MOT Failure may be the final straw

[kazzafunk]

Carl - hope you can sort things out. Mel is one of the IP's I think everyone would want to be with when things go wrong.

Creditors want us to complete our obligation within an IVA but they all realise that these hiccups can occur and a payment break / reduction is worth it to help us through these times.

And worth remembering - we would all have struggled to pay this sort of bill before our IVA - I know I would hae done as my cards etc were maxed. So I suppose although it seems like a nightmare we are probably better off in an IVA.

[davram1967]

Kazza - You are right, of course. This would also have been a major problem pre IVA. On the whole, the IVA has been a Godsend. Don't know where I would be right now if I hadn't found this forum 4 1/2 years ago. Reading the posts on here gave me the push I needed to act and Melanie and her staff have been amazing.

[davram1967]

Been awake since 4.30, which seems to be the norm at the moment!!! Don't seem to be getting anywhere with this. Cannot get the money together to sort the engine out nor to replace the car, so from Friday will be without transport. Probably not that big an issue, but on top of a lot of other things, is really getting me down.

[MrsKnight]

Good morning Davram, I can relate to your post so well, we have gone through 3 cars during our IVA, the last one failed its MOT miserably on emissions too, it also came out with 17 faults in total, we had only had it a year, I hate cars!
We were advised to scrap it due to the costs of new engine, or finding a used reconditioned engine n the labour and the other things that were wrong, was such a bad buy for us that car & waste of nearly £2000 in a year. So I sincerely understand what your going through.
We took what we had saved for the MOT & money from scrapping it, then had 1 month payment break n bought another car, sadly this car has gone wrong on us since buying it last July, dreading its MOT next month. The previous car my Dad gave me some money & we had a 2 month break & used what we had saved again. The previous car before that was one of the main reasons we got into debt by buying it, see why I hate cars so much!

What has Mel suggested? Are you able to take some payment breaks etc...

[Pennyless]

Remember your car plight well MrsKnight....but shows we can get through these things and come out the other end without a credit card to fall back on.

Davram take a look at "Gumtree".....you may be able to pick up a cheap runaround with lots of MOT and some tax thrown in for less than the cost of your engine. Not a longterm solution I know but better than having no transport for work etc.

Good luck.

[MrsKnight]

Very true Pennyless! I don't miss the credit cards at all!

Gumtree, auto trader, adds on FB selling sites, if you look hard enough there are some good cheap buys out there. We had to go with out a car for 10 weeks while we saved & we were hunting all the time, difficulty was all the cheap bargains where 50/60/70 miles away n no transport to get there!!!
It was very expensive in taxis for work as no public transport, did food shopping online n trips to town on the bus, kids loved that part! But it was hard work.
I'd rather buy a cheap run about than go through the expensive of a brand new engine, or reconditioned engine which could still go wrong. I was also quoted it takes 8 hours of labour to fit a new engine, another point that put me off!

[davram1967]

Unfortunately, have not been able to get hold of Mel as yet. Tried a couple of times but she has not been available. Will try again today. Am looking on ebay and such like and there are cheap cars out there, but not that clued up on cars and always fearful of buying a dud! Like MrsKnight, borrowing money for a car that proved to be unfit for purpose was what set us off on the road to debt in the first. Last time, 2 years ago, I spent 2 months looking at some horrendous examples before we bought this one. Really thought this one was solid enough to get us to the end of the IVA!

[MrsKnight]

Hi Davram - just wondered how you were getting on with car & if you had got in touch with Melanie?

[davram1967]

Thanks Lyns. Managed to speak to Mel on Thursday. We are able to take a 1 month break, with the possibility of a further month if required. MOT now expired and car is parked up on the drive until it is either scrapped or sold!! In the meantime, just got to rely on lifts until we can find something suitable.

[Shining]

Hope you find something soon and are back on the road.

[MrsKnight]

Good luck with the car hunt Davram... I sold my dud of a car last year for parts as the bodywork etc was perfect, got slightly more than scrap.
Have you still got some tax on it? Mine had a few weeks left on it so I left it, as I was informed the buyer has to tax it before they can move it... Just a thought if your thinking of selling it as a MOT failure on eBay. I was glad to see the back of mine as it depressed me it just sitting there, and I had to remove the temptation to break it!