www.iva.co.uk

Hi Everyone, I have been on here before and found it so helpful - I now have another dilemma and this may be long winded.
My husband and I took out an IVA which started June 2009 and it is due to end July 2015 - it was pushed to 6 years instead of 5 as one of the creditors pushed for this. My husband and I are now being told that at the end of 2014 we need to get a valuation of our home to see if there is any equity I have since found out our home is worth around 85k but our mortgage stands at 97k so we are in negative equity of 12k. The IVA have now said we will probably have 12 months added to the term of the IVA so our end date will now be July 2016. My husband and I are now seperating and he is moving out leaving me with the house. I wonder if I should stay with the IVA or just go bankrupt. There is alot of information on the internet saying I wouldn't lose the house due to the negative equity under bankruptcy but the IVA seems to get longer and longer and I worry as the mortgage people are putting me back to repayment mortgage next July and I lose my child benefit due to my daughters age next Sept. I don't want to keep struggling with the IVA only to fail after all this. Is there a limit to the number of years this IVA can go on for - I feel like I am serving life (sorry I am very anxious about this at the moment)or should I look into bankruptcy?
Many thanks

Hi Karantiggy,

Sorry to read you and your husband are separating. It does sound like a review of your circumstances would be a good idea to understand what your options are moving forward based on your affordability once your husband moves out and your are covering bills etc. will you be receiving any maintenance to take into account?

Bankruptcy may be a way forward but remember it will be on your credit file for 6 years form when you go bankrupt. Your house will be valued at the end of the 3 year payment term in the IVA to see if there is any benefit to it being sold. If there is an equity and you have someone who could offer the benefical interest to the official receiver that would be a way around it for you to keep the home, if that is what you want to do. If there remains to be negative equity in the house then selling it will achieve nothing for the creditors.

I am unsure why a further 12 months was to be added to your 6 year IVa if there was negative equity from the start, did your IP clarify this? It sounds like you need to have a new income and expenditure review with your IP to understand the impact on your IVA. Your IP may be able to propose a variation to the creditors if the payment needs to be dropped, therefore allowing you to remain in the IVA that you have come so far with, it would be a shame to come out of it now if there was a way for you to proceed but without struggling. If your mortgage is to change to repayment and you are losing child benefit that sounds like a big change to disposable income which may force the issue for you. If you stay in your IVA until then your IP may be able to propose a variation for the payments made to date to settle your IVA at that point with no further payments.

Have a chat to them and let us know how you are getting on. Separating is a very stressful event in itself without the added financial worries to contend with as well. We're all here to support where we can.

Hi Tina,

Thank you for responding.

My husband needs to find a property so he has asked for his payments
to be suspended for 3 months and he will then resume the IVA in Jan
2014 the reply we received is this:

As per a discussion today, the following was discussed

1. Redex - Reduce Payments and Extend - This is a meeting held with
creditors to reduce payments with an extension of up to 24 months.

2. Sussex - Suspend and Extender - This is a meeting held with
creditors to suspend payments and extend by how ever many is missed.

Both these meetings you do not have to offer an extension however its
likely it could be rejected.

3. 15% Reduction - We can without any extension reduce payments by
15%, if you are unable to maintain at the original level.

4. Miss and Increase - If you miss payments you can look to increase
before your anniversary date ( In your case June each year) If you
wish to spread past this date, we can ask the supervisor for
permission.

We are really confused - can you explain this in laymans terms?

We do not feel we are being supported at all.

Many thanks
Karan