I have finished my 60 iva payments and am currently paying an extra £6700 alledgedly due to excess equity release. My iva states that if there is £5000 or below in equity then there is nothing to pay. However the valuation calculation was carried out by an alledged independant company and surprise surprise they say i have £6700 equity. They then offered to arrange a loan ( which i have a copy of ) to release equity and there fee for doing this was a shade under £4000. At no point did anyone visit my property to value it and when pressed i was told they used a website to do the valuation.
So my question is, has my IP supervisor been unethical and possibly been profiteering asking a 3rd party who had a vested interest in my equity being above £5000 for there sole gain. Clearly i have no idea if there would have been an introductory fee for my Ip
Also if you agree that this is wrong, then what course of action if any can i take to recover any of this alledged equity. I am a bit reluctant at this late stage to cause waves in case the IP reacts badly to my allegation of mal practice. Reading some forums it seems clear that the regulator does not have any powers to overturn IP decisions.
Thanks in advance
You should instruct your own valuer if you disagree with the one appointed by the IP. You can then find out what the true equity position is based on an agent with local knowledge.
I would also do as Michael suggests your own independent valuation and your mortgage redemption figure and challenge their valuation if you believe this to be incorrect.
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
Thanks for the advice but i was really looking for an answer to the ethical point i was making regarding the IP sourcing a valuation with the same person who would take a substantial fee for securing me a loan to pay the equity. You dont leave a fox in charge of the chicken coop
Thanks in advance
Like many firms we have our cases reviewed to see if there is equity available. No broker can artificially inflate the value of your property so they can sell you a loan as the loan company will have their own valuers carry out a check anyway. The value would come in lower and the broker would then look incompetent or even potentially fraudulent.
Valutaions are a matter of opinion anyway and if someone disagrees with any valuation provided to us they are entitled to obtain their own and the IVA will bear the cost. I would think this would apply in cases where there are problems with the individual property and if this is the case and the broker tried to get a loan secured against it, the property would fail the survey anyway.
Irrespective of valuation, if you have to raise £6700 by means of a secured loan, you should not be paying an additional £4000 in an arrangement fee.
Also for that amount you would be far better exploring an unsecured loan (if you could find one) or agreeing an IVA extension to pay this off (assuming this could be done in a year or so).
Exactly what is this 'arrangement fee'.A phone call to talk to someone in ten mins to arrange it.
Likewise these 1000 pounds arrangement fees for mortgages etc.Joining fees for gyms etc.
Nonsense.
Just another excuse to charge fees that we are unwarranted. I can see the need for fees if exceptional work is done to made something happen for a client.
Not in this case though.
Last edited by nonewdebt on Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you Andy Davie. You are the only person so far to catch my drift.
The same company that done my valuation also offered to secure the loan which they had already had had approved.
There surely must be a conflict of interests there as they had a vested interest in making sure my valuation was above the £5000 safety net. Needless to say i did not take the loan and am paying another year into my iva.
Let me make it clear that i was the one who foolishly got myself into the mess and am completley happy to pay back my creditors everything they are entitled to.
The issue i have is that i suspect that my IP of profiteering. Weather there was equity or not it surely must be deemed malpractice for a valuer to then offer a loan when if the value had been £1700 lower then there would be no equity release available & therefore they could not make any money for there loan arrangement fees !!!
On another note regarding my suspition of profiteering regarding ppi's. my IP through another agency have collected approx £10000 which i am happy for my creditors to have but after fees being deducted they will only recieve approx £5000. I challenged my IP to explain why i was never offered to apply for ppi's myself as i am perfectly capable in doing so as i had forwarded a ppi cheque previously to them. I told them that i wanted to maximise my creditors returns to clear my consience. If they had allowed me to do the claiming myself then they would not be entitled to any additional fees. The whole system is a racket. Almost legalised profiteering in my opinion not unlike the companies like WONGA.
In hindsight i wish i had just taken bankruptcy and have it over and done with within the year rather than the so called specialists preying on the vulnerable like vultures.
I do acknowledge that the majority of PI 's are probably squeeky clean and i appologise if i have offended any of the good guys but some of your peers are damaging your good reputation.
Doesnt really matter as ive discovered that apparantly the regulator has no powers to overturn any decision an IP makes. What a safety net that is !!!
Im just going to have to wait i guess until the likes of MARTIN LEWIS bring this highway robbery to task.
Rant over
I originally posted my question on this forum based on the belief that "ask an expert a question " would result in me getting an honest answer to my question regardless if it was what i wanted to hear or not.
so far the experts have avoided my question of ethics apart from Mr Davie who thought it strange.
Because of my conspiracy type of nature i am begining to assume that the type of behaviour may be the norm now amongst IP's now that the PPI cash cow has arrived.
I challenge any of the good guys out there to restore my faith in fair play. I will accept any criticism and i am happy to be told that i have got it all wrong with a constructive explaination of my particular expierience.
My thoughts from my correspondance so far is that the forum is a shopping centre for prospective clients researching the pros and cons of an IVA and i would advise them if that is the route to go then they should seek a non profit making PI as i wish i had done.
Thanks in advance
All IP's will want paying for any work they do - the forum is not a shopping centre for prospective clients to the experts who post here. The majority of members are people who are or have been in an IVA and voluntarily offer support and expert advice can only come from professionals. Case specific advice from your IP only.
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
I am quite happy for fees to paid for services and agree that it is a buisness. My argument or question was the ethics of the cases in point that i have outlined that there is probable doubt in any reasonable persons mind that profiteering is going on in my case.
I still await a response about the ethics i have outlined which confirms my thoughts that there is wrong doing going on.
Please answer my original question and not try to cover up the bad practice that is occurring.
I merely want my creditors to receive the maximum return where possible and not a 3rd party.
I have already paid my PI over 100% of the money i originally owed to my creditors but will have to pay 125% to pay them in full due to my IP deliberatly obstructing maximum payout to my creditors by employing a 3rd party to recover PPI's when i wanted to do it free of charge.
Please explain that if you can when the IP recieved 50 % inclusive of VAT.from my PPI's Mr Peoples must be deluded if he thinks there would be no unscrupulous companies out there that would fabricate a hypothetical valuation to gain buisness.A property after all is only worth what someone is prepared to pay. By inflating my properties value by £1700 which is hypothetical so marginal it incurred my need to release equity which they hoped in my opinion that they would get my buisness in arranging a loan which guaretteed them £4000 in fees. This is so wrong and damnable.
Also in reports from meetings with creditors my IP continually asks creditors for extra fees which im glad to say they have refused.
