need some advice

[notyetlivingthedream]

hi need some advice ,we have a house abraod which me and the kids live in, my husband has just taken a job back in uk,we owe about 120 thousand to 6 differnet creditors,how safe is my house if we iva would we bable to iva, big part off the money owed is to the balck horse which i have heard dont like to except ivas , if they take the house me and kids will be homless and uk wont house us ,been out off uk 2 years, if we was to iva the children would not beable to see there farther for 5 years ,but that better then carring this burdan all the time , please any adive gratefully excepted

[MelanieGiles]

Hi there and welcome to the forum

What country do you live in? If you have been out of the UK for 2 years you may find it difficult to propose an IVA, and your house therefore is at risk from the actions of creditors and would be lost under bankruptcy proceedings.

[vickir]

Blackhorse dont do credit cards, so do you have loans or HP with them?

[notyetlivingthedream]

hi melanie, its a very long story but in short , we bought the house some years ago, and had no choice to live in it , 2 years ago when my husband left the forces , as we had no where else to live, my husband has now gained full time employment in uk , leaving us here in europe, he has a small pension off which he has been pays uk tax on for the last 2 years ,why would we not beable to iva , also little point in the house being taken as have a morgage , and been trying to sell it for the last 2 years property has gone down in value since we bought this ,we are desprate to keep the house as we have nowhere else to live , and uk would not house us.

[MelanieGiles]

How much do you actually owe to Black Horse?

To propose an IVA you have to demonstrate residency in the UK or have a centre of business interests in the UK. If your husband now has a UK address this may be possible, but how are you proposing to fund an IVA and how much disposable income do you actually have between you to enable ongoing payments to be made.

Could you sell the property in Europe and use any surplus money to put down on a house in the UK - as the separation must be putting a strain on your relationship - although I note that you are ex-Forces and probably more resiliant to this?

[notyetlivingthedream]

cant tell you how good it feels to talk to someone,being stuck in a counrty with a lingo i dont understand and no friends of family here, we live off 600 pension amonth, which pays the morgage , elec , water land tax and transporting the kids to school , no free bus services here, books for school as there not free , try to live off the land for food, my husband is shacked up with friends in uk as its a new job not sure how much his yearly pay will be but think about 26 a year he will have to sort out long term accomadation, but i would think about 1000 amonth would be free,when i say black horse i ment lloyds thats about 80thousand and yes i dont think i can take much more off this isolation, the house is on the market but nothing has come off it yet, if i could find away to come back to uk i to could work to boost the income, just dont know which way to turn for the best, the kids are deeply unhappy, and i am finding it hard to manage life on a daily base

[notyetlivingthedream]

do u have to iva on each name, i ask this as most debt is in my husbands sole name and apart off it in my sole name, with just a joint overdraft off 7,000 is it possiable for him to iva as he has full time work and me go br on my debt the house here is in both names with the morgage in both names

[MelanieGiles]

I am an ex-forces wife - so I do understand your situation and how difficult it can be when you go from the protected comfort zone of military life to the big, bad world. I am assuming you are still in Germany? Is this correct?

Did your husband retire on a gratuity or just leave at the end of a specified period of service? If the former, did you use any of his gratuity money to deal with your debts?

Turning to the possibility of an IVA, this will only really be possible if your husband or you have a regular income, as it seems that things are a little uncertain at the moment. You do need to have IVAs in each name, but they can be interlocked with each other so you just make one combined payment and all creditors receive the same dividend. You could go bankrupt, but your share of the equity in the property would then vest in a Trustee and would need to be realised to pay off your creditors.

Are you paying a mortgage on the foreign property? If so, and if the equity is quite small, it might be worth biting the bullet, handing the keys over to the bank and returning to the UK where you can look for a job to help with the finances. Are there any friends or family you could stay with on a temporary basis until you got yourselves sorted out.

And don't forget that SSAFA and the British Legion can help with advice and funding if you have a good case.

[notyetlivingthedream]

yes the mortgage is a foreign mortgage on the property ,at the time of buying we owned half the house, as for the gratuity we recieved(yes my husband did do his full term in the forces )that was spent in the last two years to service the debt and making this house livable, i cant go to SSAFA and the British Legion because my husband is still in denile over the state of are finances,he thinks if we do nothing it might all go away?if we did manage to sell would we beable to keep some off the money to set us up in a rent, and what do they call a resonable amount to live off ,if we was to iva, have u any idea off the amount excepted on rent as a outgoing , elec water , food ect,i really do want to try to pay back what we owe,, we have no friends or family i could move back to, as they dont know are personal situation

[MelanieGiles]

It is difficult to imagine how your husband believes that he can service debts of £120k on an annual salary of £26k and a forces pension. And the fact that you are now living apart does obviously not help.

An IVA could be put forward on the basis of ongoing contributions and a future sale of your property, where it is possible to present a proposal based upon the sale of your property with the retention of some of the proceeds to allow for rehousing costs.

[notyetlivingthedream]

thank you for your advice , i do beleive this will be the forward for us, and many thanks for letting me know that there is away forward with this