Me and my partner are currently in an IVA. Since the IVA began over 2 years ago our income has increased slighlty but we are still struggling on a day to day basis - the property that we live in (its a mortgaged) is costing us a fortune in repair problems and we have no flexibility in our income to assist wit this. At the moment we have not missed any IVA or Mortgage payments but we bo6th feel that something has got to give as we can't carry on like this - at the moment I think it might be my heart that goes first!
Would anyone be able to offer a suggestion as to what we are able to do - from reading previous posts I think that Bancruptcy may be the best option - and that i am able to petition for this when the IVA has missed 2/3 payments...
First of all, I would suggest contacting your IP to ask for a reduction in your payments if you feel you can't afford them.
Secondly, if you were to go bankrupt, there is a chance you would lose your house if there is equity in it.
If you did decide bankruptcy was the way to go, then if you miss 3 payments to your IVA,it would fail and you would be able to petition for bankruptcy. This would cost you £495.
As you've been in your iva for over 2 years, I'd see if I could get my payments lowered first before doing anything more drastic. It would be a shame for it to fail now.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
It would be a shame for your IVAs to fail after all this time. If the property is in need of repair you could obtain estimates and ask for a payment holiday to have the repairs carried out. This would help heat efficiency while reducing your maintenance costs and the missed payments could be brought in at the end.
If you are still struggling you could switch your mortgage to interest only [if not already] or ask the supervisor to seek reduced payments at the time of the variation for the payment holiday. Speak to your case manager who hopefully can resolve the problems.
there is around £87 000 left owing on the mortgage - the market valuation was around £98 000 before the recent slump in the market - we were looking to re-mortgage a few months ago and had a meeting for a full and final settlement - this was rejected at a creditors meeting so we put everyting on hold. selling the house at the current maket value would give them around £7000 (after fees) and then we would still end up having to maintain payments to the IVA and potentially have nowhere to live...
Your IP can probably grant a payment holiday of up to 3 months without sanction from creditors - any longer and this would need formal ratification, but I am not convinced that this is the right option for you.
