IVA thinking about BR? Help

Lightbulbmoment_2

Hi there

(Didn't get much response on the BR board so maybe someone can help here)

My husband and I have been in an IVA for 14 months, I don't think we were given the right advice and believe we paid more than we should have, we've asked for a drop in charge and basically have been ignored for 2 months.

We're really struggling, our children don't do any classes and we argue constantly and has seriously affected our marriage!

We're both now thinking that we should have just gone for BR in the first place, I would like to be fully informed about bankruptcy but can't seem to find too much but the very basics of being BR.

Where do we live after being bankrupt? We have two small children.

Do we pay any more but the fee toward BR after filing?

What other little things should we know before making this jump?

Would anyone advise sticking with the IVA or going BR?

Also could we sell our home and pay off our dept to our IVA? Has this happened before?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

National_Debtline

Hello there.

We have a useful fact sheet on bankruptcy which you can find here: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=01_bankruptcy

The Insolvency Service have various guides which you can find here:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/Publications

I understand from one of your other posts that you have equity in the region of £30k and that you're happy to give up the property if need be. The house is very likely to be implicated under the bankruptcy but you should be given up to a year to find alternative accommodation. There is a good guide which specifically talks about the home and bankruptcy, you can find it here:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/insolvency/docs/publication-word/what-will-happen-to-my-home.doc

The fee for bankruptcy is £700 each, those on a low income/qualifying state benefits may have this reduced to £525.

It might be possible to sell the property and offer the equity in full & final settlement as part of the IVA - Your Insolvency Practitioner should be able to offer further advice in relation to this.

If you have disposable income you would usually be asked to pay it into your bankruptcy for 36 months - This is known as an Income Payment Agreement (IPA).

Who did you take your IVA through?

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.

Lightbulbmoment_2

Thanks for getting back to us.

We took our IVA through Payplan and obviously when we were going through everything we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. However, we think the advice they gave to us was slightly false as we believed we could speak to them if needs be about changes in the IVA. We currently pay £750 a month but realistically we can only afford £500. Our son is also due to start nursery which is going to be an additional £200 which really only leaves us with £300 for the IVA. I know this is less than half of what we were paying but we have made as many cuts as we can with our shopping and household bills.

Whenever I try and speak with someone there, I get fobbed off and told that someone will call me back, but they never do.

We were also under the impression that we could have three one month breaks from our payment should the necessity arise. Again, when we enquirer about this they said it was only for emergency reasons, again not what we were told originally. Can anyone help with what the consequence would be if we didn't make our next payment but then carried on after that??

kimmy2849

I have a query about IVA and bankruptcy too. A long time ago I originally took out a loan with Lloyds TSB, over the years I added to this loan when consolidating other debts. My husbands wages were never paid in to this particular bank account so it was purely my child tax credit and my sons DLA that went in to this account. In 2008 my husband was made redundant , as a result of this I decided to ask the bank for the 3 payment breaks that I was entitled to with my loan. I telephoned them and told them the change in our circumstances and asked for the payment holiday. They said that I was not entitled to it as I didn't fit the criteria to use that even though it was part of my loan agreement. They then told me that to help me out I could have a credit card , and they could up my loan by a further £10,000 then I would qualify for the buy now pay later loan and I could have the three months off paying it that I had requested. I then subsidised our food and everyday living costs on the credit car that they sent me that had a £9,000 limit. I had to save whatever cash we got to save up to start paying back the horrendous loan that I had to pay back. After my husband found another job and took a £17,000 pay decrease we carried on finding it a struggle. I then got a debt management plan whichn I paid for over a year before eventually getting an IVA. The debts are solely in my name and I have been paying the IVA for two years now.
Recently my husband has stopped working to help care for our two disabled children and I have contacted the IVA company to tell them of my change in circumstances, they said that instead of going bankrupt they will do a new calculation based on our revised income and expenditure. Our income is solely benefits. They have worked out that I have more disposable income that I had when my husband was working and that my revised payments would be double what they were, I was paying £400 a month on £27,000 debt and I would be paying around £800 now that we are solely reliant on benefits. Surely that makes no sense, After receiving a small amount of advice ( as I found out if you are in an IVA you are unable to gain any advice from another agency until you have a certificate stating that you have been removed from your IVA ), I have realised that if I went bankrupt that my husbands benefits wouldn't be counted as he wouldn't be going bankrupt as his name is not on the debt and also they wouldn't take my benefits to pay the bankruptcy as this is what the government say that you need to live on. I suppose its a no brainer that I go bankrupt , but I run a special needs parents advice group and I have some social responsibility and I am well respected in the help that I give. I also feel that bankruptcy could have massive implications for the rest of my life and when I eventually have a career. I feel so upset as I was missold this loan through no fault of my own . I had a 2 month old baby and two other children to feed, one of which is disabled. I had to try to get a payment break, where as I got saddled with another £20,00 worth of debt. Please help, I am lost and feeling desperate now and rather hopeless for the future.

Anondebtadvisor

There is another forum which gemma at Payplan posts on and i notice she has helped others who are waiting for answers re their IVAs, not ideal i know but might help you get the answers you need.

See www.debtwizard.com the site has Payplan on there posting so is a free sector site

Good luck xx

Depth_Charge

Lightbulbmoment wrote: »

Hi there

(Didn't get much response on the BR board so maybe someone can help here)

My husband and I have been in an IVA for 14 months, I don't think we were given the right advice and believe we paid more than we should have, we've asked for a drop in charge and basically have been ignored for 2 months.

We're really struggling, our children don't do any classes and we argue constantly and has seriously affected our marriage!

We're both now thinking that we should have just gone for BR in the first place, I would like to be fully informed about bankruptcy but can't seem to find too much but the very basics of being BR.

Where do we live after being bankrupt? We have two small children.

Do we pay any more but the fee toward BR after filing?

What other little things should we know before making this jump?

Would anyone advise sticking with the IVA or going BR?

Also could we sell our home and pay off our dept to our IVA? Has this happened before?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Hi

Did Payplan give you full advice on all your options including bankruptcy at the outset?

You need to check your IVA proposals regarding clauses relating to your property and the potential of actually being made bankrupt if your IVA fails

Is there any equity in the property.

Could you put up further details

Are there any PPI claims pending with Payplan?

You may have a number of options depending on your circumstances however your options may also be restricted due to being in the IVA.

Im afraid that IVAs are not set up to be charitable to those in debt and when they go wrong people can end up much worse off especially if there is a home with significant equity.

Along with what other posters have put you might get somewhere seeking advice from another independent agency with no financial interest.

Possible useful advice & info links below concerning some of your other questions -

I/S on the home in bankruptcy if you have not already seen this

http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/bankrupts-home


Homelessness & housing

Citizens Advice
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/housing_e/housing_finding_a_place_to_live_e/finding_accommodation.htm

Nat Debtline
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=10_homeless_what_should_i_do

Homeless Code of Guidance for Local Authorities
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7841/152056.pdf

Genuine best wishes

Depth_Charge

Anondebtadvisor wrote: »

There is another forum which gemma at Payplan posts on and i notice she has helped others who are waiting for answers re their IVAs, not ideal i know but might help you get the answers you need.

See www.debtwizard.com the site has Payplan on there posting so is a free sector site

Good luck xx

Hi

Did she not once post on another IVA site?

I also thought that Payplan had posters on here!

What do you mean by a free sector site? none of them are charities as far as I am aware, are they?:)

Payplan are most definitely a profit making business, so is Mike isn't he?

I will stand corrected of course:)

Could be very useful speaking to the Payplan rep mind.

So I'm going to have a neb myself over on debtwizard

Lightbulbmoment_2

Depth_Charge wrote: »

Hi

Did Payplan give you full advice on all your options including bankruptcy at the outset?

You need to check your IVA proposals regarding clauses relating to your property and the potential of actually being made bankrupt if your IVA fails

Is there any equity in the property.

Could you put up further details

Are there any PPI claims pending with Payplan?

You may have a number of options depending on your circumstances however your options may also be restricted due to being in the IVA.

Im afraid that IVAs are not set up to be charitable to those in debt and when they go wrong people can end up much worse off especially if there is a home with significant equity.

Along with what other posters have put you might get somewhere seeking advice from another independent agency with no financial interest.

Possible useful advice & info links below concerning some of your other questions -

I/S on the home in bankruptcy if you have not already seen this

http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/bankrupts-home


Homelessness & housing

Citizens Advice
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/housing_e/housing_finding_a_place_to_live_e/finding_accommodation.htm

Nat Debtline
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=10_homeless_what_should_i_do

Homeless Code of Guidance for Local Authorities
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7841/152056.pdf

Genuine best wishes

It appears that we have around 50k equity in the house, more than what we would need to pay back. I would rather not go BR for certain reasons. Mainly my husbands job, not really for the house. I would need to look at the IVA paperwork again to see if there were any clauses, again I would rather not go down the BR route.

I don't know about any PPI claims to be honest. I would assume not.

Thanks again

Anondebtadvisor

I agree DC none of them are "free" but this is the only site i have seen her post on recently and i wanted to make clear that debtwizard does refer cases to Payplan so i cannot be accused of posting pointless links to other providers - it can get a bit politicial sometimes :-)