Just curious..IVA and remortgaging question please

ferry

Just curious, but has anyone ever managed to remortgage to a new lender when in an IVA?

At the moment we have, regrettably, one months arrears with our current lender and are currently in an arrangement with them to clear this hopefully by the end of the year. We had enlisted the help of a 'specialist' broker to help us with remortgaging but have been told to forget this and stay with our current lender for the time being,this we understand and were sort of expecting.
We have never been in an IVA but have considered this as an option to help manage our debts but were advised to NEVER do this under any circumstances as remortgaging at any point in the near future would be impossible. We were also told that remortgaging would be impossible as the arrears stay on file for 6 years and are considered just as serious as being in an IVA
However it does seem that moving lender or even negotiating a new deal with the existing one seems possible according to various posts at iva.co.uk?

Has anyone had any real experience or successes with their mortgage while in an IVA? I cant see why we should not enter an IVA to help us along if the outlook is so bleak for us anyway?

Thanks for any advice, sorry for the long post

F x

foxy-stoat

If you are thinking about an IVA, then remortgage first with the best deal possible and fix over the longest term (10 years would be good), so if the IP insists on you re-mortgaging then ERC's can be taken into account.

If you have a good chuck of equity then think very carefully first as its possible that on year 5 you will have to remortgage to release it anyway. If you have little or no equity then you will find it hard to remortgage.

How bleak is your outlook?

sarah222

We were unable to remortgage when in an IVA but this was mainly due to the affect it had on our credit rating and the lack of equity in our property. If you have equity I would seriously think twice about an IVA.

thumperstu

were at the end of our agreement and have just had to attempt remortgage to release equity for iva luckily we have arrears so were turned down.

DorisTrousers

Really, the best case scenario is that you have equity and cannot release it, which then triggers an extra year.

Having large equity, and if you are not able to release it to clear the debts, is as good a reason as any for entering into an IVA. IVA protects your assets, DMP's, which are logically the only other solution in this scenario, will normally run for a lot longer and you have no legal guarantees at all.

Don't forget that in a protocol compliant IVA you have safeguards built in. Any equity release is 85%, not 100%. You cannot take on more than 50% of your IVA payment, your IVA payment goes down to compensate for the remainder of the term, and then finishes. You cannot go past your existing mortgage term remaining, nor state retirement age. Any one of these, or a combination, allied to other factors such as bad credit, affordability calculations and income multiples may well mean that it is impossible to release equity, or sometimes only a very limited amount, which on balance can be a very favourable outcome for the debtor.

adyj73

I had a bit of luck myself. See my thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5356986