Hi,myself and my wife entered into an IVA last October, we both work and are just managing to pay the IVA, unfortunately this year one of our sons has decided to leave university, partly personal, partly financial, unfortunately even though he paid for his accomodation up until he left in March, the accomodation company are demanding payment until the end of the contract which amounts to over £2k, which neither of us can pay. I have spoken with our IP and they just say we have to arrange a payment plan with the accomadation company, but we can't as all our excess money goes to the IVA. Really just need advise what we can do next to resolve this, any help would be appreciated as the IP doesn't seem to be very helpful at present. Also I have a car loan which has been taken into account in the IVA and when this finishes my IVA will go up, however another son who also has a car loan and has been paying for nearly two years has decided to go into further education, as I am guarantor for this I am worried that thsi will become a financial problem as well, I was thinking of trying to put both cars in part ex for another, but not sure if would be able to do this and how it would effect the IVA, again the IP are not being helpful when I ask these questions. We are trying to sort these problems out and worried if we have to take on the extra debt the only alternative is bankrupty, just don't know who to turn to, hopefully this site can answer a few questions. I appreciate any help and advise. Thank you
Hi Chris and welcome to the forum [:D]
regarding your son's accommodation that has to be paid, how was this going to be paid if he stayed at uni was it through a student loan? Did you personally sign any documentation when he took up residence regarding your own personal responsibility towards paying the rent? if so I don't see how you can get out of paying it to be honest, but if your son signed it and you are not personally responsible I don't see how you can be made to pay.
As far as your other sons car is concerned, does he know about your IVA? I would in your shoes be making it very clear to him that you are not in any position to be able to pay his loan and even though you are guarantor, if he can no longer afford to pay it by giving up work, you will have no alternative but to go bankrupt which would mean he would lose the car anyway. I would be explaining to him that he has a responsibility towards paying for the car until it is paid off and then resuming further education at that point when he can afford to do so.
Firstly with regard to your elder son - is he leaving further education to enter the workplace? If so, shouldn't he be the one to fork out for the additional costs and not you? Who is the contract with - you or your son, and if the latter did you guarantee it - in which case this should have been included into your IVA if the liability existed at the time you entered into the arrangements.
With regard to your younger son - I note that you had guaranteed the loan. This should also have been included into your IVAs as a contingent liability - I assume you did advise your IP of the guarantee at the tiem you finalised the proposals.
There should be no need to consider bankruptcy proceedings, providing your IP can argue that the loans are bound by the terms of the IVAs, and your IP may well have the discretion to allow your IVA payments to reduce by up to 15% to assist with any additional costs - once you have justified why your sons cannot support themselves and the reasons for this.
Chris welcome to the forum and I am sorry to hear about your promises hopefully Mel's advice has helped and when you speak to your IP again they will be able to help. Good luck
Many thanks for your replies.
In reply to Mel and my son's accomodation, he is looking for work but as we live in an area of high unemployment, this is proving difficult, I have a 100 mile round trip to my job each day. As for the contract my son signed and I signed as guarantor, I have spoken with the IP about this and this is where I have conflicting information, firstly I was told as the contract was signed before my IVA meeting in September, then the debt could be included in the IVA and there should not be any adjustment to my payments, later I was told that the debt occurred after the IVA started, i.e when we stopped paying in March, therefore I would have to arrange apayment plan with the accomodation company, this I can't understand how I can do as all my disposable income goes to the IVA payment.
As for my younger son the loan agreement is in my name but he pays the payment, the IP was aware of this. His job is shift work on minimum wage and the job is under threat, this is the reason why is going back into higher education and the decision wasn't taken lightly. We were hoping to put both cars in for a smaller reliable economical car(as I need to commute to work)all depending on whether we can obtain a loan for this, I was more concerned how this effects my IVA, I don't want them to think we have paid off the original loan and therefore up my IVA payments because they think I have the extra money.
Sorry for the questions, didn't want to get in this position in the first place but want to sort out so I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The other thing that doesn't help is that I have a third son who is at University and I have to support him because his student loan only just covers his accomodation costs, however the IVA wouldn't accept this as expenditure, this does seem unfair. Once again, thanks for all your help and advise.
Unfortunately have not received any replies to my questions, During this time I have looked into changing the cars found a good car but unfortunately have negative equity in both our cars of £4.5K therefore no company will give my son the finance. Can anyone tell me if I ring the car finance company and ask them to take the car back, as I am in negative equity I assume they will ask for this amount which I am unable to afford. Both myself and wife are stressed with this and not sure with this additonal debt should just go bankrupt, we do have a home but have very little equity.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi Karen
Yes as my son's car was on a scheme to help with the first years insurance which was included in the finance the outstanding amount from the car finance exceeds the amount a dealer will give us will be about 2.5K. I am now looking at asking the car finance company on my car to to take my car back and wait and see what the shortfall will be. My car is more expensive to run than my son's so trying to keep the costs down. Have spoken with my IP about our situation and awaiting reply, obviously with the lack of comments on the forum, we seem to be in an unusual position. Thanks for the reply
You've mentioned twice now the lack of replies on this forum for your post, I'm sorry that you feel that we (as a community) have been unable to help. Unfortunately we cannot give the exact answer to all problems, only advise and help with the knowledge we have - as both lem and Melanie have tried to do.
Unfortunately with you having 2 sons at university and one who has a job but wants to return the Full time education, these things don't fall under necessary expenditure of an IVA. I also have 3 children but I understand that through my poor financial situation I will not be able to pay for them to go through university unless something improves in the next 2/3 years.
The whole concept of me entering into an IVA never crossed my mind but I am now embracing the idea and living within my own means, which can include making some tough family decisions, but they have to be made for the IVA to conclude successfully.
The hardest part is telling a stranger about your problems ...... it's also the most important!
Your IP is best placed to give case specific advice in any situation, only general advice can be given from any poster who is either in the profession or in an IVA.
I'm sure given time your IP will respond accordingly and I sincerely hope you get the answer very soon. x
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
If the debt was incurred prior to the IVA, which you say it was, then it can be included within the IVA. You should discuss the mechanics of this with your IP. In the event that your son's financial situation does improve, then he will be required to recommence payments as the principle lender.
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate no one can give direct advice and I do think the forum is excellant, only wish I had seen it when I was going through the time before my IVA was set up. I was just hoping someone may have been in a similar situation and may have been able to advise on the possibilities of how to manage this situation. As you suggest I will await response from my IP and hopefully can be sorted and start counting down the months again.[:)]
Car dealers won't give what a car is worth, most times they undervalue to achieve the maximum profit when they sell the car on, this gives the salesperson a nice hefty chunk of commissio! There is a basic calculator for vehicle values on auto trader website so I would suggest you call in and fid out - that's presuming you haven't done so already - but take the advice of the professionals and other members as its invaluable, it could be that the company you're with are fobbing you off!
Thanks for your help and advise, as many on the forum state you do feel very alone going through this and it is very stressful, the forum makes you realise you are not alone and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think with us we were in our first year things were tough but we were managing and then these two situations came up which we didn't think or plan would happen, I am sure with help from this forum and hopefully from our IP which is GT, then we can get through this difficult situation. We are due to go through our first review so this needs to be sorted for then as payments will probably have to change.Have spoken directly with IP and explained everything as didn't seem to have much response to our e-mails, that in itself was difficult,trying to keep calm and not emotional but to be fair the person I spoke with was helpful and listened and understood our situation, just hope they come back soon, so we can get sorted and start marking the months off until 2017 when hopefully this will all be over.
