IVA APPROVED TODAY

[gizmo]

Hi everyone - brilliant news - our IVA's have been approved today after 2 adjournments. I've posted this in this section as I suspect more people will see it here and hopefully will help those of you still in the waiting game. In my last post I said we had been adjourned again as Northern Rock had voted no but they said that they had only received my husband's proposal and not mine (not sure any of us accepted that but never mind). They have since voted yes with some modifications.

There is no doubt at all in our minds that we would have never got through this had if not been for our IP who most of you know - Melanie Giles. We were introduced to her by Douglas Prior at Thomas Charles who was wonderful with me at the outset when I was in such a state of panic and desperation having been served with the statutory demand. I did speak to other companies but felt most reassured by Douglas and stuck with him. Aside from his tremendous help I will always be grateful to him for introducing us to Melanie. She has been fantastic throughout this. I travelled to see her in Cardiff and she was so helpful and explained everything so clearly and has never once made me feel stupid or guilty.

She has always been at the end of the phone and email for us - she has had to cope with a lot of that I can tell you, particulalry over these last 2 weeks! She always replied and was always reassuring. Melanie even finalised our proposals on New Years Day in the face of a threat to enforce the stat demand by one of my creditors. I have no doubt whatsoever that we would never have go through this if she hadn't been our IP. There have been some really sad stories on this forum about IP's but I reckon we found the best. Easy to say I know in the aftermath of an acceptance but having been through this process I feel more than comfortable in saying that as Melanie and her staff have fought tooth and nail to get this through in the face of many harsh creditors - I think we owed nearly everyone you could - about 30 odd of them in excess of £230k in total. Never mentioned that before as it made me feel sick. Long story behind it but no need to go it no that now otherwise you'll be here all night!

Been a strange time - I feel like a total weight has been lifted and thanks to Melanie we have our lives back - something I never thought possible in the face of some really dark days. I have had the most wonderful time tonight with a glass of wine (and several more by the end of the night I suspect!) setting fire to the statutory demand and default notices - very cathartic! Each case is very different I know that now and I'll let you have more info about who voted what when I know but I think the most important thing I have learnt is that what is right for one person and indeed what happens at their meeting can be totally different from another persons experience.

I would like to thank all of you for your support - it meant a lot and to any of you out there looking for an IP look no further than Melanie Giles - THANK YOU SO MUCH MELANIE!!! The next 5 years won't be easy but they will be a hell of a lot easier than what the last 5 or so have been trying to stay afloat.

[scaredkez]

gizmo so very pleased it has all worked out for you, enjoy the wine.
kerri

[aguise]

Hi gizmo
congratulions I am so pleased for you. You will not know me but I am one of the ones who tends to sit and read rather than reply. I check the forum every day and look forward to the posts such as yours. I understand the great relief at having your iva accepted. Mine was a relatively simple one but only scraped through with a 78% vote the relief was immense.
May I also agree with your comments about Melanie and thank her for the advice she gives on the forum.
Any way CHEERS have one for me.

[freelili]

Hi Gizmo

Its really good to read your post, you sound so positive and relieved, so glad you had an excellent IP in Melanie, she should be cloned, dont you think?

stay cool and good luck with your brand new life.









I wanted to reply sooner but I am having real trouble g

Good luck with your brand new life

LILY

[neverending]

Gizmo
That is great news and your case shows the positive side of the IVA system and above all the benefit of an excellent IP.Your experience and posts WILL help others in a similar position who are reading this forum.We are all lucky to have an actual IP ,Melanie,posting on this site, especially one as experienced.
Enjoy that wine and enjoy counting down from 60 towards a new life.
Regards

[Helhan]

Fantastic news! It sounds like a brilliant result for you!
Helhan

[MelanieGiles]

I am grateful for all of the comments you guys have posted this evening, and am so happy for my clients, who have been most genuine at all stages of the process.

Stories like this are so gratifying, and the fact that we are in some small way able to change people's lives puts us in a very priviledged position.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[Skippy]

Great news Gizmo - good luck for the future!

Four down, fifty six to go until freedom!

[scaredkez]

melanie you should be very proud of that post from gizmo, it makes a nice change to hear IPs being praised for the hard work they have done, just wish there was a lot more melanies out there
well done melanie and gizmo

kerri

[thebear29uk]

Hi Gizmo and congrats on your approved IVA. I share your sentiments as my contact at Thomas Charles was Douglas Prior and he has now passed me on to Melanie Giles. I met Melanie yesterday in Cardiff and she was very honest with me about my circumstances. My situation is slightly complicated by the fact that I moved to a new area with work quite quickly so chose to rent out my mortgaged property and then rent somewhere for myself. Unfortunately due to interest rate rises my mortgage repayments are now more than the rent received for my property and, as there is some equity in the property, my creditors would argue that as I didn't live in the property, they would want the equity now rather than later. The person renting my property on a 12 month lease works for the same company as I do so going bankrupt would lead to my situation becoming common knowledge amongst my colleagues. (I work for a large multiple chain). Melanie spent a long time looking at all my options and the result is that my best option is to complete the current lease with my colleague to the end of 2007 then sell the property. This will result in an equity release of approx £20000 plus the surrender of my endowment of £8500. With 60 payments of £400 I will be paying approx 51p in the £ which is obviously higher than some people have to pay.
This is the point!!! Nobody made me spend the money and an IVA is not a way of shirking your responsibilities. If I can pay 75p in the £ I will. Some people come on here saying "why am I paying 60p and somebody else is paying 35p?" Remember the I stands for individual.
Whilst I was running up my debts at the back of my mind was the fact that if they got too much I could always sell up and use the equity in my property to clear them.
So I lose my house. If I kept it and did an equity release in the 4th year my mortgage would go up whereas if I sell in 12 months I have no mortgage, but more importantly, eventually, no debt. If property prices increase I might even be able to propose a final settlement.
People come on here asking when their credit rating will be restored. Why would you ever want to go down the route of credit again? You can get secured credit for a mortgage despite an IVA and you can buy cars from companies that don't worry too much about your credit history. So you might pay a bit more. But would you ever want to be in the situation you are now again? I know I don't.
Anyway big thanks to Douglas Prior and Melanie Giles. Having seen Melanie's posts on here I was extremely happy to be told she was going to be my IP.

[iva_squirrel]

Fantastic news! Conratulations and best of luck.


Regards,


Julia

For more information about IVAs, please visit my website:
www.supersonicsquirrel.net

[sps]

Great news for you!
Being fairly new to all this it's good to see a positive result.Think I must have read nearly every post on this forum trying to find out as much information as I can - never been on the computer so much.
Good luck to your future

[Dominic]

Fantastic news gizmo glad to hear it.