Who can help me?

Maxnana

I am hoping someone may be able to offer me some advice. I have contacted CCCS with the same question, but they just said talk to Payplan, and come back to us if your IVA fails, which is no help as Payplan won't advise either! I really do not know what to do anymore, and this is all I ever think of.
To put things in a nutshell, just so as you can see what the problem is:
I am married and live with my husband and non-dependent son. We are home-owners and are only a couple of hundred pounds behind with the mortgage which Santander have agreed to be paid at £50 a month. However, we have a massive 2nd charge with First Plus from about 10 years ago, when we stupidly consolidated all our debts. This repayment is more than double our mortgage repayment! Just First Plus payment takes up my whole salary. We are a couple of thousand pounds behind with this payment and they have referred us to their debt collection agency. We have contacted them and offered to pay £50 a month off the arrears (we will continue to pay First Plus the usual rate too) which they wouldn't accept. They said £150 is the minimum. Payment is due 1st of next month and I don't know if we'll be able to pay the £150.
We also have an IVA with Payplan which we are struggling to pay. They now say we are in breach of the IVA.
I know the situation is all our fault and we made some really bad choices in the past, but I don't think I can carry on like this anymore. Sometimes I think I just want them to take the house and let the money problems disappear with it. Other times losing the house fills me with morbid fear - it's all I've got, and I would rather do anything other than lose it!
I am having this fight with my conscience almost every minute of every day now. Somtimes I can't sleep because of it.
I have been advised to go to CAB - done it before, they put us in touch with the Debt Counselling Service and they put us in touch with Payplan, that's how the IVA came about. We went again recently and they said we have 2 choices - continue to pay our bills and keep the house, or don't pay them and lose it. Is it really just that? Is there no other option? Because I don't know if we can do either!
I can't see our income getting any better - my husband is in car sales, and the bottom is falling out of it at the moment. My position has cut it's hours recently.
We have no life - there is nothing left if we pay all the bills (in fact we are in negative equity so Red Castle told us, but still want more money off us from nowhere!)
I just wanted a person to look at our position and tell us what is best to do. I can't think straight anymore, I'm so confused and consumed with this. I know I need to get a grip and sort things. I have been looking at 'sell to rent' schemes today, in a bid to be able to stay in our house, but the information is confusing. Anyway, I don't know if we could even do that as our house is in negative equity with both the mortgage and the First Plus.
Can you help at all? Or can you tell us of a financial advisor we can go to? CAB have done all they can for us, and Payplan don't want to advise, they just want their money. I don't know whether to go bankrupt (we are not currently at risk of losing the house though), carry on struggling for as long as possible, or just let nature take it's course.
What I really want, is to talk to someone, like a financial advisor, who can look at all our finances and give us the best advice, but there doesn't seem to be anyone like that available - tried CAB< CCCS< National Debtline (all vague, nothing specific). Looked at IFAs, but they only advise if you've got money, not when you haven't! Who can help me?!
Please - any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you in anticipation.

dancingfairy

O.k so you've arrears on the mortgage - a couple hundred being repaid at 50 amonth
arrears of several thousand not currently being repaid on a secured loan?
an IVA you're struggling to pay.

How many more months payments have you got to go on the mortgage arrears? How long into the IVA are you? Have the mortgage arrears/secured loan arrears been built up since you started the IVA?
I'm just wondering whether a) the secured loan company will wait a few months until the main mortgage arrears have been paid and then you can offer them 100 a month?
and b) whether you can adjust the terms of your IVA - this may be possible due to the reduced income but I would have thought that to add the mortgage arrears/secured loan payments as they are priority debts and you would want to prioritise them you should have done this at the start of the IVA really - don't know if this is still possible?
I know in bankruptcy that unsecured debts are included and that if you plan to keep the house (and are able to) then you should continue to pay the mortgage as normal but i'm not sure how arrears are treated and the secured loan.
I'm wondering whether you could stop paying the IVA and wait for it to fail, try and pay the mortgage and secured loan upto date and then file for bankruptcy - obviously this will all take several months and it depends on how many debts you've got and how quickly they would come after you after a failed IVA, how much you are paying the IVA etc. This is not going to be easy.

It does seem very much on the face on it that the most logical solution would be to stop paying the IVA and save up to move out and file for bankruptcy.
Best of Luck and I hope some others have some other ideas.
df

Maxnana

Thank you for replying so quickly! To answer your questions: It's about 6 months on the mortgage arrears, then that's straight. We've only had the IVA about 2 years, and yes, the mortgage/secured loan arrears only started after the IVa was in place. Red Castle (on behalf of First Plus) will not wait even a month, and even though we told them we could only afford £50 p.m. they still sent us a letter saying we had 'agreed' to pay 150, when we didn't - it was they who said they wouldn't accept less than this! They are not prepared to be flexible in any way.
We have tried adjusting the terms of the IVA but Payplan are having none of it. They have been so unhelpful and will not offer us any advice, just 'pay the IVA or you'll be in breach'! We pay £300 p.m. to Payplan.
I just wish there were independent debt counsellors (like IFAs, but for people with no money to invest!) where you pay a fee for an hour of advice from someone who is independent of all finacial institutions. That way, at least I might have an idea of what to do. I can't beleive that in this day and age and in the current financial climate that there aren't any such advisors!
Having said that, I think this website and it's contributors are the next best thing.

foreverautumn

Maxnana the best advice i can give you right now. Is register on the Iva.co.uk website. Post this on there. Sounds to me you are not getting to speak to your actul IP. They are not giving you any kind of service at all. They are people from payplan who post on this site. Along with other IP's, who will be able to help. They may even encourage payplan to address this.
Please keep posting you are not alone and we are here to help. But you will get more help and support on the IVA.co.uk website.

foreverautumn

It may well be a good idea, to send First Plus a letter. Tell them they can either accept your proposed payment plan, or you will have no choice but to go bankrupt. Is there any equity? Is there equity before the second charge? Would they get anything back in bankruptcy?
I would also demand to speak to your actual IP.

Maxnana

Thank you so much for your replies. I am going to look at the IVA.co.uk website right now. I had never heard of it before, so thank you.
I will also speak to Payplan again and ask to speak to our IP. I honestly don't think we've ever spoken to them - it seems to be only a case officer we deal with - uinless this is the same thing?
Incidentally, they (Payplan) phoned again just this evening asking us to pay off our arrears, which I said is not possible at the moment, to which they said we will get a letter saying we are in breach of our IVA. That was helpful. We've already had one of those letters anyway. We get at least 4 letters each a week from them!
I mentioned to Payplan the fact that the CCCS have said they cannot advise us while we have an IVA and that Payplan should advise us, but they just said they are not qualified to advise on bankruptcy and can only discuss our IVA.
So, even though the consensus is that when you have debt problems, don't ignore them - speak to people, get advice etc. I can now confirm that we have spoken to, or tried to speak to: Payplan, CCCS, CAB, our mortgage and 2nd charge companies, and even Independent Financial Advisors, yet NO-ONE CAN/WILL ADVISE US! It's a farce.
Regarding equity, with both the mortgage and the 2nd charge, the house is in negative equity. We owe £84,000 on our mortgage, £100,000 on the second charge with First Plus. The house (at today's prices) is probably worth around £135,000.
I will also send a letter, as you have advised, to First Plus telling them we may have no alternative to go bankrupt if they don't accept a payment towards the arrears that we can afford.
Once again, many thanks for your replies - this is the only place I am getting advice from right now.

