www.iva.co.uk

We really need some help to get answers to several questions.

Our IVA comes to an end in September after seven and a half long years, paying initially £1400.00 per month and this last year £1200.00 per month in place of a re.mortgage. We now have the situation that my husband has recently had two strokes, luckily he is able to work from home so has been able to stay employed. Now his work has made changes by putting most of the work out to third parties and it looks as though his contract will come to an end in June. This would leave us with the problem of not being able to pay our mortgage, it means that we will have to move house but Grant Thornton have a written interest in the property until September so we are unable to sell. We wanted to sell my car to pay off the outstanding balance but are told the money would be treated as a windfall so are unable to do this,

The worry of all this is not helping my husbands health. Things should now be looking brighter with September not far away but at present all I can see are problems. Grant Thornton are of no help, I can never track down a case manager and if my husband tries to get answers it always seems to end in an argument. Also if we were able to sell the house would this be considered a windfall? How long would it be before the property became ours again without Grant Thornton taking money from it. We are both of retirement age and need to be able to keep the proceeds of sale as this is all we have.

I would appreciate some help.

Sorry to hear of the health problems. When your husband's contract ends will there be any likelyhood of a compensation payment ? If so you should be allowed to retain the equivalent of 6 months salary to live on -- which will take you to the end of the IVA term.

With regard to the house, if you sell while in the IVA they could grab any equity --- though the house has (should) have been formally excluded by the extra 12 months added to the term. I wouldn't like to guarantee they woud not take the money! Who has told you that the proceeds from the car sale would be a windfall ? If the car is listed as an excluded asset you should be at liberty to sell and keep the money. You could approach your IP and OFFER to sell the car for the purposes of making the remaining payments in a lump sum ( so they would be effectively agreeing the proceeds would be yours for this purpose ). However, this would take a few months to go through and the IVA would have ended anyway.

There is also the possibility that the creditors could be asked, in the circumstances, to accept payments made to date to end the IVA (which is what GT did with me). Unfortunately, they will not consider asking them until such time as the contract has come to an end. When ( if) it does ask for an agreed payment break while the creditors consider the situation.

Try not to argue with GT / Aperture .... you really need their support at this time.

I personally would seek an agreement to end the iva now due to circumstances and ill health of your husband and employment changes.
The added stress and worry for you both is not what you need, however in saying all that the likelihood is the time it will take to get this agreed may mean September is already upon us.

Let us know how you get on.

Closure now does seem to be a suitable option given the length of the IVA already and the substantial return to creditors. Keep the pressure on with Aperture and try to get to speak with someone who can help.

Do you have any third parties that could gift you the last 5 months worth of payments just to tie you over until closure?

Thank you everyone for your replies, I wish I had joined a forum some years ago. I am today going to speak to Grant Thornton to see if I can speak to someone who can give me sensible answers. I was under the impression that we would have a case manager but GT say this is not so. Is this the usual practice?

I will report back once I have spoken to Grant Thornton.

I guess it depends how big your IP firm is. Even if you don't have an assigned Case Manager you have a Supervisor so if necessary insist on speaking to them.