Any help on IVA's appreciated :-)

Doggies

Hi, I have about £32000 worth of debt. Most of this is a loan with the same company as I have my mortgage with. The rest is a couple of smaller loans, credit card and £6000 overdraft, which again is with the same company I have mortgage and loan.

I have managed to significantly reduce the payments on the loan for one year, and hopefully am getting a deal worked out for the credit card. The bank has halfed my overdraft fees for 6 months.

Am desperately scrimping as much as possible, but can't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am also paying a family member £300 a month for a loan towards my mortgage after downsizing and being able to get much of a mortgage amount.

I'm thinking an IVA might be my way out, but am so scared of being made bankrupt if it didn't go through. As my debt is all mostly with the one company, could they force me to sell my house, as there is probably about £12000 equity with the deposit I put down.

Also I bought a car a year ago (stupidly!). It is almost interest free over 3 years, so 2 years to go. The monthly payments are high, £300 to get the very low interest. I rely on my car to take daughter to school and go to work. It wouldn't bother me having to sell it and get a cheaper one, but then people would know why and what has happened. I really don't want anyone finding out about this so would prefer not to loose the car if possible.

Any help, advice would be seriously very much appreciated. I am at my wits end and have gone over everything I can possibly sale. I done ebaying, boot sales, you name it, but the debt is just too high.

Thanks

judojub

Hi Doggies.
Have you spoken to any of the recommended helplines. CAB, CCCS, National Debtline? I suggest you do that. Also, if you are considering an IVA then please pay a visit to https://www.iva.com. They give a list of recommended IVA companies. Give a few a ring and they will talk through your situation with you and should advise you of all your options. Don't be railroaded into anything. Gather all the info you can on your options and you will then be more comfortable with your final decision. Oh, and don't go with anybody that will want fees upfront!

judojub

Doggies wrote: »

Hi, I have about £32000 worth of debt. Most of this is a loan with the same company as I have my mortgage with. The rest is a couple of smaller loans, credit card and £6000 overdraft, which again is with the same company I have mortgage and loan.

I have managed to significantly reduce the payments on the loan for one year, and hopefully am getting a deal worked out for the credit card. The bank has halfed my overdraft fees for 6 months.

Am desperately scrimping as much as possible, but can't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am also paying a family member £300 a month for a loan towards my mortgage after downsizing and being able to get much of a mortgage amount.

I'm thinking an IVA might be my way out, but am so scared of being made bankrupt if it didn't go through. As my debt is all mostly with the one company, could they force me to sell my house, as there is probably about £12000 equity with the deposit I put down.

Also I bought a car a year ago (stupidly!). It is almost interest free over 3 years, so 2 years to go. The monthly payments are high, £300 to get the very low interest. I rely on my car to take daughter to school and go to work. It wouldn't bother me having to sell it and get a cheaper one, but then people would know why and what has happened. I really don't want anyone finding out about this so would prefer not to loose the car if possible.

Any help, advice would be seriously very much appreciated. I am at my wits end and have gone over everything I can possibly sale. I done ebaying, boot sales, you name it, but the debt is just too high.

Thanks

I will try and answer some of these as best I can. Hang in there though because somebody with a LOT more knowledge will come along and help out!

1) Only unsecured debts can be included in an IVA.
2) Making agreements with your creditors to pay a less amount is an informal agreement, they can start charging interest and fees again at any time. Once an IVA has been accepted they are legally bound to stop all interest and charges from the date of acceptance.
3) With regards to your family member. If you are actively paying them this amount each month then they might well be included in the IVA as a creditor and as such might well be notified by the IP that you are entering into an IVA. You are not allowed to give preference to one creditor over another. So, unless you were able to pay your family a small amount from any allowances you might save then this payment will have to stop.
4) I personally haven't seen many IVAs rejected of late. The return for creditors in an IVA would be much better than Bankruptcy where they might well get zilch.
Get a proper valuation of your property. If there is equity in your property then in an IVA you would be expected to try and release this by way of remortgage in the final year of your IVA. If this is not possible( which is highly likely) then the norm would be that you would extend your IVA for a further 12mths.
I am not sure what the stance for your property would be in BR. I THINK if your home is in negative equity then the OR would have 2yrs 3mths to wait and see if it gains equity before making a decision. If at the 3yr point there is still no equity then the house would revert back to you ( like I said, not sure so somebody else will clarify this)
5). If the car is on HP, then in an IVA you would have to continue these HP payments and once they are finished the money you were paying would automatically go towards paying your IVA.
6)Of course, there will be a fee charged by IPs for your IVA. This would come out of your monthly contribution though. With a recommended company, they should not charge you fees upfront.

Hope this has helped in some way. Like I said, I am a newbie. Please hang around for more advice and info!:)

Doggies

Hi Judojub, thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me.

The family member cannot find out about the iva. I am hoping to still pay them with an Iva in place without them knowing, as it is an informal arrangement between us. I plan to do this by continuining getting my wee amounts selling my jewellry, boot sales and scrimping every penny.

I had rang CCCS a few months ago and they needed to make an appointment and for me to have a detailed income and expenditure to hand. After this I decided I would try and tackle the debt myself by offering reduced payments. This in theory worked, but when these payments go up again I am in trouble again, not to mention I'll be in debt forever more.

