Advice much appreciated!

[lee27]

Hi,
I have been coping with debt for a long time, meeting payments (just!) and robbing peter to pay paul, and i have been useless with money...i have been a serial consolidator! I owe about 40k (ouch!) and even with that I have managed the payments, that is until the breakdown of my relationship. A double income has become one, and I can no longer meet the repayments. An IVA looks appealing, but there are a few questions....
1) I am a home owner, but 25k of the 40k is with northern rock, it is an unsecured loan that I pay with the mortgage, a product they call "together"...what implications would this have, as I obviously want to keep my house and mortgage.
2) 2 of the other loans are with my bank, first direct, totalling about 14.5k
3) The rest are 2 small debts, of 350 to hfc bank and 180 to black horse. Ironically, these are final monthly payments for finance that were due when my situation got bad abd i could not afford it!
To live (or exist!) i can afford just over £200 a month. This may increase in the medium term as i currently travel 350 miles a week to work but a position closer to home may emerge this year, which would also pay more money. Advice much appreciated!

[DebtDummy]

Good morning leeno, I read your post. You sound very concerned about your debt. You are thinking about an IVA. You came to the correct site.[:)]. I am not an expert, but I didn't want to 'leave you hanging' in case you were waiting for a reply. I wanted you to know you are not alone even at this hour.

Believe me, an expert will log on and answer your questions. You can also look around, read about the experiences of other debtors if you can't sleep.

I can't answer your question about your type of mortgage because I have a repayment mortgage. I am however,in the process of having an IVA done. I can tell you though to speak to a couple of IVA companies about your situation and see what they advise. Beware of the ones who want upfront fees unless they state in writing what they are being used for. A few folks here were taken advantage of during their vulnerable moments regarding payment of upfront fees.

I know this is easier said than done, but try and relax.

Take care!





All I have left is my humour.

[MelanieGiles]

Hi Leeno

Can you tell me how much equity you have in your property and whether this is jointly owned with your former partner. It may be possible to do a lump-sum based IVA by raising equity on the property.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[lee27]

Hi Melanie,
The property is jointly owned, I purchased it in july 2005 for 87k, so it is probably worth 95-100k now. My former partner and I are on speaking terms and the split is quite amicable (thank god!) as she did not contribute to the deposit she does not want any money out of the property...she just wants to walk away and forget about it, and is sympathetic to my debt situation and wishes me to "do what i need to do".

Thanks
Lee

[Dominic]

Good luck Leeno you are doing the right thing and remember do not be ashamed or guilty

[scaredkez]

leeno, i have a together mortgage with NR and i continued to pay both loans it was about the only sensible thing my IP told me to do, until i had the creditors meeting as NR told me themselves last week if you miss one payment they start legal proceedings immediatly don't know how true but didn't take the chance, what they do any payments that you make to them get apportioned to the 2 loans no matter what you pay, my iva was rejected and i asked if they would allow me to do a DMP and just carry on with the mortgage payment they refused me and told me no way, another thing with northen rock is they will allow you payment holidays if you have made 9 consecutive full payments as long as you request in good time, if you have paid say 18 months full you will be entitled to 2 payment holidays this may be a bit of a help while you try and sort something out with your creditors.
kerri

[MelanieGiles]

Leeno

You now need to take specific advice from an insolvency practitioner or debt managagement company with regard to your situation.

From the facts you have presented, an IVA may be possible, but you will need to be offering at least 35p in the £ to tempt Northern Rock.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[MelanieGiles]

Leeno

You now need to take specific advice from an insolvency practitioner or debt managagement company with regard to your situation.

From the facts you have presented, an IVA may be possible, but you will need to be offering at least 35p in the £ to tempt Northern Rock.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
View my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[freelili]

Hi
Just wanted to say I agree with Debt dummy about trying several companies before you make a choice. Its so easy to be tempted by the first sympathetic ear who offers a way out. When working out your outgoings be realistic in what you need to live on and include extras like prescrtions/dental etc. An unrealistic proposal will lead to failure and 5 years is a long time on a stict budget. Also, as Dominic says do not be ashamed, the company will earn money from you and will be working for you. If an Iva is possible then you will need to open a basic bank account with no overdraft or credit facilities, using a bank that is neither a creditor or an associate of a creditor.

Good luck

LILY

[lee27]

Thanks everybody,

Looks like an IVA is not an option. Ann Marie at Thomas Charles said that NR reject 90% of proposals, and as over half of my debt is to them my, chances are 10%! I'm not a betting man (thank god!) but seems like an outside runner! Has anyone any experience of debt management plans? Time for plan B!

leeno

[Dominic]

Leeno I would give it a go anyway, you never know they might not bother to vote at the meeting and the others that do might give you enough to get it accepeted. You see the vote has to represent 75% of the value held by creditors that VOTE at the Meeting. So if Northern Rock do not bother voting at the meeting and the others do and vote yes it will be accepted, that is what happened with me only one creditor voted at the meeting and they voted yes.

