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Hi, thinking of an IVA as due to change in job circumstances am struggling to pay my credit cards and loan.

i own a horse, his is old and not worth any cash value however the cost to keep him is £300 per month - will i be allowed to include this as an expense? i couldnt bear to lose him x

Hi there & welcome to the forum.

Firstly your in excellent hands finding this forum for advise before during & after an IVA.
Your horse is part of your family as I regard pets as loved ones, just as others in IVAs have pets.
I dont believe you would have to give him up and there are some wonderful experts on here whom will advise with more knowledge than I have.

Hi I dont know but someone will contact you, If you can prove you need the horse for work or travel then maybe you can keep it.
good luck

Hi betty.h, I don`t know whether your horse would be classed as a standard pet. I put forward a cost of £44.00 per month for dog insurance and feeding costs for 2 cats and my labrador. My creditors rejected this amount and I was allowed £34.00 per month.
I think you would need to speak to an IP about this, as surely a horse cannot be regarded as a standard pet with the same feed and care costs as a cat or dog, but only an IP would be able to tell you.

Sorry goosed I did not mean to refer to the horse as a standard pet, just loved as other pets are.
If its was a flashy car then yes get rid - but an old loved horse?

Betty, someone with more experience will be along to advise as Ive very little experience hun, try not to worry & your in the right place for advice.

Could you loan the horse out or part loan him at least to help cover the costs? Are you in a position to work extra to help support the costs of the hose? Is DIY livery an option?

Paul

Hi Betty and welcome to the forum, I don't know the answer to this one but I would like to think you can keep your horse as part of the family.

One of our professionals will be able to advise more concisely, is there a way you can reduce the costs of his keep? x

I do know of posters on here who have had horses and been allowed to keep them.

It's something to discuss with a prospective IP.

Visit www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews and give one or two a ring for free and impartial advice.

Anything and everything, within reason, is a fair rule as to expenditure within an IVA. The question you may want to ask yourself is whether, if someone owed you money and then came to you saying that they couldn't pay it back and that you should accept a lesser payment and also write some (or most) of the debt off, you would be prepared to accept that one of the reasons they couldn't pay you back was that their horse was costing them £300 per month.

It isn't an unfair question, and if creditors are prepared to accept it then fair enough, but my instinct is that you will struggle to get them to do so. Of course, if you declared to all creditors, prior to borrowing the money, that your horse cost £300 per month to keep, and they lent you the money knowing that that was the case, then they can hardly object now.

Take professional advice as to all your options.

Regards.

We have 4 dogs (2 of them a large breed), a cat and a rabbit and I am worried how we are going to afford them but I really couldn't give them up as they are part of our family and my kids (and husband and I) love them like they are one of us. I would cut back on my own food to feed our pets.Its a tough one but I know if I owned an elderly horse that I'd had and loved for years I don't think giving him up would be an option. I hope you get it sorted. Please keep us posted as I am going to worry about the old fella now!

I totally agree Nicola, I often sacrifice things for the sake of the IVA mine more in respect of my daughter but can imagine how we all do for pets etc., too. x

MrsKnight wrote:

Sorry goosed I did not mean to refer to the horse as a standard pet, just loved as other pets are.
If its was a flashy car then yes get rid - but an old loved horse?

Betty, someone with more experience will be along to advise as Ive very little experience hun, try not to worry & your in the right place for advice.

MrsKnight, I wasn`t referring to anything you posted when I wrote `standard` pet, I just badly worded what I was thinking. What I meant was I think a horse might be classed as a specialist pet with much higher care, vet and feeding costs than (standard) pets like dogs and cats. I just wondered whether creditors would allow for these higher costs in any IVA proposal. I really hope so, because as you posted, all of us with pets regard them as much loved family members.

I do know it has been allowed in the past although the one that springs to mind was in Scotland I think, and his name was Major (the horse that is, not the poster).

I have three dogs, tiny, medium and large and I wouldn't part with any of them, infact the latest one was aquired post IVA acceptance.

As you've all said, we'd go without ourselves rather than our pets suffer.

Can't imagine life without a dog or three!

No worries goosed - I think Ive got sentimental over horses after watching the Marin Clunes program last sunday on horses!