Hi
My IVA was completed in Dec 09 after exactly 5 years. It hasnt been easy but at least it is all over with now.
The recession certainly helped us in that we were required by the terms of our IVA to remortgage our property in year 5 but luckily (for us) no one would lend to us. I always dreaded this remortgage clause and if we would have had to remortgage 12 months previously we would have got a remortgage and would now be paying probably double or even triple our original mortgage payments. So even with equity of over around £80k we still could not get a remortgage.
I did have to offer a lump sum payment to the IVA which I did. We offered £15k which was accepted, in fact they seemed to bite my hand off for it. £15k was better than the £42k that they initially wanted. The IVA eventually paid out £0.48p in the £ to creditors. I know what you are thinking, where did I get £15k from. Well I did some digging around and found that I had a pension that I could take early. It came a s a complete suprise to me. Not only did I get a lump sum of £25k but I also get a monthly income for life. Now our IVA is over and our secured loan on our house ends in Oct this year together with my pension we will be over £1,000.00 a month better off. What about the future I hear you ask. Well we have increased my wifes civil service pension payments by 3 to cover the furture shortfall in my pension.
The above all sounds very rosey dosnt it. But 12 months ago we had nothing and I mean nothing. Life has been hard for 5 years but I know it was my fault (I had a business fail that was secured personally by my wife and I). We came within 3 days of losing our house, had our cars repossed, gas and electric cut off and had 2 kids still at school. The IVA certainly saved us. If we had gone bankrupt we would have undoubtedly lost everything. I also had to see 2 kids through Uni.
One thing about IVA's and Uni. The funding suthorities for University do not take into account the fact that your are in an IVA they are only interested in your income and the fact your in an IVA matters not to them. Therefore I had to become a criminal to ensure that my kids got the education that they deserved. I took myself off the electrol role, moved out of the house, in all intents and purposes my wife and I had seperated. My wife then claimed that she was a single parent and therefore the kids got the funding for Uni. Illegal, yes, but the law (or rules) for Uni funding drove me to it. My kids would not have gone to Uni if we hadnt taken that course of action. I really dont care what anyone thinks about me taking that course of action as it is not fair that my kids should have suffered because of my indebtedness.
Anyway its all over now and life at last is looking good.
Good luck to all who are in an IVA, it does eventually come to an end.
