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If I have a mortgage or secured loans on my property, will my family and myself be in danger of losing our home? Will the bank call in the money, and are there any preferencial creditors? Thank you

craig_i, I am not an expert, but I do know that if you don't pay your mortgage and any loans secured to that property, they do reserve the right to take posession of that house. I am confused about your question about preferential creditors. Do you mean, you are not paying them because this would give them a preference over your unsecured debt? If this is what you mean you are in error. The mortgage and any loans secured to your house are priority creditors. What this means is you MUST pay them before you pay your unsecured debts. If you don't they can start legal procedures against you for the arrears and the property.

Council tax is a priority creditor as well. Fall behind without an agreement with them and you will receive a court summons. Your utilities are priority creditors because you need those services to live day to day. I hope this helped some.

A 'real' expert will arrive shortly so keep checking in to your post OR click the 'Check here to subscribe to this topic' and receive an email when someone replies.

Take care.

All I have left is my humour.

Hi graig

I assume you mean "if I enter an IVA?"

In an IVA you continue to make the payments to your mortage company and secured loans, because if you default on these then those creditors have possessory rights against the asset - and there may be some risk that you may lose your home.

The only preferential creditors these days are ex-employees for arrears of wages and holiday pay. This is obviously only seen in cases where the debtor is self-employed.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

Perfect advice debtdummy
You ARE a "real"expert because of your own experiences regarding debt.
There is nothing better than first hand experience.
Regards

I absolutely agree - I have (I hope!) all of the technical answers, but only you guys who have "lived the experience" can really help the people who want to know how it feels.

Please don't give up once you all have your variations and closures, as you make the very best counsellors and together I think we make a fair team!

Thanks to everyone (especially the regulars) for the very sound practical advice you give, and you do teach me the odd thing each week which helps me immensly in my day to day career.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk