Hi allHave currently completed the 2nd yr

[nad]

Hi all
Have currently completed the 2nd yr of our iva and had a review yesterday. Our circumstances have changed dramatically over the past yr as my wife lost her job (so we are down £500 per month from when the iva started) and we have just had another baby. Our payments at the moment are set at £382, when we originally took out the iva we paid £450 but we had to reduce the payments due to my wifes job going. We couldnt reduce them by more then this without calling a creditors meeting and at the time this seemed scarey. However with another mouth to feed now and only one salary coming in which is only £1600 per month we are really struggleing with these payments. We have been told if we call a variation meeting our iva will extend for an extra 12months so it will be 6 years not 5. We really want to continue with the iva as really dont want to face bankruptcy but we really cannot meet these payments and struggle every single month sometimes having to borrow money off family just to get some food. Are variation meetings usually succesful or do you think the creditors will just want us to face bankruptcy? My thoughts are that they set our original payments at £450 per month and that was with an extra £500 coming in so they must see that we will not be able to make the payments at the current rate and will hopefully reduce the. what are your thoughts?

[merrypotter]

Hi , we were in asimilar situation ourselves our daughter became 16 therefore her DLA was legally hers therefore our income was £280 per month down , our firm arranged a variation meeting first off it was denied due to one company refusing it ,however as there were lots that didnt vote our IP faxed, emailed and rang others to ensure there was enough votes for it to go through and within 24 hours of original meeting it was accepted. I am sure your IP's will do there upmost to ensure it goes through as did ours. I also believe that they wouldnt have suggested it had they didnt believe it was a fesable propasal. good luck keep us updated .

[kieser]

Hi Nad,we are in the exact situation ourselves,we have lost approx £500 in wages over the last couple of months & im just plucking up the courage to phone our ip,trouble is like you im scared to death that we will be forced down the bankruptcy route(i dont want this to happen)we are into our 4th year in our iva & after struggling for 4 yrs we would be absolutely distraught if we were forced to go bankrupt

[RJC]

I find creditors are normally quite sympathetic to a variation meeting, as long as your IVA is not currently in arrears, and you can show that you are having to reduce payments due to unforeseen and difficult circumstances.

It certainly goes in your favour that you have been paying for two years, and I don't think any party would want to see the IVA fail at such a time and force bankruptcy.

The current climate is hard for everyone, and I am finding creditors are being more and more sympathetic of this.

Speak with your IP and try to consider what would be affordable each month. They will prepare an Estimated Outcome Statement showing what the reduction in payments will do to the dividend. Your IP will be able to tell you, from experience, whether this is something creditors would go for.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

[MelanieGiles]

I have rarely seen a variation meeting turned down, but in truth we do not propose many. There is no point in continuing to struggle with unaffordable payments - work out what you can afford to pay and then get your IP to put that in front of creditors.

[kieser]

Im just about to phone my ip within the next couple of hours,as stated above due to my wages being cut(approx £200 mth) & my partners business having to be shut down & now shes working for an agency for minimum wage which she was told yesterday will only last until end of nov.We have lost about £500 per mth in wages & our IVA payment is £500 mthly.we cant afford any payment,we are into our 4th year & up to date on payments,havent missed any that were not agreed.Had to miss some due to my partners sisters sudden death last year leaving 2 kids aged 14 & 17.Any advice as obviuosly they are not gonna say ok you cant afford any payments so no problem.If we cant afford any mthly payments due to current circumstances whats likely to happen,a payment break would help but dosent help with the long term situation as i cant see our wages dramatically increasing any time soon,many thanks

[kallis3]

If there is no chance of the situation altering, you can ask the creditors to accept what has been paid in so far as a full and final. It certainly won't hurt to ask.

Otherwise, a payment break may be a good idea to see if your wife can find other employment.

[kieser]

Thanks Jan for the advice,surely they wont accept just writing off the excess will they,(we dont expect to get away with are failings in any way shape or form)we were to pay £500 for 60 months (total £30,000)& then remortgage & pay a lump sum of £31,000.So far we have paid £21,000 through our monthly payments.

[c.j]

Our variation was acceptedwith a reduced payment from £389 to £211.We made it clear that if it wasnt we would have to go bankrupt.We also didnt have an extension put n the 5 years which was a bonus.

[kieser]

Good news C.J,dont think our case will be that easy as we need to go from £500 to £0.Dont know what lies ahead for us but im not looking forward to it.

[nadakuss]

thank you all for your replies. We are going to look through all our outgoings and see what we can afford. I think it will be around the £200 mark, which i hope they will accept. I guess it is more beneficial for them to accept a lower payment then for us to go bankrupt. I feel so stressed out about it all at the moment which is the last thing we need with a 3 weeks old baby to look after. I cant believe we ever let ourselves get in this mess, hopefully it will all get sorted soon. many thanks

[kallis3]

kieser, there is a possibility that they might accept this - it is in no one's best interests for it to fail now and you have paid a fair amount across.

We have had one or two posters on here who have had their payments accepted.

It certainly won't hurt to approach your IP with this in mind - they can only say no!

Nad - I hope you manage to get things sorted and can relax and enjoy being with your new baby.