IVA and declaration of trust

Hi ,

I wonder if anyone out there can help me with the following situation.

After a lengthy Ancillary Relief proceedings it was agreed that the former matrimonial home which my ex lived in was to be sold and the equity split 60/40 in my favour, with a minimum lump sum of £21K being paid to me.

As a result of a complex family and divorce case I was left with a hefty solicitor bill, I paid what I could afford at the time (over £38k), but this still left an outstanding amount of £29K.

As I no way of raising this amount on the request of my solicitor I signed a declaration of trust in relation to my share of equity in the former matrimonial home, to be paid to the solicitor once the house sold. At the time I signed this I thought the house would sell quickly. That was not the case and my ex has not been keen to move on.

Concious that I was still in considerable debt I entered into an IVA with this solicitor being one of the creditors. The only modification on the IVA was that if the property sold during the duration of the IVA then the solicitor would receive the equity and it was not to be shared amongst the remaining creditors. As this solicitor made up 85% of the entire debt this modification was agreed by the Insolvency Practitioner and the other creditors.

My IVA is now coming to an end, my question is, can this solicitor still use the declaration of trust to take the equity once the house sells, or like the remaining creditors no longer be able to request any further payments under the IVA guidelines and outstanding debt once an IVA has been concluded is written off.

Hope this makes some sense,

Hello, Im in an IVA too and what i will say is if the solicitors was one of your creditors then upon completion of your IVA they can no longer make a claim - it would be the same as any other creditor. All IVA''s are personally agreed, so have you spoken to your IP about this situation.

Regards
DA

Hi,

I have spoken to my IP, they agreed that if the house sold during the IVA the solicitor could have 100% of the equity as she holds over 85% of my total debt owed. However he stated that if the IVA was complete then the debt to the solicitor would be classed as repaid. WHat he couldn''t answer was how I would get the restriction she had placed on my title deed removed or if the declaration of trust could be cancelled. I know I should seek legal advice, but it was using the services of a solicitor that got me into this mess and the IVA leaves you with no spare cash.