I have often read the postings on this forum but have finally decided that I need some help. Entered my iva 3 years ago and everything was fine. On a personal level I lived within my budget, no luxuries , no holidays etc.
I entered the iva because that way I kept my house and my small shop . However the last year has been really hard for me and in order for me to carry on existing and paying the bills I was once again robbing peter to pay paul but this time without the help of bank loans and credit cards.
To sum it up I have accrued a debt now with my landlord . He was very helpful at first and I made it a priority to pay him something each week to show I was serious about clearing the debt. However it got worse and worse as I just simply wasn't making the sales in the recession. He is now really angry with me because I failed to make any payments to him for the last two weeks. I have a 25 year lease on the shop and have 17 years to run. I just don't know what else I can do to increase sales in order to bring my standard of living back in line and feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall/
I asked for advice from my ip and he suggested I went bankrupt and lose the house and my business and start again. I have had this business for 13 years and it has had my blood, sweat and tears and I don't want to walk away at the age of 50+ with nothing. I have no family to fall back on and I cant bear the thought of being homeless
Please can anyone offer any advice to me
thank you
I really do sympathise with your plight - a lot of small businesses are suffering these days and I think it is going to be some time before confidence is restored to the general economy in this country.
Have you tried negotiating a lower rent with the landlord - after all he may find it difficult to relet the shop, and if you do go bankrupt he may have little hope of seeing any of the past arrears or future rental income.
How much equity do you presently have in your property, and what sort of things do you sell in the shop?
hello melanie
thank you so much for your reply. I have at the moment about 30k equity on my house. My iva is for 55k and I sell 2nd hand designer clothes and accessories in my shop. It is a prime high street position with lots of passing trade but I just cant even get them into the shop. For the position it is in I pay a very reasonable rent to the landlord and he hasn't instigated a rent increase for the last 7 years even though it is supposed to go up every 5 . I have a meeting with him on sat morning so I think it will be a very good idea to ask him for a lower rent or maybe even a 6 month free rent period which is what a lot of landlords are offering to get people to make use of the empty shops. He is also aware that I am in an iva
It may be sensible to offer him a rent linked to your business turnover - therefore if you do better he gets paid more. This does involve trust on the part of both parties to the lease, but I have seen it work quite successfully in the past.
Have you also considered whether moving the business to an on-line site only might be more profitable for you. The line of business you are in is very lucrative - I personally am a great fan of buying second hand clothing. Running your business in this manner may not necessarily have to stop then if you were to declare yourself bankrupt, and presumably you could trade from home?
Be creative in your suggestions to the landlord, and assure him that you are fully committed to a repayment plan - but it has to be realistic and affordable to you. Would he find it easy to relet the shop do you think? And where are you based?
thank you Lesley and melanie. I have taken on board your suggestions melanie and have worked out a business plan so he can see what I intend to do. I am going to ask him for a rent free period for 6 months in order for me to clear the debt . My shop is on the south coast and in the high street at the moment there are 13 empty shops. Nearly all of the landlords of these shops are offering incentives for example 6 months free rent to get you started so I will point this out to my landlord, I don't think that he will be able to re rent my shop if I closed down so I really think it is in his interest to work with me and cut me some slack.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning and I will let you know how I get on
one more question melanie if I may ask. You say that maybe I would be better off working from home selling on the internet. This I would be happy to do if the worst came to the worst but what I would like to know is how to keep my home out of this mess. Surely if I declared myself bankrupt my house would be the first thing to go and the equity would go to my creditors in the iva and not the landlord. Is this correct?
Not a lot was really achieved today as regards to the rent. He refused to give me 6 months rent free and told me that legally if I wanted out then it was up to me to find a new tenant which would be impossible. I asked for him to be patient and when I earned the money he could have it as my top priority. He did offer some constructive critism over the appearance of the shop and made some suggestions all of which would cost a LOT of money. I feel at the moment with exactly £3 in my purse and nothing in the bank that this will never end
