IVA Council

[northumbrian69]

Got a letter today from the 'IVA Council' informing me I may have been missold my IVA and I may be entitled to take action against my IP to recover any payments already made plus I would no longer be required to make any further monthly IVA payments.
The letter I received quoted my IVA reference number, the court and date it was approved, it also gave the name of my IP.
I am with Grant Thornton and have been in an IVA for 12 months, they have always given me a professional and courteous service, I have no reason to suspect that they have acted in an underhand or dishonest manner.
I have had other letters from companies offering to finish my IVA early, they are obviously trying to take advantage of my financial predicament, I just throw their letters in the bin, i can't fathom out what this company are up to, they obviously want to profit in some way from people in IVA's by suggesting that IP's are acting dishonestly.
Has anyone come across this company, any advice from the Forum experts would be appreciated, should I forward the letter to Grant Thornton, some of the comments appear slanderous.
Any advice would be appreciated [:)][:)][:)]

[The Stones]

Hi there.
We too have received this letter today and to be honest I got a bit excited at first until I re-called some links on this site back in Oct/nov.
We have found it hard on an IVA because our I/E wasn't accurate, so we are suffering now. When we got this letter, I thought maybe we were mis-sold our IVA, not taking our personal situation into account (Iwon't divulge here, we too are with GT) That thought only lasted couple of hours until I got home from work and logged on here to find the previous posts. Steer clear![V][V]

[Adam Davies]

Hi
Have a look at this thread today,also relating to the IVAC
http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9831

[louisa.s]

Avoid them like the plague - I too am the proud owner of a letter from the "IVA Council" and quite frankly they are getting a firm reply and I am going to forward a copy onto my IP just for records sake.

I too am also with Grant Thornton and am happy with the level of servcie received from them.

Basically the IVAC play on peoples insecurities and god knows you start getting a fair few when you've in debt and causes people to doubt their IVA even though it may have been operating with little to no problems up until that letter.

Lou

[goulda]

I have received the same, also similar from Dr. Debt made a few inquires then binned them

[Lisa2009]

Hubby got one too and his IVA was paid off in December.

[pixie]

I'm feeling so left out! I didn't get one the first time round either!!
Obviously past help!!

[aguise]

Not on your own Pixie I didnt get one either.

Ang

[Adam Davies]

Hi
I think that they send the letters out by IP grouping.
Regards

[MelanieGiles]

Seems like it is Grant Thornton's turn this week!

It is quite frankly laughable that this company, and the IP who associates himself with it, should think that Grant Thornton could be found guilty of mis-selling IVAs to their clients.

They may be a volume processor of IVAs, but Grant Thornton are one of the largest accountancy practices in the world with offices in as many countries as you could count.

I am sure that they are aware they are being targeted, but I imagine they will not even give this outfit the time of day to respond. No-one is forced into an IVA, everyone makes that decision for themselves, some IVAs do not run their course - but this very rarely happens as a result of bad advice.

This bunch of characters ought to jump back on the bandwagon they came in on, and leave the 95% plus of people who are extremely happy with their IVAs in peace.

[louiseh]

I got one too, also with GT. I was tempted to write back telling them where to shove their letter, but lifes too short to waste on those parasites.

[olympic_torch]

I got one today also, shredded and put in the recycling.
Very scarey and intimidating in its wording,
had i not already been forewarned via this forum.

[louisa.s]

Definitely must be GT's turn as Hubby got his last night - it's nice to know we are being treated equally!!!

[northumbrian69]

At the bottom of the letter I received there is a statement;
'The IVAC are working with a specialist mis-selling legal team and are currently building several test cases to pursue IVA factories through the courts'
It also states;
'No action can be taken on your behalf until you have contacted the above number, a team member from a government licensed debt adjusters will contact you within 7 days of you leaving your details.
Important: if you wish your case to be reviewed do not inform your IP until after the assessment is complete'
These statements are very misleading, references to 'test cases in court' and 'government licensed debt adjusters' are obviously being used to undermine our confidence in our IP's, I especially like the very last statement; 'do not inform your IP until after the assessment is complete', I WONDER WHY [:(!][:(!][:(!]
If these people have any sort of financial accreditation it should be removed, they should be stopped from trading immediately and leave us poor defenceless debtors alone so we can get on with putting our lives back together [xx(][xx(][xx(]

[Reviva UK]

Hi
As some of you know my company also writes to people in IVA's but wherever possible we try to facilitate a "reconciliation " betwen the IP & client in the event that the relationship has broken down.

The reason that the above letter says "don't tell the IP" is simply that they want to collect their fee ( 3 payments of the IVA contribution ) before the IP really gets wind that there is a problem. Thus there is no opportunity to reconcile or seek either a modification or early settlement from external fund.

The challenge that we have is that there are basically no regulations for general debt solution companies other than having a consumer credit license and data protection registration etc. So in theory anyone could start a company like this tomorrow.

I would welcome regulation in the industry asap!!!!

I actually thought that these letters - because hey were so misleading and threatening- were subject to an Advertisig Standards investigation and ruling