www.iva.co.uk

Hope someone is able to offer advice on my messy situation...

my partner and I entered into an IVA 2 years ago - we are due for our annual review and i'm very concerned. our IVA was reduced due to my partner changing his job and salary reducing.

we have been struggling really since the change of job - although our income has increased - due to 'cost of living' increases and bonuses, overtime etc - our outgoings have also increased - we are no longer in a fixed rate with the mortgage and as such our payments increased dramatically for some time although this has now reduced for this month. we have also had lots of unexpected emergencies with that required us to rectify them - home and car repairs, vets bill etc.

The bonuses were added as a variation of the order around 18 months ago and it stated that any bonuses should be paid to them - we did not sign anything in relation to agreeing to this although our payments were reduced as a result of the change in job. The practioner has written to us recently asking that the terms of the variation be signed by us - but as this is around 18 months after the variation was completed i was reluctant to do so as even at the time the terms were not set out clearly to us.

we have not yet returned the annual review and have not notified our practitioner of all of the expences that we have had to 'find' since the IVA was agreed.

Our payments are due to increase soon due to repayment of a car loan.

I am sure that the practitioner will threaten us with failure due to the increase in income that can be seen on paper but is not recognised in their expenditure 'allowances' for us.

would anyone be able to offer some guidance on how this can be recified? The IVA was given as the only option from a lovely man that attended our property after an email query to our practioner - and no other options were discussed - which in retrospect I am sure should not have been the case.

At the moment we are looking at Bancruptcy as the only viable option to resolve our situation - we both feel that something has got to give - and at the monent I feel like it may be my heart that is first to go. An IVA was 'sold' to us by the advisor as a solution to all of our problems - but since it was agreed we have felt nothing but stress and heartache.

can anyone advise what will happen if we stop paying the IVA - i have read that after 2/3 payments it will have failed and then Bancrupcy can be considered - if this is failed I understand that everything will return to the way it was previously prior to the IVA.

Hi scooby, welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you're having problems with your IVA; it;s stressful enough without things going wrong for you.
I'm afraid I don't have the answers for you, but I'm sure one of the experts will be along soon to offer their advice.
Keep your chin up and take care
xcx

Thankyou so much. I have found this website by accident and it has helped no end just knowing that I am not the only one in this situation. One of ther terms of my IVA should have been that I am bound to feel alone and guilty for the full 5 year term....

Hi Scoobydoo and welcome
The only person that can help you is your IP, you really need to contact them and have a heart to heart with them.
No one wants your IVA to fail, as no one wins in that situation.
I am sure that you will be able to come to a mutually acceptable agreement.
If your IVA fails then the two years of payments that you have made will probabaly all go in fees and you will be back to square one.
Please get hold of your IP, not a case worker,admin clerk but your actual IP and try to work out a way forward.
Regards

Thanks for the advice Andy. I know that you are right in that we need to speak to the IP to seek a way forward - however I am reluctant to do so as in the past they have not been understanding at all - even down to being able to find the money to undertake essential repairs. I regret ever entering into an IVA - can you advise what the outcome would be if we just stopped paying into the IVA - would creditors then pursue us individually via CCJ's etc?

as you can probably tell - despite bing 2 years in and having numerous conversations with those involved I am still as clueless about the whole thing!

thanks again for the reply.

Hi Scooby.

If you stopped paying, your IVA would fail and you would be back to square one with your creditors hassling you, and they could go for CCJ's.

I'm really not sure what to do - I am going to email my IP and fullyexplian the whole situation - at this point I feel that Bancruptcy is the only way forward - although my IP may have other suggestions...

Thanks for all the support - this site really is a god send!

x

I cannot understand why you are being asked to retrospectively agree to variation terms which occured over 18 months ago. Notwithstanding this, if you can afford to carry on making some form of payment to the IVA - then you should insist that your IP puts forward another variation for you to carry on paying affordable payments.

If not, then bankruptcy is probably your best option, and again your IP firm ought to be able to help you with this process as well.

Hi Melanie - The documents that they asked us to sign appear to be us agreeing to the variations - think thatthey must have forgot to ask us to sign them initially. Do you think that we should sign and return these?

The comapny appear to be very on the ball regarding some things and very inconistant with other things. Much like most of the companies that we havedealt with over the last 5 years that has eventually led us to our current situation.

Do you mean variations, or modifications that were suggested by creditors at the original meeting?

Thhe IVA was agred initially in October 2006 and the documenst posted for us to sign are the terms that were added to the variation in May 2007 when my partner changed Jobs - like the reduction in payment, and the fact that they state that my partner should pay all bonuses into the IVA - despite being advised on the telephone at the time that anything under £500 pcm would not have to be paid to them...

another interesting point to note is that My partner worked at a bank when the iVA was initially discussed and pursued - he eventually was forced to leave his career as he had an IVA and this was seen as a conflict of interests - the IP never discussed the possibility of this happening - and when it did were not supportive at all!

apologies if i sound so negative - but let me again thankyou for your help.

Did you agree to the proposed variation terms when they were originally put forward?

to be honest we just went with what we were advised - we were concerned that we couldn't meet the payments as they were then due to the substantial drop in income that my partner experienced. Our 'caseworker' at the time advised that as bonuses weren't guaranteed (the are performance related) then anything under £500 pcm would not be included. All of this was done over the telephone. I can't recall signing anything - which is why i think that they are asking for signitures retrospectivly...

It is always better to get things like this agreed in writing to avoid a "he said, she said" scenario.

tell me about it. As a result we are now stressing about what to do next - if they do insist on full payment of all bonuses and overtime and we are unable to do this would that constitute 'failure' and then we can look to pursue bancrupcy? It really was the last thing that I personally wanted to look at as it would mean the loss of my house...