Hi Brian

Best advice is always to sit down with someone and look at all options available. Then have the position on all matters clarified in writing. That way there are no doubts or grey areas. This helps to clarify the position with contribution payments, assess equity if any etc.

The above gives you something in your own time you can review and then make an informed decision on what best suits your circumstances. The 1st step is always the hardest, but honestly its never as daunting as people think.

Mark

Brian128,

Thanks for sharing your situation with us. It often helps to write down your financial position, take a step back and get the help from others to identify the options a available to you.

What I would ask is what do you ultimately wish to achieve? What are your short term goals? There are numerous insolvent and solvent options available to you. It's ultimately up to you which path you choose. There is a trust deed where you make one affordable payment per month over a period of 3-4 years and realise any assets with a significant value to your creditors. A sequestration would cover the same things but would only require a maximum of 3 years of payments. DAS allows you to pay back creditors what they are due, interest is frozen, and again a one monthly payment to an administrator who distributes his to your creditors. As you can see the options are vast.

How much equity is in your property? Is it jointly owned?

Well done on reducing the debt by so much already, brian128. You obviously have been trying hard to improve your situation. However, if you are really struggling to do this then it is not really sustainable and you need to have a plan that is realistic and effective.

A lot depends upon what you can actually afford each month - which is why you need to go through your income and expenditure with an expert adviser. This will determine what options you might have. Also, whether you own any assets is important as under insolvency options like trust deeds or bankruptcy then they could be affected.

We would of course be happy to advise further, but until we know a little more then it is impossible really.

Thanks very much for the replies as it is much appreciated. I have not had the house valued for a few years but would think the value would have dropped quite a bit,probably to about the amount outstanding on the mortgage. More than likely i will have to speak to one of yourselves to get some clarity on our sitution and where we can go from here. I would love to pay off all the outstanding amounts to various creditors as we built this debt up but it is becoming a real strain and feel it will shortly get out of hand
.
Thanks once again.

hello brian,you have made a wise choice by speeking to the experts on this forum,they will guide you in the right direction,i only wish i had known about this forum 2 years ago .sorry to hear of your situation,but these people are the ones to listen to.GOOD LUCK.

Hi Brian

The position with the property is key to everything. Please ensure the equity ( if any) is calculated before you do anything and the position absolutely clarified. You will no doubt see some horror stories on here, so please ensure this is confirmed.

Get it all in writing and clear before signing anything. That way there are no surprises.

Mark

Hi , Brian sorry to hear about your money problems, me and my wife were in debt problems and were and with a debt management plan , stay clear of them , but now we were declared bankrupt over 19 months ago which last 3yrs and after that we have to pay £7500 equity from our house and hopefully thats us, hope this helps you , you do get good advice on here, and there are plenty people in the same boat good luck.

Sorry for the delay in replying to your posts as I have been working away and had no internet access. Receiving these replies and weighing up our options has certainly helped us to try and clarify our position whilst keeping a level head at the same time. Getting into this situation really has become daunting and this site really has been a real help by reading other posts over the last few months.

Making the first step and getting positive face to face advice has been a difficult decision to make so far due pride and the feeling of financial failure but we are now much closer.

Once again thanks very much

Glad we can be of help Brian. I think the initial leap may be the hardest part.
If it is any help, you are not the first and certainly will not be the last to find themselves in this position. Financial problems can very easily spiral out of control and pride will often mean that a bad situation gets worse. I know it is easy for me to say, but you really have nothing to feel embarrassed about and in fact seeking help shows a lot of courage - for which I admire everyone I speak to who comes to me with such difficulties.