Starting new rent while on IVA

ivafreakout

Made some bad financial decisions in the past and circumstances out of our control added to the mess, long story short, ended up with unplayable amount of debt and opted for Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVA). Roughly in the middle of the 5 years we lost our home, the landlord sold the house we were renting. For the past couple of month we are staying in a friend unused little flat just to try and save up some money for the next rental as everywhere I looked I found that *if* they willing to let us a property, we need to put down the rent for 6 months in advance. We are still not there, the money we have wouldn't be enough but we are desperate to move out and get a place for ourselves.

My question is; is it true, do we definitely need the 6 months rent in advance or it is would just improve our chances? If we would offer three months, would that be an option? Also, my wife is not part of the IVA but obviously her income alone wouldn't be enough to rent a house. Anyway, if we would start the renting process under her name, would that improve our chances or the best is declaring to the agency from the get go what is our situation?

Sonic101

Hi there

As you probably know, if you have an IVA on your credit file, you will fail any credit check run by a letting agent. 

There are no hard and fast rules regarding whether they would let you rent or not if you paid some rent in advance, but usually it's six or twelve months' rent upfront and possibly a guarantor would be required.

You may be able to swing it by renting under your wife's name, and on the application as well as putting her own income, add yours (or what your contribution to the rent and bills would be) under "additional income" as "income from non-dependent contributor", although the likelihood is that they'd want you to do a joint tenancy.

The only way to know for sure is to discuss with the agent/landlord in question - some may be more flexible than others.

flipflopflo

May I ask why you went for an IVA as a debt solution and who advised you?

Grumpelstiltskin

flipflopflo said:

May I ask why you went for an IVA as a debt solution and who advised you?

I have to agree, who advised you to take out an IVA if you were renting|?

sourcrates

An IVA is basically bankruptcy for those with assets to protect.

In normal bankruptcy, your home would likely be at risk, in an IVA, it wouldn`t.

So really IVA`s are for homeowners who cannot go bankrupt, I would assume you approached a debt management company, or they approached you, and they got you sold on the IVA idea.

Don`t beat yourself up about it, many folk fall for the same sales talk, as Unfortunatly, IVA`s are mis-sold on a massive scale.

However you would have been in need of some kind of debt solution, and all leave black marks on your credit file, so you would have still been in the same position regardless of which option you took, all I would say is if you need more money to go towards your rent deposit, you may have to look at failing your IVA, either that or see if your creditors will accept payments to date as full and final settlement, due to a change in your circumstances, and you needing the money.

You must be nearing the end of it by now, so that might be worth exploring.