all your details in your hand. They will want to know how much you owe to each creditor, how long you have had an account with them and if you are in arrears. They will also want exact income and expenditure. This could be difficult with your partner especially if he is depressed following a bereavement but explain that to them as well as they need reasons why you are in a pickle.

The tax man can be included in a bankruptcy (i don't know about an iva) but you will need your partner to work out how much he owes. Any way count the tax man as a creditor. You will probably be able to keep a vehicle if he needs it for work.

Obviously if it is his debt then he is going to have to make the calls which could be another problem if he is depressed.

Good luck, keep in touch.

Louise

forest6

Thanks for your reply Louise. Its nice to hear from someone going through a similar situation.
I'm not sure if my boyfriend is depressed, I'm the one that usually suffers from depression hence the day in bed yesterday. He could be depressed and it just shows itself differently to mine, in any case it hasnt helped things. He generally sweeps things under the carpet and pretends things are not there. I guess we are in a race to see who has the biggest breakdwon 1st!

He will be able to make the phone calls as long as i sort everything out 1st. He is better at the manual work while i try to sort these things out, although I'm not really the best person to help. If there is such a thing as number dyslexia then im close to having it.

I will look into the company you mentioned. I dont think debtfreedirect is a charity so maybe they are into helping themselves more than us.

I wonder if there is anything else about bankruptcy that we need to know. For some reason we dont want to do it but I'm not quite sure what is stopping us. It just feels wrong.

Is it likely to last more than a year? If we have kept up all of our minimum payments so far are we likely to be eligable for bankruptcy or an iva?

After the bankruptcy will he be able to work normally and will they take his new earings or is it completely written off? He has a business name but its not a registered company, can he still work under the same name or we will have to get new cards printed, the van sign written again etc etc?Will he be able to have a bank account?

I have read about bankruptcy and in some instances it can last up to 10 years.If he is suffering some sort of depression surley bankruptcy is a pretty nasty event.

Anyway, thanks again for your reply louise.xx

jellycat40

Hi again
Bankruptcy isn't nasty it just has a stigma against it. No you don't have to change company names or anything like that, but he cannot be a director of a company if he is bankrupt. I think this is easily overcome by getting the directorship changed to someone else until he is discharged. For the amount of debt you have chances are he would be discharged after about 9-12 months and then no one would have any claim on his earnings. The 10 years for bankruptcy is for people who are going bankrupt for the second time!

Bankruptcy stays on your credit record for 6 years as does and IVA. You cannot be a school govenor or a local councillor. You may not even have to appear in court, but you will have an interview with the official receiver usually over the phone for your amount of debt.

In my husbands case he had an interview over the phone where he told the OR that he had an audi car and a small boat and the OR said fine that he would not object to him keeping these. He also allowed us to have finances to get married! They are human and will help you.

He may not be able to keep his bank account so the other thing you need to get him to do is apply for a very basic bank account which you do not tell the Official Receiver about or if you go down the other routes the creditors about. you will need this to keep going when your bank finally closes your account. You can try Woolwich, Co-op or Halifax for basic bank accounts that don't credit check you.

The other people who do not charge you are CCCS who I don't know much about but a lot of people do use them on these forums.

Let me know if you need to talk about anything else. You can private message me if you want to chat privately.

Louise

Hitme

CCCS recommend 3 different companies for IVA's and DebtFreeDirect are one of them, so I wouldn't worry about them too much.
Probably worth speaking to CCCS or Payplan first though.

Jen_Jen_5

an IVA is likely to last about 5 years and you have no assests so he should go bankrupt as likely to last less than a year and you will then be stress free more quickly. i expect the debt is having an effect on your and your partners health and this is much more important than the stigma of bankruptcy

the effects of iva and bankruptcy are going to be pretty much the same except in bankruptcy it will be over more quickly.

the tax return must be done as a matter of urgency, your partner can be fined for not filing it so he should file it even if he cant pay it (the debt can be included in bankruptcy and iva)

an iva is really for people who need to keep an asset eg house, they offer their creditors regular payments in leui of losing the house. in my opinion you will be better off and less stressed if your boyfriend goes bankrupt, look after yourselves and dont worry what about a percieved "stigma"

forest6

Thanks for your input jen.

He has decided to try for bankruptcy and now im really scared. I just cant wait until its all over.Knowing my luck we will get the 10 year thing over our head.

The thing is he is a plumber and everyone thinks plumbers earn loads of money. I guess not if you are an honest plumber. Im wondering if this will go against him though considering he should be able to earn enough to pay the bills.

The only other thing i have been considering is to write to all the card companies and ask them to freeze the interest for a year or we will become bankrupt.

He has tried to see the citizens advice people but has never been able to get in. I just think if this all goes wrong and they take his van away i will be the one who gets all the blame.

Anyway watch this space to see what happens. x