IVA failing big time

[juditka]

Thanks for all your replies. Melanie: The reason we've sign the documents for is cos we wanted the IVA to go thru. This was our second attempt, unfortunately the first time our biggest creditor HFC rejected our offer, because appearantly when we took out the loan we 'told them' that we had a mortgage. (Completely untrue!!!)So we just wanted to get over with it and finally get this mess sorted out. Now I don't know what we are going to do if I have to give up 50% of my payrise.

[Skippy]

Hi Juditka, your story is sadly becoming more and more familiar. People (me included) are signing unrealistic IVA proposals just to get the IVA accepted.

As Melanie says you must speak to Synergi. I was convinced that nothing could be done for me as I have a modification stating no variations in the first 24 months, but my IP is considering a variation meeting. Whether or not this happens I don't know, but anything is worth a try rather than struggling on.

Good luck, and please be strong with Synergi. They should remember that it's in their interest for the IVA to continue so they can receive their fees!

Onwards and upwards!!!
View my blog at: http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[MelanieGiles]

I find this whole situation with this particular firm quite disturbing. If they were aware that you were putting incorrect figures forward, knowing that you could probably not afford them just to get an IVA accepted, then they may well have acted negligently.

However, you have also admitted that the figures were unaffordable, so you have to take some of the responsibility for your current situation. I suggest you now send the IP firm a revised statement of your income and expenditure, showing that you are only affording the payments because you have had a pay rise. The 50% uplift requirement should therefore be waived certainly until you get another salary increase, and Synergi will have to explain this to creditors in their first annual report.

Do also read the wording of the modification carefully. Some of them say 50% of overtime, commissions, bonuses or any other additional income. I do not interpret inflationary salary increases to be caught by that category.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[juditka]

Hi Melanie, Do you know how childcare vouchers are treated in a IVA? We are still paying the same amount to the nursery we just save a little bit of money on our taxes and NI. So the amount is deducted from our wages without paying tax or Ni on it. How will it affect my IVA?

Thanks everyone for their replies much appreciated!!!!

[MelanieGiles]

Hi again

This is the correct way to treat childcare vouchers, as they are tax efficient. They have absolutely no bearing on your IVA at all. The vouchers are given to you to meet the costs of childcare, and your net take home pay is the figure used to calculate your disposable income.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[Skippy]

Sorry to jump in, but that is an interesting point from Melanie regarding inflationary pay rises. I don't get any more than 3%, and I was resigned to paying 50% of it into my IVA until my annual review should my IVA continue. The modification in my proposal reads exactly as Melanie writes, so I will definitely try to argue the case.

Onwards and upwards!!!
View my blog at: http://skippy13.blogs.iva.co.uk/

[juditka]

Morning Melanie, as a matter of fact, we became aware of these modifications just recently as we were going through the paperwork.

We were shocked to see the original figures from the original paper work (1st rejected offer) was very very different from the ones from the approved offer.

They definitely did not mention any changes to us and we assumed that what we're signing is the same documents, including figures apart from the modification bit. Have we been deceived or have we been negligent?

[MelanieGiles]

Hi again

I feel here that you are victims of putting your trust in a firm and believing that they were acting in your best interests.

Their defence will be that they revised the figures, based upon what they feel creditors will accept (by the way this is absolutely not the correct way of putting a client's proposal forward, if there is no consideration for affordability) and sent them to you to sign - which I feel sure that you have.

Did you read the revised documents through carefully before you sent them back to Synergi?

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

[juditka]

Hi Melanie,

Unfortunately the relief and excitement of the IVA had gotten the better of us after failing first time.

We went throught it somehow but this seemed to be the same as the original, the part we paid more attention to was the modifications.

As you said, we put our trust in them thinking they were acting in our best interests.

The whole IVA process to us was both mentally and phisically exhaustive, it had been almost a year since it had all began, constant phone calls, threatening letters was just enough and just wanted to end it all.

We seriously considered bankruptcy after the IVA had failed first time but this seemed daunting, so we decided to try a second offer. We knew from the beginning that it would be a struggle but we wanted to make it work.

Next step I guess is to send a statement of income and expenditure and see where that takes us.

Thanks a lot for your expert advice.

[Dominic]

Synergi seem to be coming up tme and again as an issue maybe we need lsit of turstwortyh and untrustworthy comapnies.

I do not know when my next payrise willhappen as it all depsneds on bottom line project makes a profit we get a rise.