StepChange_Pavan

Maxnana wrote: »

Thank you so much for your replies. I am going to look at the IVA.co.uk website right now. I had never heard of it before, so thank you.
I will also speak to Payplan again and ask to speak to our IP. I honestly don't think we've ever spoken to them - it seems to be only a case officer we deal with - uinless this is the same thing?
Incidentally, they (Payplan) phoned again just this evening asking us to pay off our arrears, which I said is not possible at the moment, to which they said we will get a letter saying we are in breach of our IVA. That was helpful. We've already had one of those letters anyway. We get at least 4 letters each a week from them!
I mentioned to Payplan the fact that the CCCS have said they cannot advise us while we have an IVA and that Payplan should advise us, but they just said they are not qualified to advise on bankruptcy and can only discuss our IVA.
So, even though the consensus is that when you have debt problems, don't ignore them - speak to people, get advice etc. I can now confirm that we have spoken to, or tried to speak to: Payplan, CCCS, CAB, our mortgage and 2nd charge companies, and even Independent Financial Advisors, yet NO-ONE CAN/WILL ADVISE US! It's a farce.
Regarding equity, with both the mortgage and the 2nd charge, the house is in negative equity. We owe £84,000 on our mortgage, £100,000 on the second charge with First Plus. The house (at today's prices) is probably worth around £135,000.
I will also send a letter, as you have advised, to First Plus telling them we may have no alternative to go bankrupt if they don't accept a payment towards the arrears that we can afford.
Once again, many thanks for your replies - this is the only place I am getting advice from right now.

Hi Maxnana,

I’m not sure whether you’ve seen our reply to the query you posted on our thread earlier this week, but here’s a link to it just in case: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42191466&postcount=1611

To recap; the reason you need to speak to your Insolvency Practitioner is because they have access to the terms and conditions of your Individual and legally binding arrangement. Rather than speaking to your case officer you should ask to speak directly with your IP who is the supervisor of the arrangement. Only they have the authority to make any changes.

Alternatively if you feel that there is no way of continuing your IVA, you could request a termination.

Like we have mentioned, if your IVA does fail and you need advice on your options, we will be able to help at that stage (once your have come out of the legally binding agreement).

Kind regards,
Pavan

Payplan_company_representative

Hi Maxnana

I have just come across your posts. I would hopefully like to try and improve your situation with Payplan. If you have been over to the IVA.co.uk site then you can find me on their and my email address is on my page. If you would like to email me and I will try and get some answers to you.

Thanks
Lizzy.

foreverautumn

Maxnana, how are you today?
I presume the arrears on the mortgage and the second charge, have built up whilst in the iva?
Is there a reason for this, what i mean is your IE budget (do you have enough to live on each month)?
Have you had other things that have come up, which is not included in your budget(ie car repairs, boiler breakdown etc) Or any periods of unemployment?
If you post your I&e maybe we could have look at it. You would not believe how many times people have done this, to find that everyone has said there is no way you could live on that. It could be a problem that needs looking at.

I know how important your home is to you, i could not imagine losing mine. But if i was in the kind of negative equity you are. I would consider bankruptcy, so you could have a clean slate. It is very difficult to advise as we do not all of the full details of your case.
But please do keep posting, we will all do what we can to help you. I see Lizzy has made a post to you, i would get in touch with her, she may be able to help. But in the mean time, keep posting questions. Big hug for you x x x

mel12

In terms of whether or not you'd lose the house in bankrupcy -

If its in negative equity you might be able to keep it. The OR (official reciever who deals with bankrupcy) will look at the house in 2 years 3 months from the date of bankrupcy. If its still in negative equity the interest in the house will automatically go back to you. If its not then you or a family member usually have the option to buy back the beneficial interest (the amount of positive equity in the house). Given the amount of negative equity, you probably don't need to worry about it going back into positive equity in that time.


However, if you don't pay the mortgage and the secured loan you'd lose the house anyway. Secured loans can't be included in bankrupcy (ie you'd still have to pay the arrears IF you want to keep the house). But it can take a long time - like 6 months or more - for them to get round to repossessing it.

If the house was repossessed, the debt from the mortgage and loan becomes unsecured and can then be included in the bankrupcy.


Another thing would be the amount you're allowed to live on in bankrupcy and whether the mortgage/secured loan payments would be considered excessive if they're very high - I think the guideline would be how much it would cost to rent a property suitable for your needs in the area. I'm not 100% on this, and I'd recommend posting on the bankrupcy forum for more advice.

Shelter might be a good place to try for advice about the housing side of things.