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Hi All,

Newbie here but not unfotunately to debt.

I am a 41 year old guy recently seperated from my long term partner(Not Marrried) with 3 kids (one of my own with her).

I am currently living with my parents and my ex partner is living in our jointly owned (mortgaged) house with the 3 kids.

She is receiving financial help with bills etc to cover the day to day running of the house.and i am paying half the mortgage, life insurance and buildings insurance instead of maintenance.

We have one joint account which we use to pay the mortgage,insurances and DMP plan. All other bills are paid seperatly.

We are still paying in to a joint DMP plan and have been for 8 years now. We have a collective debt of around £60K.

I am living with my parents so have less outgoings than my ex partner.

I still have an amicable relationship with my ex for the children's sake.

I need advise on where to go from here, how do we get rid of the debt.

The value of the house is around £265,000 with a mortgage of 215,000. The house does need alot of modenisation and work.

I would be grateful of any advise any of you can offer.

Regards

Hi and welcome to the forum.

So sorry to hear about your problems but you've come to the right place for advice and support.

Sounds as though your DMP is going to last forever and that's not good. Which company are you with?

Speak to one or two companies - visit www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews. The advice is free and I am sure there will be another way out of this.

Hi and welcome, firstly I think it is such a shame you have been on a DMP for 8 years and still have 60k oustanding if I am reading that right, who advised you on a DMP all those years ago?

As regards your circumstances, is the separation a permanent thing? are you planning to continue to live with your parents or are you looking to move into your own accommodation at some point in the near future?

You need to take some independent financial advice on the way moving forward which will very much depend on the outcome of your marriage and how you envisage your home circumstances may change over the coming months.

I take it by coming here you are looking at an IVA as an option? if this is the case does your expartner know about this as it would affect her if you went into an IVA of your own as all the joint debts would fall to her to pay, lots of questions!

sorry, just realised I said marriage in my post and you are not married!, but as you have a joint mortgage and joint debts how you deal with this will very much depend on how your expartner feels about continuing with a DMP or a more formal solution

There will be nothing stopping your ex from continuing with the DMP if she wishes but I think you do need to speak to her about it.

You will probably be expected to try and release some equity from the house towards the end of the IVA.

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by kallis3

Hi and welcome to the forum.

So sorry to hear about your problems but you've come to the right place for advice and support.

Sounds as though your DMP is going to last forever and that's not good. Which company are you with?

Speak to one or two companies - visit www.iva.com for a list of companies and reviews. The advice is free and I am sure there will be another way out of this.

Hi, Thanks for the reply,we are with Paylan

Hi,

Speak to them and ask about the possibility of an IVA. Did they say why they didn't suggest one in the first place?

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by lem

sorry, just realised I said marriage in my post and you are not married!, but as you have a joint mortgage and joint debts how you deal with this will very much depend on how your expartner feels about continuing with a DMP or a more formal solution

My ex partner is fully aware that i am looking for options for both of us to get our debts reduced or paid off some how. As for our relationship this is over but who knows what may happen in years to come.

Maybe the seperation will be good for us to make us both see what is good and not. At the moment however i don't see things changing.

Once again thanks for the advise... Is it possible to do an IVA together even though we are not together in a relationship? we will be keeping the house jointly because if we sold up she would not be able to afford to rent or get a mortgage on her own and she would have to move back home herself which is miles away.

This would make life difficult for me seeing my daughter so its also in my best interested to keep a roof over their heads.

I think it would be difficult to do an interlocking IVA as you are not living together and therefore won't be combining income and expenditure, but I guess one of the experts on here may be able to advise you better on that than I.

Are you paying your parents any keep? I only ask because it may be difficult to convince the creditors that you have 2 lots of expenditure, ie paying towards a mortgage and also rent and keep where you are now as this obviously reduces your disposable income.

This is why you need to take some advice as I am not an expert in these matters at all as everyone's circumstances are so different, it may be that an IVA could be the solution for you both but you need to go through your individual circumstances and speak to a professional who can advise you properly

I agree that an IVA may be the solution providing your seek advice from a reputable IP. I feel it is very commendable that you have an amicable arrangement with your ex partner, and love how you are taking responsiblity ensuring that she and your daughter have a roof over their heads. It really is refreshing to see a couple working together instead of bickering and seeing who can come out the better off. However, one issue you will need to consider, is that an IVA could quite possibly run for 6 years and will require tremendous committment from you both. A lot can happen in 6 years, and should one of you find a new partner this could have a severe impact on the situation. You need to think this through long and hard. That said, I wish you all the luck in the world in finding the right solution for all concerned.

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by KAYKAY

I agree that an IVA may be the solution providing your seek advice from a reputable IP. I feel it is very commendable that you have an amicable arrangement with your ex partner, and love how you are taking responsiblity ensuring that she and your daughter have a roof over their heads. It really is refreshing to see a couple working together instead of bickering and seeing who can come out the better off. However, one issue you will need to consider, is that an IVA could quite possibly run for 6 years and will require tremendous committment from you both. A lot can happen in 6 years, and should one of you find a new partner this could have a severe impact on the situation. You need to think this through long and hard. That said, I wish you all the luck in the world in finding the right solution for all concerned.

Thanks for the advice, hopefully we can find a solution.

Do you think that another solution could be to try and build up a reduced lump sum and then offer this to the creditors as a way of payment. Using the argument that if we carried on the way we are going then they would never get all there money ?

I do know that it is possible to set up a F&F IVA, but would not have the first idea of how to go about it. I always find it surprising that if someone can come up with a lump sum in the first place, then why are they looking for an IVA. This is more likely due to my own ignorance regarding such matters.

I understand that many people have had success doing full and final settlements with debts with creditors without an IVA, do you know if your debts are still with the original creditors or have they been sold on? usually if they have been sold on, the 'new' creditor is in a position to barter with and sometimes typically will accept a settlement of much less than the debt is. However, the key thing is to get written agreement from them that the reduced sum you are offering is for a full and final settlement of the debt and that your credit file will be marked as settled, it has been known for creditors to take these sums in partial settlement and still end up chasing for the rest of the debt, this can all of course take time and cause a lot of headaches and stress, you can do a F&F IVA which some people have done which obviously then you have an IP dealing with it all for you and you know that they will never come back in years to come chasing you for oustanding debt.

I would imagine it is easier to save for a lump sum outside of an IVA in a DMP though than it is once you are in an IVA

Are any of the debts you have joint debts? If so interlocking IVAs would be an option, and clearly far better for you than the neverending DMP. Amazed that this option was never dicussed with you when you entered into your DMP.

It is worth a look at the link and a talk to 2 or 3 companies to see what your options are, hopefully if you can arrange an IVA then you'll see the end of the debt and a fresh start will be on the horizon.