I'm back to square 1. What do I do?

[sandra.j]

I entered into an IVA in 2004. I owed approx £18,000-£20,000 to creditors with a monthly payment of £250 a month.I made 14 months payment then I lost my job. I contacted my IVA Supervisor who undertook to arrange a meeting with the creditors to modify the arrangement. She said it would take a few months to get an answer from the creditors as a meeting had to be set up. In the meantime I was still unemployed and not making any payments into the IVA. Months passed and I still had not heard anything..everytime I managed to speak to someone at the IVA company I was passed around & someone 'promised' to get back to me. They never responded to my letters & e-mails.I was frantic with worry/anxiety as I knew I was technically in breach of my IVA and had missed more than 3 payments. Eventually I threatned to go to the Consumer Watchdog and it was then that I was told that their had been a communication breakdown & that THEY were waiting for me to contact them !!!! I was told they were in the process of issuing a breach (14 months had now passed since the first missed payment!!). I was told to submit a new proposal (I was now in permanent employment again). I proposed to carry on paying the £250 per month with an extension of 12 months & an acceptable increase in payment during the last 6/12 months. They then came back to me the following week & said that after an audit they were compelled to issue me with a breach. They also said that I could start a new IVA (not necessarily with them) paying £250 over 60 months. I asked - what about the money I had already paid, about £3500 and was told that they had deducted the Nominees fees from this about £2500 but not the Supervisor fees. If I entered into a new agreement with them they wouldn't charge me the Nominees fees just the rest of their fees.

I am at a total loss what to do now. I'm back to square 1. What do I do? Apparently I'm wide open to creditors contacting me again for the debt & also adding interest/charges onto the old debt.

What is the best way forward????

[MelanieGiles]

Hi Sandra J

Personally I would put that old IVA to bed and think about new options.

Is your current job secure? Do you feel that you are able to take on another long-term financial repayment plan with your creditors? If so then a new IVA or even a Debt Management Programme might be appropriate. But if you have no assets, then perhaps the finality of bankruptcy proceedigng may be more appropriate.

If you are going to propose another IVA or enter into a Debt Mangement Programme, your existing creditors will be entitled to charge interest for the intervening period whilst your IVA has technically been in place.

It is a shame that your Supervisor has left things go so far without addressing the problem. Which firm are you using?

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

[Adam Davies]

Hi
I have to agree with Melanie that its a shame that its got this far.The only people that have gained out of this are the IPs.
If you start an IVA again with the same company you will pay back more to your creditors as there will be no nominees fees to pay.However is your disposible income still £250 per month ? or has ir risen ? Because your debts are about 20k [could be more due to interest that they can now charge] you may be able to fund a debt management plan over a five or six year period.
Post a few more details if you can
Regards


Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson and site manager
(aka Neverending)

Please check out my blog: http://andydavie.blogs.iva.co.uk

View my profile here:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp