Terry hope everything works out for you - ppi is causing problems at the minute for must people and it is holding up completion certificate the coming months will be interesting keep us informed how you get on
All I have to add to this post is to say that if your IP has obtained PPI reclaim monies without your authority or confirmation of mis-selling, then this would be a serious issue worthy of complaint. I still cannot see how this can have been done, but if it has then the OFT as you say will be sure to look into it for you.
Unfortunately of late, this forum has become a beating ground for disgruntled people who feel that their IPs are motivated solely by personal greed, and that they are not acting in the best interests of either their clients or the creditors. People considering entering into an IVA should not be put off by such comments. The forum membership represents a small fraction of those who are actually subject to IVAs or active DMPs at present. It is more likely that people will resort to the use of a forum when they feel hard done by, or where they feel they are not getting the advice and support from their own firms, rather than when they are content with the smooth running of their repayment plans.
The few posts that are on here complaining about IPs, PPI, VAT and case closures right now, are certainly not representative of the good work done by my professional as a whole.
Melanie I appreicate your comments as I can see your and IP yourself but after reading some interesting things on the web it seems that 99% of IVA companies are doing this currently. I cannot see how this can be justified don't this profession have regulation? If it does where is it. I posted on this website because I felt that there is a reall issue here and one that I hope others do not fall prey to. The amount of extra stress and pressure this has put on myself and my wife is hard, and it's because of all this. Surely the regulators should be made aware of this.
I did some research last night and came across a members body called 'R3'. It seems alot of IVA companies are members of them and if so should be bound by their terms etc. If this R3 are so important then why don' they step in? Same goes for the IP associations you all seem to be members of.
I have now made all my creditors aware that I have made a complaint to the OFT and ICO and they all said that I should have given seperate written consent and they were under the impression that I had done this. That sais, I asked each one if they had written signed proof of this from me and they all said no...
I hope what I have experienced and notified this forum of will alert people to what is going on behind closed doors of these companies. If people are made awr then surely it will lead to invetsigation and a good clean up of what ever systems you all work to. I understand that there are people on this forum who experienced good things with IVAs, but I think and it seems many others feel the same, that there is a sneaky side to them to that is preying in the shadows.
There are indeed a number of IPs who are doing their duty to creditors and pursuing assets which are captured under the terms of the agreements you, the debtors, have willingly entered into. The position of the regulators is simple - their members are required to abide by the terms of the IV As, and ensure that they are adequately supervised. The principle of realising assets to maximise returns to creditors is fundamental to the work of an insolvency practitioner at the end of the day, and you will not successfully argue that the pursuance of PPI money wrongly sold to customers is not the IP acting in the very best manner.
R3 are our trade association, and represent the needs of all members. R3 is not a regulatory body. You may well have grounds for complaint about your specific case, but the statements you are currently making are misleading other posters and simply not true. One thing I do agree with, however, is that you should have provided written consent, and I will be very interested to learn the outcome of that specific aspect of your complaint. If creditors have paid out without sight of this, then they have to share in the blame as well.
This is the very first instance of a complaint of this nature I have come across, and absolutely has to be an isolated occurance. You have provided the address of the IPA - there are 7 other regulatory bodies, and people in IVAs should check their own IP's specific regulatory body before contacting the IPA to avoid wasting everyones time.
Thank you for your reply Miss Giles and I understand about the other regulatroy bodies. But this is not an isolated case is it...
I spoke to 3 jornalists and reporters yesterday, two of which were already looking into this since April 2012 and are building up and massive story on it. They contacted me because I went to the press about my complaint regarding the ppi thing. They said they have over 15 different companies that have done this and they also have proof. They also said that they have spoekn to various lenders/creditors and they ahve agreed to help them. It seems like you are the spokes person for IPs on this site and I wonder why no others have commented?
Is it because they realise that people have caught on to this? or is it because the cat has been let out the bag? [?]
Terry, I do think you that some of the information you are commenting on is very misleading, you have stated in a post above that after looking on the internet you have found, and I quote '99% of IP's are doing this', doing what? reclaiming customers PPI without their consent? or asking customers to reclaim PPI full stop?, I would appreciate some references to back up these figures you are stating if the first is true?, the second absolutely will be true as as Melanie states, the whole purpose of an IVA of which those of us that are in one sign up to and are fully aware of, is to pay back as much as possible including realising any assets (including PPI)
I take what any journalist or reporter states with a pinch of salt, they never present unbiased facts and personally I don't think there is a 'story'
As Mel has said, if your company has reclaimed PPI on your behalf without your consent then that is an issue that you need to deal with through the appopriate channels, but if you feel this is representative of what is happening globally within IVA management, I would certainly like to see your evidence of this?
Mel gives up an enormous amount of her own time to offer advice on here, she doesn't have to do this she has a business to run and a life of her own, we do have many other IP's that also post on here but perhaps at this moment in time, they feel there is nothing for them to add to your statements as so far quite frankly all you have posted is emotive comments without any evidence as far as I can see to back up what you say for any professional to comment on constructively?
Read this forums posts and see what people have said about this...
Its there in balck and white. Plus there are other forums where people have commente dont his and Mr Martin Lewis has also commented on this live on TV. Journalists would not be contactign people about this if they didnt think there was a story worth covering.
My friend it is not just happening to me there are hundreds and hundreds of others in the same boat. Fact.
I think that the least I comment about Mr Lewis and other journalists who regularly misrepresent my professional is probably the best on a public forum.
I am not the spokesperson for IPs on this forum, I am a practising IP who has been involved in insolvency work for nearly 30 years, and have seen issues like this debated for time immemorial.
Perhaps this misrepresentative dialogue will steer the occasional poster considering an IVA towards bankruptcy or never ending debt management plans. Either way, there is still a massive amount of debt out there which consumers are unable to repay. That is not the fault of the IP, we are merely here to help people address it, and I don't think that anything will change as a result of these few isolated cases, which I do accept may have been poorly handled in the eyes of the client.
You seem to have had a very bad experience with your IVA and you seem to have made complaints so hopefuly you will see results.
I am aware that there are problems out there with some IVAs and with the way that the PPI reclaim is being dealt with and we have debated this heavily on this forum.
I think it is important that we have a balanced forum, from experience we do not always get the full story and when a company is named I think it is only right that you should deal with that complaint off the public forum.
Anyone reading this and other forums would be very wary in taking the IVA route, the nature of online forums is that they tend to attract the negatives and rarely the positives.
Many thousnads of people, including myself, have found the IVA option a life changing route and it still is, in the correct circumstances, an excellent and fair way to deal with unaffordable debt
As a matter of interest, given that you have also been involved with an IVA is the past, how would you have reacted if your IP had insisted that you complete paperwork with a view to investigating mis-sold PPI?
Would you have been frustrated if you had advised your IP that you had never taken out PPI, but they still insisted on completing the investigation.
As long as it didn't affect the ending of my IVA then I would have no problem assisting in the recovery of any PPI, even if I knew that I never had any. Remember one or more forum posters have said that their IP had recovered PPI that they could have sworn that they never had.
I think communication has been a big problem and people have been rail roaded into helping without knowing why or how it may affect them.
I do feel for anyone that has their completion held up by the PPI reclaim and if I were in their boots I would be none too happy
