IVAs: what will the spat with TIX lead to?

By way of background.  An organisation called Tix represent a number of the major credit card companies and banks, mainly those who have been throwing money like confetti to people who cannot afford to repay. 
Tix are trying to impose on Insolvency Practitioners and their clients some fairly onerous terms for what they consider to be [...]

Missold IVAs and Failed/failing IVAs

Many IVA factories are now coming under severe pressure with many of their IVAs failing.  Some factories have already gone to the wall, others will follow, with a huge impact on the debtors whose IVAs they deal with.
If your IVA is in danger of failing, either because you were missold the IVA solution, your circumstances [...]

My business is struggling: should I merge with another?

Most small businesses in the UK operate in a continually marginal state, sometimes making a small profit, sometimes not.  They lack the infrastructure, financial, marketing and other resources necessary to improve their lot.  Many businesses are looking for opportunities to improve their lot through acquisition, merger or just being in the right place at the right time to pick up something cheaply.  [...]

My business is struggling: should I sell up?

Being successful in business is often about being in the right position at the right time. You may have set the business up what seems a lifetime ago, and may have strong emotional ties to it, and feel a deep sense of loyalty to your employees, customers and suppliers. It is more than a business [...]

What do I do? Where do I start?

Broad comparison of the above options
Financial problems take over every aspect of your life and those of your family. 
There are probably a range of thoughts  and feelings coursing through your mind: you may feel ashamed, you could feel foolish that you let things escalate this far, you may feel that in comparison to your peers you are doing badly; you are uncertain what the future [...]

Should I go bankrupt? – tips and pointers

Bankruptcy is often the solution of last resort, but recent changes in the law have made it more often than not the most appropriate route for ordinary people, resulting in something like 70,000people in the UK likely to petition for their own bankruptcy in 2007.  
 My personal view is that bankruptcy should be the ‘default option’ for [...]

Should I consider an IVA? – tips and pointers

IVAs are not the panacea that some claim they are for sorting out people’s finances.  Indeed they are, in my view, being massively ‘oversold’ as a solution to the financial problems of the normal man in the street.  The Insolvency Practitioners’ professional bodies say that an IVA is the right solution for just one in 20 people with financial difficulties.  This makes [...]

Should I go into a Debt Management Plan? – Some tips and pointers

As with IVAs there is a great deal of misselling of this as solution to the financial problems of the normal man in the street. Often DMPs merely just put off the inevitable, yet they are very wearing on you and your family, they truly do mess up your lives.  Read on to see whether [...]

I own my home: what will happen to it in a bankruptcy?

What can or will happen with your home depends on whether there is equity in it.
Where there is no equity
If there is no equity in your home, say because you have re-mortgaged previously to repay unsecured debt, the Official Receiver will not remove you from your home: there is no ‘equity’ for him to realise.  [...]

Antecedent transactions: A twist on Transactions Defrauding Creditors?

Under the Insolvency Act 1986, where an individual or a company gives something away for less than its full value, the transaction can be upset, provided the deal occurred within certain timeframes of formal insolvency.  The aim of the law is to restore the position to what it would have been in an attempt to be fair to the creditors. 
But there [...]