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£30,000 of debt: the homeowner’s decision

At thirty thousand, everything turns on the house. The IVA exists for exactly this case — and its equity clause is exactly what to understand before signing. Without a home, an adviser will normally also assess the lower-cost routes alongside it.

Written by The My Debt Cleared editorial teamLast reviewed 13 September 2026Next review 13 March 2027Editorial policy
At £30,000, one fact organises everything: whether you own your home. Homeowners at this level are the group IVA marketing speaks to most directly — the arrangement is designed around keeping the home while creditors receive what affordability allows — and the 2025 Protocol’s home rules below are the thing to understand before any proposal is signed. For non-homeowners at £30,000, two routes the adverts skip are part of any full assessment: a Debt Relief Order if income and assets fit (the £50,000 limit sits well above you), and bankruptcy, whose costs and consequences an adviser will set against five or six years of arrangement payments.

Homeowners: how the 2025 Protocol treats the family home

For IVAs proposed under the 2025 IVA Protocol (in effect from 1 July 2025), the family home is excluded from the arrangement. Your beneficial interest is assessed once, at the start — calculated as 85% of the property’s value minus secured borrowing, taken on your share alone for joint owners. If that figure is under £10,000, it is disregarded and the protocol term is 60 months; if it is £10,000 or more, the arrangement is proposed at 72 months instead of 60, in place of any equity contribution. There is no year-five valuation, no remortgage attempt and no equity release in a standard protocol IVA. Arrangements approved before 1 July 2025 keep the terms creditors signed — many older IVAs contain the previous mechanism, a final-year equity review with a remortgage attempt and additional payments in lieu — so anyone already in an IVA should read their own proposal, not this page. Very high equity can make a protocol IVA unsuitable, and bespoke arrangements can differ; the homeowner guide sets out both regimes in full.

The arithmetic, as an illustration

An IVA’s write-off is arithmetic, not an advert: what remains after the term’s affordable payments is written off on completion. Sixty months at £250 contributes £15,000 against £30,000 of debt; a 72-month homeowner term at the same figure contributes £18,000; fees come out of the pot creditors receive. Your own figure depends entirely on the affordability assessment and the creditor vote — treat any percentage promised in advance as marketing, not maths.

Non-homeowners: the comparison nobody advertises

With no property to protect, the IVA’s central benefit disappears — so compare the remaining routes on their real terms. A DRO, if you fit its £75-surplus and £2,000-asset tests, deletes £30,000 in twelve months for nothing. Bankruptcy costs £680, typically discharges in twelve months, and takes surplus income for at most three years — against five to six years of IVA payments plus fees. The IVA-vs-bankruptcy comparison sets the factors out; a free adviser applies them to your figures in one conversation.

You can get free, impartial debt advice

You never have to pay for debt advice. MoneyHelper (government-backed), StepChange, National Debtline and Citizens Advice all give free, confidential advice with no obligation.

If £30,000 arrived with an income shock

Debt this size often lands alongside redundancy, illness or separation — and unstable income is precisely when five-year commitments fail. Breathing Space buys 60 protected days to let the situation settle before anything is signed; use it before an arrangement, not after one collapses.

If your debt is nearer…

£20,000 covers the advert bracket below; £50,000 covers the statutory ceiling above; £10,000 is a different decision entirely.

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