The worrying bit is my car as the payments are so high, but only 2 years left, and because my debt is mostly tied up with the company I have my mortgage with. I only moved to this property and took new mortgage in Dec 2010. I did pay a loan of £9000 from the sale of my other house,but still have loan of £20000 and overdraft of £6000. I have no idea how I got to borrow so much and just how on earth they gave it to me! No point blaming other people though for my mess.

judojub

Doggies wrote: »

Hi Judojub, thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me.

The family member cannot find out about the iva. I am hoping to still pay them with an Iva in place without them knowing, as it is an informal arrangement between us. I plan to do this by continuining getting my wee amounts selling my jewellry, boot sales and scrimping every penny.

I had rang CCCS a few months ago and they needed to make an appointment and for me to have a detailed income and expenditure to hand. After this I decided I would try and tackle the debt myself by offering reduced payments. This in theory worked, but when these payments go up again I am in trouble again, not to mention I'll be in debt forever more.

The worrying bit is my car as the payments are so high, but only 2 years left, and because my debt is mostly tied up with the company I have my mortgage with. I only moved to this property and took new mortgage in Dec 2010. I did pay a loan of £9000 from the sale of my other house,but still have loan of £20000 and overdraft of £6000. I have no idea how I got to borrow so much and just how on earth they gave it to me! No point blaming other people though for my mess.

Hi Doggies.

Unfortunately the family member might well find out if you continue to make those kind of payments to them. Your creditors will be non too pleased if you are giving £x to them and £xx to your family member. Please get in touch with the sites I posted previously. You need to know exactly where you stand so that you can begin to move forward in a positive light.

As I said earlier. If you have any secured loans (on your property for example) these will not be included in the IVA. HP is also not included in an IVA. What is the finance agreement for the car?
You shouldn't be expected to get rid of the car unless it is some kind of super celeb style car. The fact you need it for work etc should work in your favour.. In saying that, if the car is valued at quite a high amount, the creditors might insist you sell and buy something cheaper. Have not seen this happen as of yet though!

z1a

Pretty sure you need a minimum of £12k unsecured debt for an IVA. do you have this?

Doggies

z1a wrote: »

Pretty sure you need a minimum of £12k unsecured debt for an IVA. do you have this?

Hi, yes, unfortunately, debts add up to a nice in and around figure of £32000.

The car is a Skoda, so not a big fancy car. I did pay a deposit on it, so theres about £8000 left to pay and its virtually interest free on the deal I got.

None of the debts are secured on my property. Judojub, I planned not to include the family member in the IVA or be any part of it. If it comes to the bit where I cannot afford to pay them, I shall have to come clean. But I would plan to pay them out of extra little bits I can get together by flogging stuff.

I suppose when the car payments finish I can pay more into the IVA, might that go in my favour?

I suppose my first plan is to ring CCCS or payplan and make an appointment.

Oh, another thing, do CCCS/payplan actually set up and get an IVA going, or do they just offer advice? So would I have to get a private company to help me?

I have had small bits of debt before, i.e credit card here and there, but always cleared it up. This is bad.

Thanks

FoggyBrain_2

Hi Doggies. Can't really add much to what has been said so far. Assuming the creditors agree to let you hang on to the car ( and in all probability they would) it will probably be a condition of your IVA that, once paid for, your payments to the IVA increase accordingly. Is the car on an HP agreement, or is it just a loan with which you happened to buy the car ? If a normal loan, it will have to be included in the IVA and this will be something you have to discuss in detail with any company you go to.

CCCS have their own sister company who deal with IVA's and Payplan do their own in house. I would also suggest you approach a couple on www.iva.com. The charitable status CCCS and Payplan does not make them better, nor, in fact, cheaper than the private companies -- they all get the same fees in the same way --- it's just that the charities dress them up as donations! At the end of the day, whichever company you use, the fees will be agreed between them and the creditors and will come out of your monthly payment.

SunshineBear

You would be in breach of any IVA if you have any credit with anyone including a family member without the permission of the IP.
You really have to face up to the fact that ALL of your creditors with have an interest in whatever is availiable in IVA.

The car if valued over a few £k would need to be downgraded.

Ask yourself, do you want to get this resolved or do you want to keep face? I doubt you can do both.

Doggies

Thanks FoggyBrian, the car is on HP, just repayment, no final payment at the end or anything. I don't mind putting the extra money into an IVA if thats what it takes when the car is paid off.

I will get the initial advice first from CCCS as to whether an IVA is an option, but after reading loads on here I think its my only way out. Just hope that it wouldn't end in bankruptcy. Thats what has held me back the last 6 months from taking the plunge. I sold my house, loosing a fortune, downsized, much smaller mortgage, but still a big struggle.

judojub

Morning Doggies.
If you have downsized and are still struggling then you really can't afford to be paying your relative £300 a month! If you go down the IVA road then you might well have to think hard about coming clean to them. I am sure they wouldn't want to see you struggling as much as you are. Don't try and hide anything. It has a way of biting you in the bum further on down the line, as is life.
Start making a few phone calls today. Get in touch with a few of the companies on the iva.com website and see where you go from there.
We were staring bankruptcy in the face if our IVA hadn't been approved. We don't have a crystal ball, we don't know what the future holds, and if for whatever reason our IVA fails then we will go bankrupt. It is an absolute last resort for us but if it happens, it happens.
I think, if you do the IVA and as long as you stick to the 'rules' you and your house would be fine (still no crystal ball though).
Best of luck and do keep us posted. There are lots of good peeps on here that will help and advise you.