www.iva.co.uk

How do I start going about getting an IVA? Is it better to go with a debt management company or do it myself? Im due to be married next month and will not be able to afford my card payments once I take on my partners rent and bills?
Also are student loans eligable to include on an IVA as I heard they are not with bankruptcy.

Hi Andy and welcome to the forum

If you are looking for an IVA it is better to go to an insolvency practitioner, as a debt management company would only have to refer you to one at the end of the day. Some do employ their own IPs, and there are other companies who are not IPs but who package cases to send onto an IP.

You can include student loan debts into the IVA, but they generally reject most IVA proposals unless the dividend is very high - ie 90p in the £. If they are owed less than 25% of your aggregate debt then, providing votes can be secured from at least 75% of your other creditors, any rejection can be outvoted.

Why would you be taking over your partner's bills? Do you mean that you are going to be sharing the household expenditure after you are married?

Welcome to the Forum and congratulations on your forthcoming wedding.

If you are struggling with the payments to your creditors then you should seek professional advice about the options open to you.

You can negotiate reduced payments with your creditors on your own (self help debt management plan) but if you were thinking about an IVA you will need to instruct a qualified Insolvency Practitioner (IP) to act for you. In any event I would seek advice from an IP about the various options which may be open to you depending on your particular circumstances. The intitial advice given is usually free.

Unfortunately student loans cannot be included in an IVA.

From what you say you can afford the payments to your creditors at the moment but will not be able to do so when you are married and you take on her rent and bills. Does your partner not work? If not how does she manage to pay her rent and bills now?

Melanie - you beat me to it. With regards to Student Loans, it was my understanding that if it is not a provable debt in bankruptcy then it cannot be in an IVA. Will need to look into this further.

Not so Liz - I have many cases with Student Loans included, and I have also had lengthy discussions with them about their policy on this particular point over a number of years.

We regularly see them voting - usually to reject - but strangely enough they never turn away my dividend cheques!! We have even had them returning money which had continued to be deducted from client's salaries, in the months following the IVA - so they would not be doing that if they felt the claim was not provable.

Happy to chat about this off-line with you if you like.

So if someone had a student loan and it was being deducted from their salary already, would that payment have to stop immediately and they would become creditors in the IVA?

Absolutely Viki.

Right, thanks Melanie.

A student loan only becomes repayable once the debtor is in full time employment and is in receipt of £15,000 or more and the repayment is graduated depending on the gross income. We have had cases where it is included and we have cases where it is excluded - depends on particular facts.