Hello
I'm so confused by the IVA im in, we approached the company we are with in April as we had found we had equity in out house, plus we could no longer stay on interest only so our mortgage doubled, we felt we would fail anyway ! we hoped if we could sell it we could use the money to make a full and final offer, all through the process we spoke to different poeple at the company who gave differing advice. We did sell and as we were both in an iva the money went to be made ready for our creditors we were allowed to keep just under £25k for expenses rent as we had to pay a year up front and they kept just over £59k we had already paid in £21250 and my husband had paid in £5270 we had of of continued paid in another 16,250 and 4,030 respectively. We really thought the figure fo just under £60.000 would be enough, they now want another £10,000 at least which we havnt got, they say it's arrears as we have not paid as we moved areas and are not yet sorted with work, we are self employed, we were not aware till just before the sale that we needed to keep paying, my business was attached to the hosue we owned. We feel we have given up everything but are still no nearer to ant conclusion, originally it was decided more was to be sent my creditors but then they split it so my husband paid back approx 49% and mine was 29% mine was instantly refused. What can I do now as we've complained and they say we have no complaint . They'd till have the money in their account and we are no further forward? Please can anyone advise?
Without being privvy to all of your circumstances and the information you were given, along with the agreement you signed, it is not possible to give specific advice.
It does sound as though you were poorly advised or that no attempt was made to fully explain the IVA or to ensure that you understood the situation. Which could be cause for complaint to their regulators.
Might I ask which firm is dealing with your IVA ?
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
Payplan and till this year I thought they were great, but we've had so many people deal with our case with conflicting advice as they had not read the case notes its become a nightmare, they don't accept our complaints but in truth they havnt addressed them all. We would of struggled on paying the mortgage had we have realised after losing the family home to hopefully become free we wouldn't be. They had even said we could speak to someone they dealt with about a mortgage at the start of the sale procedure for a smaller house. It's become so stressful I'm struggling to cope with it all, just wish we had gone bankrupt 3 years ago and moved on .thanks for asking ?
Yes, the problem with Payplan is that the IP is far far overstretched and cases are dealt with almost entirely by ever changing case workers.
If you wish to lodge a complaint you can use the Government Gateway to start the process. Any complaint will be lodged against the IP, rather than the firm. Here is a link for complaints:
Thank you for this, you have just summed up what we feel is the problem with them, when we were first deciding what to do the IP was always available throughout this which in a way as been even more confusing we have never had a conversation with the IP. ITo so hard now for us to trust anything they do.
I have recently had a problem with Payplan, although not on the scale as your issue, I asked for details of their complaints procedure as I wasn't prepared to accept my 'caseworkers' response - my email was forwarded to the Compliance dept & within 28 days (their time limit for complaints) I was issued with a letter agreing that the points I made were correct & my case would be amended accordingly.
Hope you get it sorted - definitely insist on it being taken higher as some staff do appear to have a lack of training/common sense/basic knowledge!
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Hello thank you for your reply, we hVe gone through the complaints procedure, and they have rejected it they were unable to complete it in the 28 days it took almost 6 weeks and we still feel they havnt listened to our complaint, they can't even phone on the correct number even though we add it to every email, I honestly see no way of resolving this without us giving them more money that we havnt got, the biggest mistake we made was not going into bankruptcy 3 years ago, then this would all be over by now. I even wonder what they are doing with the Internet the £60k is earning .
I cannot understand this. If you were selling the property which generated your income any variation should have been based on a full and final settlement. It seems ludicrous to chase you for arrears when you have no income.
Demand to speak to the IP and get them to call a variation asking creditors to allow the closure of the IVA. This seems the most sensible thing to do and also is the fairest to you. Continue on with the complaints process until or unless this is resolved as it seems so unfair.
This again shows the need to be able to have an IP who you can speak to and also shows the importance of getting a second opinion from the professional, independent sector and do not just rely on the bank funded charities and firms.
I was with my Payplan and the main problem is that the caseworkers constantly change and I never once spoke to my IP. Is there a Payplan representative on this forum who can address these concerns for Debbie.j?
Thank you so much for all of the advice, it's areal help to know I'm not losing my mind in thinking this would be the right course of action, we really didn't expect to be in this situation so far on from first approaching them in April, having lost the family home where the youngest child grew up was hard enough but we thought that IT was the right thing to do in order to move on with our lives and to pay back as much as we possibly could to our creditors, rather than the bankrupty route, In total we would of paid back approx 75% between us and yet one girl at payplan keeps pointing out we havnt paid it all back, I will with this advice hopefully be in a better place to press for answers Thank you !!
An IVA is a comparison with bankruptcy and shows that you are repaying more than would be available should you opt for that route. I am sure creditors have received a lot more than they would have had but I am not surprised that one of their funded firms takes the attitude of your caseworker.
When we first speak with a client we explain all the options and advise on the best way forward for the client and not the creditors. Many clients enter bankruptcy or debt relief orders and creditors receive nothing but if that is right for the client we will advise this.
Ultimately clients pay our wages through their monthly payments and are entitled to respect and the service they are paying for. We are not debt collectors for the banks.
Last edited by Michael Peoples on Wed Dec 31, 2014 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you for everyones advice, we now need to find a way to sort all of this, the next step will be to units on taking to the IP as this has not been an option throughout this process, The caseworkers have not in our opinion worked for anyone but the creditors, hopefully we can move forward with this as its 9 months now of uncertainty . Thank you again
Hi
My husband has spoken to payplan today, one of the things we have learnt is that our case worker has presented the offer to our crediitors and not the IP, unless we are very much mistaken, but the words were that the person fighting our corner was the caseworker not the IP. Is this even normal, we have asked for a differrant caseworker as we are already not happy With the person dealing with it . But once the offer has been made is that not irreversible ? The person he spoke to continually apologises for all the problems but I'm not convinced this is a help. We are now waiting on the original caseworker to come back to us but have no confidence in the whole process, we have paid in approx £90,500 some of our debt was doubled as it was in both names so was added to each iva. We also mentioned some of the hsbc debt had been sold on, (we have only recently received a letter stating this) and they said we should of informed them. The debt as mentioned was part of the hsbc debt that was sold on, this is the debt that has been turned down on the offer . Thanks again Debbie
The IP should be fighting your corner as they are the licensed professional who is being paid to do the job or supervising. The IP cannot do everything which is why they employ staff but when there are problems that require their intervention they should do so.
We have four IPs and we do 60-80 IVAs per month so our IPs can deal with their clients and creditors. Some of the larger firms and bank funded charities have fewer IPs than us but many more cases.
