www.iva.co.uk

Hi Everyone,

Haven't posted here in such a long time, but always refer back to here to read other peoples experiences for some moral support when I need it.

Basically, how things have changed dramatically since I last posted. My husband and I had our second little baby last August and thankfully we have reached a settled period with our won now since our son was sick when born and spent a period of time in neo natal care.

For the benefit of the forum members I alone entered an IVA in sept 2013 for personal debts that I had accrued prior to meeting my husband. c £40k. My IVA arrangement is with McCambrifge Duffy and I have to say they have been a tower of strength from beginning and until now. I am ill with stress and worry now as I am unable to return to employment since my previous family child care arrangements are no longer possible as the family members in question have advised us that they feel too old to take on the care of 2 children, one aged 4 and the other an infant as well as maintaining the care of an elderly parent of their own. This I totally understand but I now can't afford to pay standard child care costs as they wud exceed my takr homr pay literally and as such i am faced to become a stay at home mother. I have spoken with McCambrifge Duffy and they have suggested putting forward a full and final settlement to my creditors now that the IVA will no longer be viable. My problem is that I have NO money at all. We have barely managed surviving on statutory maternity pay at £138 per week and our tax credits entitlement will be more like £90 a week when I will be unemployed. McCambrifge Duffy advised if a family member or friend could offer my creditors a sum on my behalf as a full and final offet but I explained that not only do our family members ans friends know nothing about my IVA they themselves do not have any real sums of money to offer me.
My question is, given my husband is totally excluded from my IVA could he make an offer to my creditors as full and final settlement on my behalf? Would this be seen as unacceptable or acceptable given he is unassisted with the debt? My husband himself has ZERO but he does do the Irish lottery each week with his colleague and 2gether they won 1 week ago £1400 each! My husband intended to use this money to pay off some of his own personal credit card balances (roughly £5k) that he has accrued but has now made the suggestion to me that he would be prepared to offer it to my creditors as a full and final offer for me. He sees how much stress I am under with this whole matter and wants to help in any small way possible. My payments are due to resume at the end of this month but obviously will not given there is no income to cover them. Could someone please help and advise me on their thoughts and experiences?

My figures were roughly a 30p in the £ return to my creditors and I appreciate this offer would be nowhere near that but if it is not acceptable then bankruptcy would offer them even less, in fact cost them more as they would have to petition for my bankruptcy as I could not afford to do so myself. Despite all I do wish to try and avoid bankruptcy but realise it may be the only possibility.

Thanks for reading and I would so appreciate advice please on how to best proceed.

E x

There is a rep. from your IVA company who posts on here and may be able to help more.

Hopefully Michael will come along and pick up on this -- but, yes, an offer funded by your husband is a possibility.

Hi Foggy
I was hoping u would read and post!
Given your experience and view how likely or unlikely is my husbands offer to be acceptable given the huge difference in the original projected return in the £? The alternative is as I said my creditors petitioning for my bankruptcy. I am sick with worry!

As you say, BR would yield very little as the costs are higher than an IVA and I don't think creditors generally like this route unless there is a very tempting amount of equity in any property.

Given that the IVA will, most likely become unviable, unless your husband is willing to contribute on a regular basis by bolstering your payments, the creditors will have a take it or leave it option.

It is almost impossible to predict how creditors will react and McCD are best placed to advise as they know the full circumstances and are able to better gauge feeling among your set of creditors.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply Foggy. As u suggest McCambridge Duffy can hopefully enlighten it for me a bit further although when I spoke to them last they felt that such an offer would not be acceptable. My thought would have been that any offer is surely better than none and this is my genuine attempt to demonstrate to my creditors that I wish to pay as much as I can and avoid bankruptcy. My property is in considerable negative equity by at least £45k so there is no asset value. My husbands income will be solely to cover household costs and even then it will be touch and go to be enough. Hence why I am sick with worry over it all.

Appreciate any further advice you or anyone else would wish to offer.

Would appreciate any further advice or comment from anyone?

Your IVA company is probably one of the best that are left and seem to give consistent advice etc.

With 40 months to go on your IVA you are probably looking at needing 16-20 months payments to allow your IVA company some leeway.

Otherwise everything will be pretty much taken up with fees at this stage.

You could fail the IVA and go into a data management plan but that will probably only add to the stress at this point.

Thanks, yeah a debt management plan would definitely add to the stress.

If Michael of McCambridge Duffy reads this I would appreciate his view.

I just don't know which way to turn.

Hi Ordinary Girl. Sorry for only seeing the post now and thanks to Foggy for drawing my attention to it. Your offer may be acceptable and certainly worth considering so by all means feel free to contact me directly. It is possible that there may be little or no return to creditors which is why my colleagues would feel the offer might not be accepted but I am only guessing.

If the £1400 offers any return at all it may be acceptable but there is the alternative of using half of it and petitioning for bankruptcy. It is unlikely that creditors would do it as it costs money for no return but it could be the best way forward for you.

Drop me a line and I will speak with supervision and see what we can do.

Thank you very much Michael for replying, I appreciate it hugely. I will forward to you an email outlining everything and detailing my specifics and would be grateful for you and the Supervision Dept to come back to me.