www.iva.co.uk

we are thinking about goging bankrupt as we had an iva for 1 year but can no longer pay this as my husband lost his job. As we have 3 small children i am concerned about the house, there is only about £1500 equity, will we lose the house?

Hi noodle and welcome to the forum

The equity will be subject to the "low-value" ruling in bankruptcy which means it is unlikely that possession proceedings will be brought against you. It would be best, however, to try and find some way of raising the equity - perhaps friends or family could help - as the Trustee has three years in which to deal with the equity and property prices may well increase in the meantime.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp

As Melanie has said it is unlikely your property will be touched in a bankrupcy. However should property prices increase then you could possibley have to find the money to compensate creditors for the equity.

Of course finding the £1500 and have somebody buy your interest would be a very sensible solution.

Have you contacted the supervisor of your arrangment and advised of the situation, is your husband likely to return to work in the near future, if so they may allow you to miss a payment until he returns to work and make up this payment over the following months or at the end of the arrangment.

Why not ask for a payment break until your husband finds a new job - then you can commence with your IVA again - it seems a shame to stop now when you have paid in for so long already and before the job loss all was ok. Ok you might have to extend your payments for a few months but hey - at least you will have the satisifaction of knowing you have paid your creditors some or all of their money back.

Lulu