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Hi,

We spoke to a gentleman at our bank to inform them we are struggling to pay our mortgage. We came to arrangement so that we could add the arrears, which was 3 months, to the end of our mortgage. We at a struggle can manage to pay next months and and hopefully the other coming months but who knows. We had a phone call a few weeks later from the collections dept asking for payment of the arrears so we explained we had an arrangement and they said they had nothing on their screen about this and they dont think now we can have such and arrangement as we have an IVA (which also was not on his screen). We thought we was out of the woods but now im afraid we will lose our house if they dont agree to the initial arrangement. I need to to now if we can be in arrears with an IVA. Im so stressed as we cant afford to pay back the arrears. Many thanks indeed.

Did you get the first gentleman's name when you spoke to the bank. It may help if you can speak to the same person again.

Unfortunately the banks a toughening up a lot with mortgage arrears at the moment, so unless you have such an agreement in writing, it may not be possible to hold them to it.

I would suggest that you speak with the Supevisor of your IVA and explain your problems to him or her. He or she may be able to arrange a payment break for you to enable you to get back on top of your mortgage arrears, though it may be necessary for your Supervisor to return to your IVA creditors.

You will then be able to negotiate a reasonable repayment plan with your bank and you may get them to agree (in writing) to add some of the arrears onto the end of the mortgage.

I look forward to the outcome of this as my friend is in a similar situation

If you are struggling to pay both a mortgage and an IVA payment, then clearly something is wrong with the original budget. Perhaps it was set unfairly high, with little provision for contingencies and unforseen expenditure, or perhaps your circumstances have changed leaving you with less money available to pay everyone.

It may be time to re-prioritise your financial affairs, and first of all see whether you can afford to pay both and live a comfortable lifestyle. If the answer to that is no, then you may need to see whether your IVA payments could be reduced, or whether you could revert to an interest only mortgage.

Your IP will be able to help you with this, so I would give them a call next week, or better still arrange a face to face meeting to go through the figures in finer detail.

Melanie is right - as is Liz. Have your circumstances changed since you went into your IVA? If not what has gone wrong? You must speak to your Supervisor (IP) as soon as possible. Any problems with this let us know here on the Forum.