IVA costs [IP charges]

[OPTIMIST12]

Thats the one - thank you Andy.

[Adam Davies]

Hi
I emailed Chris and here is his response[he has given me permission to post this]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the email.

I tried to go down the legal route and take my IP to court after the FSA informed me they had no power to do anything
I went to see an insolvency solicitor (which I had to pay for up front!) and
he basically put it to me like this -

(1) I could go to court and try to claim my charges back, but the other side would drag out the case increasing the costs.
This would be ok if I won a 100% victory, but if I only won a partial victory then I would be faced with thousands of pounds worth of legal costs. There is no legal aid available for this kind of action so this would all have to be funded by me
Or
(2) I could try to settle the IVA as soon as possible and get on with my life.
Of course if you are in an IVA you do not have any money to pay legal costs.....neverending IVA, neverending circle of dead ends
with regards holding your IP to account - and my IP knew this.
Short of winning the lottery so you can fund a legal challenge with highly paid insolvency legal specialists - forget it.
In the end my wife managed to get a small bank loan to pay off the remainder of my IVA and I managed (at least) to get no more charges added to my IVA while we sorted that out.
At least there should be very few people left on an old style IVA now, and any jiggery pokery with charges would come out of the pot instead of being added to it and lengthening the IVA.
So we finally got everything sorted late last year and I am now free of my IVA (although with a bank loan to pay off!) and our second child has just been born - a boy!
I tried everything to hold my IP to account and got nowhere. There simply is no mechanism or process to deal with this.
The FSA has no power, the ombudsman is a joke, the IP's own governing body
does not even have anything to deal
with this - they are only interested in protecting themselves and
only take
action against an IP who actually does not
comply with the basic legal requirements of setting up an IVA (not the running of one).
When I find a spare moment (between nappies and feeding time!) I will add a post onto the forum, but while I was trying to go through the legal route I thought it prudent not to!
Chris.
endediva........neverendingbitternessatbeingrippedoffandtakenadavanta
geofiva

[MelanieGiles]

Shocking. I was insensed when I first dealt with the earlier posts, as I remain now. It is this type of thing that has led to the distrust of my whole profession amongst lenders and consumers, and it is sad that a few greedy individuals have spoilt a very sound and solid process. We will recover, but this does not help Chris I am afraid.

[OPTIMIST12]

IVAs / I.P.s fees etc. seem to be forever evolving one way and another - a lot seems to depend on exactly when you take the plunge. But thank goodness the opportunity is there!!!