will this be good enough to avoid bankruptcy

[dandk]

i entered into a joint iva 4 years ago with an ex partner, we split up after a year and i stopped paying my half cos i didn't think it was fair anymore, he owed about £17000 and I about £6000 to the bank and £10000 to the SLC, and because i moved back home i had a much higer disposable income than him. I was in a position where i could have comfortably afforded to repay my debts, as most was to the SLC and they only take payments when you earn over a certain amount, the other £6000 would be about £150 a month over 5 years. Anyway I stopped making payments thinking the iva would fail after a couple of months and i would be able to renegotiate with my creditors, unfortunately he kept paying his half and its only just failed now, he has been made bankrupt by the supervisor, but they haven't made me bankrupt yet because they don't know where i am.

Over the past three years i've saved enough money were by i could pay the £6000 outright and have spoken to the SLC and they have said i can return to making payments from my salary like everyone else does. But will this be good enough to avoid bankruptcy given that i haven't gone along with the iva?

[MelanieGiles]

Hi dandk and welcome to the forum

An IVA is a serious financial commitment, and you should have continued to pay your share of the contributions or had the arrangement varied to suit your new circumstances.

Your strategy to deal with the creditors may have seemed sensible at the time, but you do not get any benefit from coming out of an IVA and then dealing with your creditors under normal contractual terms. Your credit rating is still affected for the same length of time. And in any case this should have been planned in conjunction with advice from your own Supervisor.

You must now put your suggestion to the Supervisor to see what they advise. I note that you have taken no account of their fees which will also need to be paid if you are to avoid bankruptcy.

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

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk