IVA or DMP?

SuzySu

I will start off by apologising for the title of this thread, as I know this subject has been covered (many times) before, but I would really appreciate some advice that is relevant to my situation at the moment.

As some of you already know, my OH and I are planning to go our separate ways once we exchange and complete on the sale of our house, which EA has advised will probably be at the end of June/1st week in July.

I have an appointment with the Council next Friday to see about getting on the housing list and to get some advice about my housing situation generally.

However, our debts are in joint names and this is where I need some advice please. Should these be tackled jointly or are we best to halve the debts and each tackle them independently ie. each of us pay half towards each creditor?

If jointly, would an IVA or DMP be most suitable for us? We won't own a house - OH will rent privately and I don't know what I will be doing yet. I don't know if we would qualify for an IVA or even if it is the best thing for us. We did get in touch with PayPlan this morning, who are calling us back tomorrow to go through our financial situation and they are looking at a DMP (I think) but just wanted some advice from you lot first.

BTW, the debt in my signature is now well out of date - I think we owe about £17,000 in total (including £3000 arrears on the mortgage which, I think, can't be included in an IVA)

I can't call National Debtline until Monday as their offices are now shut. Can anyone please give me some advice so I am a bit better informed before tomorrow's call.

Thanks.

LilacPixie

Well IVA's are rarley suitable.

Is the 17k your proportion of joint debts or is that the whole lot. Do you have any profit from the house sale?? will the 3k of mortgage arrears be cleared??

I would say that for specific advice you will need to talk to NDL. I would probably push for a joint DMP to clear the debts if at all possible. If you have a little money from the house sale maybe an offer of F&F on joint debts and a dmp for your own personal debt.

SuzySu

Thanks LilacPixie. The £17K is the total (unsecured). We have £198K remaining on the mortgage, and £40K on a secured loan. We hope both these will be cleared from the proceeds of the sale. However, we have our HIP, Sols fees and EA fees to pay so there will be nothing left over to offer anyone.

Are PayPlan ok to deal with? I have tried calling NDL and CCCS but both are shut until Monday now.

Tigger1983

I would hold my horses and wait until Monday. It does take a while to get an interview with the CCCS but they give you advice on things you can be doing in the mean time. I was looking at an IVA until people on the board told me to look a little deeper. We have about 26K debt, the IVA company were proposing to pay a little under half of that back, but our contributions altogether would have beenover 22K!! They take a really big part of what you are paying. This is why they recommend IVA's for larger debt...even for us at 26K it really wasn't worth it.

Tig x

SuzySu

Thanks Tig - that's worth knowing. I think it looks like a DMP then. I am already in communications with CCCS from a couple of months ago, so will call them again on Monday and give them figures for my share of the debt based on my income alone, and see what the best thing to do is.

LilacPixie

hi again SuzySu.

Payplan, NDL and CCCS are all reputable. Maybe in the meantime you should post a projected SOA based on what you feel will be your outgoings based on you living in either private rental or council rental. It might help you focus your mind on what is an affordable amount and then go from there. There is also nothing to stop you administering your own DMP if thats what you ultimatly wanted to do.

SuzySu

I think most of the categories would just be guesswork at the moment. I have never lived on my own so have no idea what to expect in the way of bills etc. I will need a 3-bed place and have no idea what the council will say. I'm just hoping I have a roof over my head in a few weeks' time. I will post an SOA once I am up and running on my own.

Re administering my own DMP, would not creditors be more 'reassured' if they knew a reputable organisation was organising it? If it is free through eg CCCS, what is the benefit for me doing my own one?