www.iva.co.uk

Hi All,
I've had some fantastic advice from this forum in the past so I thought I would ask again.
I started an IVA in May 2007 for 5 1/2 years (in lieu of equity) with Accuma that was transferred to Grant Thornton. Debts of £48000
However in Jun-Sep 2009, both my wife and I were made redundant with my wife being pregnant at the time. As such I had to cease payments on the IVA.
I spent 16 months out of work so failed the IVA however I never actually received failure notice until August 2012.
My question is where do I go next?
Only one creditor (a DCA) has bothered to contact me in that time and only by letter which I have largly ignored.
Looking at my Experian credit report, only one debt still appears on there for £1700 to Cahoot as they filed a default in 2010 (despite being under terms of the IVA at that time)
The IVA is also still on the credit report (should this have been removed by now?)
Do I still need to go bankrupt?
My family live in rented accomodation so I wouldn't consider an IVA again and to be fair, my outgoings are much larger now than when I was under IVA as we had to move house due to a lease ending.
I'm just not sure where to turn next? One friend has suggested just ignoring it all until it becomes statute barred but that wouldn't be for nearly 5 years and isn't an appealing option.
Many thanks for your time in advance.

I can understand what you friend means and it would be tempting to do so. However, since you now rent as opposed to owning a property when you entered the IVA, it is possible that creditors may not have your current address and have not just given up on the debt.

Personally, I would consider bankruptcy strongly as while it would mess your credit file up for another six years, you could at least know that the problems are now over. The Official Receiver may want to know what happened the property and may need to speak with the previous IP but overall I doubt it would be too bad.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
We moved out of the old property in May so there was approx. 8 months with no contact.
Basically, the original property had negative equity at the point of the IVA being proposed, hence the extension.
However when we both were made redundant, we ended up having to use the mortgage rescue scheme for a housing association to buy the property at 90% market value which meant we could stay in the property on 3 year lease. The sale yielded approx £400 profit once all fees were paid.
Many thanks

I think you have little to worry about concerning the property and even less to worry about in bankruptcy. However, £700 each for bankruptcy is a lot to find when you are under no pressure from creditors so it is a tight call.