im very confused

[ps00]

hi myself and my partner entered into an iva
20 months ago now i have learnt that i may have been missold it on the grounds that we live in rented accomodation and have no assets im also told that i should of entered into a bankruptcy order and i still can im very confused so im hoping you will be able to offer me some assistance in this matter many thanks

[chris.g]

Who has advised you that you have been mis-sold your IVA? The fact that you don't have any assets doesn't mean that bankruptcy would have been the right route for you. You must have had enough disposable income or else you would not have been able to enter into the IVA. If you petitioned for br this could have been refused as you had enough to enter an IVA. It's not as easy as having assets or not.
I can understand you are confused but please, if you have received a letter stating that you have 'mis-sold', ask yourself if you are happy with your IVA and the way it being managed?

[ianmillington]

Have you received an unsolicited letter from the IVA Council or some other similar organisation?

Can I recommend you read the "sticky" thread "IVA Council etc" to learn all about it?

Ian

[ps00]

hi ian where can i find details of the sticky thread iva council you refer 2

[admin]

Hi ps00
http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11322 [:)]
admin

[emma_t]

Please speak to your IP about this before you make a decision and they can advise you on your individual case.

I have no assets and am in an iva and in no way consider myself missold as it was my decision to want to pay back as much as I can and as I had disposable income it was possible to propose an iva.
I was advised of all my options at the beginning and I thought long and hard about the pros and cons of all options.
If you are happy in your iva I would continue if I were you as if you petition bankruptcy you will possibly have to pay into bankruptcy for 3 years anyway.

As Ian said have a read through the sticky topic as it will answer some of your questions.
Emma[:)]

[ps00]

hi chris at this stage i would rather not say who has advised me that i have been missold my iva this is so i can get a balanced and unbiased oppinion form people such as yourself many thanks

[ps00]

hi emma thanks for your advice all i will say is at this stage when we were advised to enter an iva bankruptcy was mentioned but we were steered away from this option very quickly that coupled with the fact that we live in rented accomodation and have no assests does tend to make me think that maybe we were missold our iva

[chris.g]

That's fine, I understand.
There has been a lot of chat about this topic on the forum lately as it seems that the IVA council are targeting just about everyone who has an IVA. They get the names from the Insolvency Register then send standard letters stating that they have been mis-sold their IVA.
I would seriously consider your position as you have already had your IVA for nearly 2yr. If you now declare br, the 5 yrs blight on your credit record would start afresh.
As I previously said, if a judge is presented with a br petition and they see that you have sufficient disposable income, they may well reject the petition, therefore forcing you back to square one......

[emma_t]

I recieved advice of all my options including debt management, iva and bankuptcy.
Some people I talked to advised bankruptcy, but I had a good think and did some research and made a decision to pursue an iva as I had enough income to do so.

You can still petition for your bankruptcy, but a lot of these organisations who send out the letters do not advise people that they may have to pay into the bankruptcy for 3 years.

I am sure some more people will post on this topic and give further advice[:)]
Good luck in whatever decision you make, the forum is a great place for advice and support and very non judgemental
Emma x

[chris.g]

We, me & hubby, were advised of all the options, even though br was realistically our only option. I appreciate that some IVA 'firms' may lie on one side or another, but ultimately, you decide which route is the best for you.

[ianmillington]

Some points well made here.

It's reasonable to assume that if you have been complying for not far short of 2 years with the requirements to contribute into an IVA that the OR will immediately conclude that you will be able to make payments into the Bankruptcy under an IPO or an IPA. This will be for 3 years although admittedly probably for less each month. Add to that the fact that it will cost about £500 for each petition and any benefit in you now doing it must be marginal in raw financial terms.

If the advice has come from a commercial organisation such as the IVA Council they (or more correctly a connected organisation) will charge about £1000 to assist with the petition. As you can do this yourself for nothing online or at very small cost via a number of organisations then at this stage the benefit in taking their advice must be negligible.

Also bear in mind that when you went into the IVA it went on your credit file where it stays for 6 years. Likewise the second insolvency proceeding, bankruptcy, will be registered and will stay there for 6 years from registration, so going bankrupt will certainly extend the stain on your credit file.

Having said all that I will be the first to acknowledge that a number of IVA firms may well have, historically, sailed "close to the wind", but so far as your IVA is concerned I can only suggest that it's "what you see is what you get". You made an offer to your creditors and they accepted it. You don't say what discount on your debts you are getting in the IVA but at least you had some input into it whereas in bankruptcy you are more likely to get "processed". Also, what do you do for a living? Have you checked your contract of employment to see whether bankruptcy will affect it? Has the new advice source brought this to your attention?

Hope this is food for thought. If my basic assumptions are correct, and your concern is that the seeds of doubt have been sown by an unsolicited letter from the IVA Council or some other like organisation, then I would agree with you that there may be some mis-selling going on, but only you can decide by whom this is being done.

Ian

[MelanieGiles]

Good post Ian, I could not agree with you more. A lady posted on the bankruptcy forum last night that she was being hounded by a sales team from UK bankruptcy!