www.iva.co.uk

Hi, I'm in the process of getting advice from step change about my debts, me and my wife owe £47.k and according to their budget we have £780 a month surplus (which seems a lot to me) our income is £3k a month but a lot of that is that is because my son is dialsabled, they are trying to push me down a DMP route which would repay everything, they are saying that my housing association might void my tenancy if I go insolvent even if I've never missed a single payment on anything, is this right?

Please speak to a few more companies before making a decision. As regards your tenancy agreement - make an anonymous call to your landlord and see what their stance is on this.

Bear in mind that Stepchange are funded by the banks and a DMP may be more profitable for them. Stepchange is a charity but they are paid a commission to collect the debts so perhaps you should get a second opinion. Get some free advice from an independent insolvency firm as for example we ignore disability benefits when calculating a surplus income and this is acceptable to creditors.

The tenancy thing sounds a total nonsense unless you have major arrears that you wish to introduce so take what you have been told with a pinch of salt.

I would consider Bankruptcy also when looking at all your options.

Among other pros/cons this will mean only 3 years of contributions as opposed to the (standard term 5 years in an IVA.

Thanks for your replies, I already think the budget is quite tight and have been told that bankruptcy it is even tighter, I think we would really struggle with that for 3 years

If you want a copy of the guidelines please feel free to send me an email and I will send you a copy. Make sure and subtract the DLA from income when doing the calculations and this should show what you would pay in an IVA or bankruptcy.

You should also look at each of you individually as for example one may have more debt and less income than the other so the advice would differ for each party. Perhaps one of you is insolvent and the other not but without looking at the figures it is only guesswork. Get another opinion and see what you would be expected to pay rather than relying on the advice of a bank funded 'charity'.

I know of a few people in an IVA in a H.A property with no worries. Not heard of any tenancy being voided -- but if there is such a clause it will be in your tenancy agreement.

I, too, would urge you to chat to several firms to compare advice and get a feel for who you want to be closely associated with your financial life for 5 or 6 years.

Hi
I am in housing association and have just made last payment. It has not caused me any problems with them and in fact I did not tell them as I was already living in the property. I would suggest you speak with another company to see what they say. I went with Payplan and I know not everyone likes them but for me, I have never had a problem with them.

Good luck with your decision and choose the right path for you, your family and your future

There was a similar query to this a couple of years back and certain housing associations do have this clause in.

You have to look at what your individual agreement states.

I disagree that 'Bankruptcy is even tighter' in either case you are allowed sufficient monies to pay for your reasonable living expenses.

BR isn't always "tighter" .. every case is different. They apply different expenses guidelines and have a further reach into your financial life, but, on the other hand payments are usually only for up to three years and BR doesn't fail if income goes pear shaped.

Agree with Foggy and Lisa - take some advice from CAB and hopefully you can come to a decent solution.