We have completed the CCCS online debt counselling and been advised that an IVA is the best option for us. I just have some questions and hope someone can answer.
Can my husband and I get a joint IVA or would it be two individual ones? Most of the debt is in his name but some is joint and around 5% is in my name.
Does someone come to inspect your house? We have 4 children and I feel sick that this might happen. We don't own anything of any value anyway.
I gather we wouldn't need to sell our car? It is an R reg galaxy with over 100k miles on the clock and not in good condition. I doubt it's got longer than a couple of years left.
We own a house. It's our old house that we couldn't sell when we had to move so we live in rented. There is very low or no equity in it. We don't care one iota about having it repossessed but wonder if this would be preferable to keeping it in the hope it might increase in value in order to pay off all the debt before the IVA finished? If this happened would the IVA be taken off the record?
My husband is self employed and his income fluctuates massively from month to month. I worry that if he has a lean 2 or 3 months the IVA would fail. Is anyone else in this situation? If so, what happens?
Thats a lot of questions - and you'd be better off speaking to someone and giving them the full picture.
I think you have the right end of the stick - and I can re assure you no one is coming out to your house (unless you invite them!)
IVAs are individual but some IPs present them as "interlocking" and others don't - it depends on who and how much each of your creditors are for example.
Get a couple of professional opinions.
There's nothing wrong at all with CCCS -which ever firm you had approached I would
have said it.
Finally, what everyone seems to forget is that an IVA is YOUR proposal. An IP is your advisor.
Do take some professional advice and by talking directly to an IP you will be sure of getting some free impartial advice, the professionals who post on forum will be along soon to advise but until then, take a look at www.iva.com and there you'll find a list of companies and some reviews. There will be a solution out there for you.
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
The questions you are raising are sensible, and it is natural that you will want to query things from an early stage.
If you also feel that an IVA is the right solution for you, then it really is best to get first hand advice from an insolvency practitioner - and in your case one who specialises in dealing with self-employed cases.
There will be no need for anyone to visit you at home, if you prefer that they did not, but at the end of the day you will need to have a face to face meeting with the practitioner or a senior member of his/her staff as this is a legal requirement all IPs must observe when dealing with self-employed cases. I do not think that CCCS deal with this type of case, so you may find they refer you on to another firm in any case.
A good IP will build in your husbands peaks and troughs of trading into your IVA proposals, and I most definately would look to hanging on to your house if you can afford the ongoing mortgage payments.
I'm not sure whether an IVA is the best option, or bankruptcy which was also given as a possible option. Can an IP talk through both options or do they specialise in one or the other?
And, how do you find out who specialises in people who are self employed?
A good IP will always give you all your options and talk to you about them, I know Melanie herself conducts interviews for the self-employed so I'm guessing she'll be a good one to start with? but that is up to you, a phone call to a few companies and a quick chat will soon put you in the picture.
Becky never worry about the questions someone is mostly about to offer either the answer or some advice until the professionals come along x
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
Insolvency practitioners are more than qualified to give advice on all options - I myself act as Trustee in bankruptcy in a number of cases, so we do experience all sides of the fence so to speak.
And without people like you asking questions, this forum would not exist - so do please keep asking them. The more the better!
I have tried to discuss our situation with my husband this morning. Unsuccessfully unfortunately. He is very anti getting an IVA or bankruptcy. He thinks we should get ourselves out of the mess we got ourselves into through working our fingers to the bone.
Unfortunately he is totally unrealistic. He thinks we can earn more to pay off our debt. I have just spent a long time calculating that we would need to earn an additional £20,000 per year to just pay the minimum balances rather than continue to pay for the credit with credit. He won't listen and insists that the figures are probably wrong and we should just carry on.
I am so exasperated. We aren't paying our important bills and I don't know how he thinks we can earn all this extra money. I feel like bursting into tears right now... or thumping him.
I've just responded on your other post Becky. So sorry that hubby is not facing up to reality at the moment - perhaps he will see things in a different light in the New Year. I do hope so for your own sake.
Becky, I am so sorry to hear that hubby isn't being supportive.
I hope you can make him see sense.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Hi Becky - why don't you use the approach of "he is absolutely right you must have got the figures wrong - can he please go through the figures and see exactly where you went wrong" sometimes the short sharp shock treatment helps someone in denial - although at times a good old thump also works (it does with my husband anyway)that way he will relise just how desparately this is worrying you.
I was lucky that my hubby knew we had problems (although he didn't realise how bad!) and we sat down and sorted it out.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