[freelili]

Hi

I have just entered a DMP with payplan, with a view to proposing a lump sum iva later on. Its not legally binding and doesnt protect you from action or contact, and it can take years to complete. Its also their decision to freeze interest or not.(but it could be done temporarily in your case if theres more in the pot later on) Some creditors can still call saying they are not prepared to talk to a third party. Furthermore creditors usually only agree it it for a three month period. Then you have to start again or they may agree to it for a further three months or 6 if youre lucky. Although there is paperwork involved its as good as a verbal agreement as creditor companies dont seem to comucicate or it takes time for things to filter through. You are then required to reiterate on a daily basis, but its early days for me so this may be the worst case scenerio.

Its doesnt sound like a great picture I know but I was told; creditors will only look at whats on the table now and not the future. In my case the statement of income and expenditure, is there for all to see, therefore, no point in legal action because they would get the same, and as I have no assests, they would get a big fat zero in bankruptcy. so I think it will work for me, eventually.

There is always the option of bankruptcy, or and I would not advise this myself but it might work for some a consolidation loan to reduce outgoings.

I know the new isnt good regarding your IVA but I have to say, I think it is really good that Thomas Charles gave it to you straight and didnt try to paint an unrealistic picture and false hope. Some companies arent like that adding stress to stress.

Wishing you all the luck in the world lee, I think your attitude to this is really positive.

LILY

[scaredkez]

the only thing that upset me today as you all know i am close to BR is a psoting i read elsewhere on a visit to the OR which frightened me a little heres the posting:
This was going to be a whinging post but I've done enough of that so I have just posted the key points of the Offical Receiver's conversation with me on Wed...harrowing.

1. I will lose my car despite its value of £800. She doesn't care that my husband needs it for work and me for looking for work. My son may buy it and give it to us. We are not allowed to buy it personally from the agents.

2. Under the housing Act, she has to inform my landlady that we are bankrupt. Most tenancy contracts, as does ours, state that you can be evicted if you go bankrupt. According to OR, most landlords do evict. Ours has't because 'you've been there four years and never been late with rent or given me any problems.' Phew.

3. My six premium bonds go to O.R.

4. My husband's stake holder pension will not be touched. Apparently they used to be taken but hardly ever now. Something positive.

5. We had included tax bill, phone bill, electricity bill, fuel bill in the bankruptcy. Note to anyone...please do this. They are all debts and you will not be cut off from elect,phone etc. The electricity board tries to trip (sorry!) you up by adding and extra charge when they fit you with a coin payment meter. They are NOT allowed to do this so check! Tax office tried to say that because the tax bill is for '05, we have to pay. O.R. furious with them. Any bill presented in her year is included in bankruptcy. We should not pay them.

6. Seriously told off for obtaining more credit when paying a Debt Management company to manage debts. She said you are not (legally?) allowed to get more credit when paying via a debt management company. She will be contacing Eurodebt and RBS who both encouraged us to get credit (Not pushing blame away from us at all. The buck does stop with us and boy does it hurt!)

7. I mentioned lottery tickets and she asked me to repeat that statement as she hadn't quite heard it. (Read into that what you will) Gambling can lenghten your bankruptcy to fifteen years. We should be discharged in one year if we do everything she says.

8. Wanted to know exactly what every credit card debt was for. Food and living mostly which made me feel even stupider. She said we had managed our money extremely badly and should learn from this.

She will send a follow up letter to us confirming our next steps and then we may well not hear from her again. I thought she was very fair although some things were a nasty surprise...the car. But the pension was a great bonus as we paid a lot into it which helped to make us bankrupt.

Bankruptcy certainly not an easy option but after so many years it was our only option and I wish we had done this when the Col and others advised.

Thank you Margaret for your post. I am loving 'Grow Your own Veg.' and you are right. All that matters is food and shelter. Did I really spend money on mobile phones, Sky ('children will hate us if we cancel'...yes they were upset for a few weeks but now go out and get muddy knees from playing football in the close. Hurrah!), expensive toiletries and ready made food? What a idiot!

Hope this post doesn't depress but forwarned is forarmed.

i know a lot of it doesn't apply to me but got a bit frightened as what to expect so hope the information is useful to others
kerri



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[Skippy]

I'm sorry you had a bad time with the OR Kerri. When I was panicking about bankruptcy a couple of days ago having a face to face with the OR was the main thing that worried me. The information in your post is really interesting - I can't believe the bit about the lottery ticket.

Good luck with everything x

Three down, fifty seven to go until freedom!

[scaredkez]

skippy its not me that has faced the OR its another post i read thought would share with others,
haven't got that far yet it just frightened me reading it as so many say the OR is more lenient in BR it was a wake up call for me