You must have agreed to those terms in the first place alanpwebb - your IP could not simply have inserted them without your prior agreement. I am not sure that I agree with other posters about the need for variation - it is clear that the money is to be raise by either a re-mortgage or a sale. What a dangerous thing to have agreed to all those years ago - but you may have felt that you had no choice in order to protect the property.
IPs do have to charge fees for the work that they do, but again these would have been with your agreement and had to be taken account of in the calculations. It seems to me that you did not fully understand the commitment you were making when going into the IVA, and I do wonder how you found this firm in the first place? Was this a referral from a debt managmeent company perchance?
Can I suggest that you take a trip down to Brighton to discuss this directly with your IP. You may have not had a good service in the past from the IP's staff - but the IP has to take personal responsibility for your case from start to finish - and that includes making sure that you understand all of the terms of the contract and any which are later introduced by creditors at the credtiors meetings.
Surely you did not believe that these people would act for you free of charge for a whole five year period, with all monies you paid over to them being distributed to creditors? If so, there was something very radically wrong when your case was set up.
I partly agree with you in that we were NOT made fully aware of what we were entering into. As I have said before, we were led to believe that all costs were met by our creditors.
We have had our property valued today, and we now only have approx £15k equity due to the drop in the housing market. When we entered the IVA there was approx £45k equity.
Do you know where this leaves us, as we are not able to re-mortgage due to the loan to value percentage. If we were force to sell, by the time we have sold and paid our selling costs this will leave us not much over £10K. would they make us sell it for this amount?
We have been the the CAB and have a meeting arranged with an adviser on Friday, but all help or advise would be welcomed. Once we have seen the CAB we will then make an appointment to see the IP
How much has the property been valued at - and how much do you owe on your mortgage currently? Could you also post the exact wording of the equity release provisions in the proposal/chairman's report so we can advise further.
Our Valuation was £180000, our mortgage is £162000. The exact wording is:"Our house will be re-mortgaged or sold by the end of year five at which time sufficient funds will be raised as id necessary to ensure my creditors recieve xxxp in the £" In My partners cased its 100p in the £ and my case it is £0.88 in the £
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
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"Surely you did not believe that these people would act for you free of charge for a whole five year period"
What exactly has the IP done for the near £18k. They have been paying in for 5 years and are now expected to sell their home to pay off 100% of their debts. It may be in the agreement but surely it is the IPs responsibility to outline all insolvency options clearly at the outset and offer advice on the best course of action.
Like the original poster mentioned. The would have been better off going BR or selling the house 5 years again and they would have now have been cleared of debt for a couple of years.
I agree that this would be worth a personal visit. There seem to be a lot of unanswered questions and the original advice should also be revisited to demonstrate that the IP was working in the interests of both you and your creditors.
It's sad that this has only come to light now- did you have regular contact with your IVA company, and were you sent annual reports that showed your situation?
The wording in your proposal would require a variation if for any reason you were unable to achieve 100p/£ and 88p/£. Due to unproven claims in your Statement of Affairs and unpredictable house prices, this was very dangerous to begin with.
That's our current house valuation and our current mortgage figure (not after re-mortgage or sale.
Our IP doesn't seem to be helping us. In 4.5 years we have paid just over £21k, but £17400 has gone to the IP, so we have actually only paid off £4000 of our original debt! If we had realised this in the first place we would has gone BR or sold the house then, and not going through all the stress and worry now. It seems to me that they are more worried about getting their money than helping us.
We made an offer 12months ago of £12000 in full and final settlement as the house value had dropped and my parents had offered to lend us the money. But is was rejected, they said "cause of the costs involved" and now we found out is has cost us another £2k for them doing that!
It's disappointing that your creditors rejected your variation due to your IP's costs. I'm not surprised, but this is hardly your fault and hardly in your best interests.
I never comment on the fees charged by other companies, but that does leave a bad taste in the mouth. I would arrange a meeting with your IP personally to discuss your situation.
