www.iva.co.uk

Hi, my husband and I are both on an IVA through Payplan. Today, ny husband has received a letter from The IVA council, Bristol and West House, Post Office Road, Bournemouth, asking him to contact him with regard as to whether or not he has been mis-sold his IVA. They have all details such as the name of the county court and the date of the Creditors' meeting. They claim that the have noted a pattern of inconsistencies that may indicate that he may have been mis-sold his IVA.

Does anyone know if this is a genuine company, and if my husband did contact them and they said he had been mis-sold his IVA, what would happen then? The letter states that IVA payments should be comfortably affordable, which ours are not. Any help please?

Hi Jc4. This letter has been sent to many. They know nothing about your iva except what is on the insolvency website, that is where they have your details. If you ring you will be directed to more than likely uk bankrupcy. They believe if you have no assets and own no home then you would have been better to go bankrupt. They will then offer to help you through the bankrupcy. for a cost even though you can do this yourself.
I received one my husband received one my friend received one, so have many on the site. Search the forum for the iva council there are many posts. I personally contacted my company and spoke to them, they have been fair an helpful to me. They have sent a letter out explaining the ivac letter and are dealing with it direct. If you are having problems your first person to talk to should be your IP.
Obviously this is my opinion, I was enraged by their letter the misleading tone of it, telling me to speak to them and not my IP, signing it the ivac officer as if it were some kind of officiacil financial institute, when they are just basically looking for business. Saying they think the companies prey on vulnerable people when this is exactly what they are doing themselves. Have a look at the posts on here and you will understand more.
Hope this helps.

Ang

I had the same, like you worried but I sought advice and binned the letter.

They choose names at randem off the Insolvency Register and send everybody the same copied letter

Yesterday I took a call from a gentleman who is in an IVA with a competitor. He had reached the position where he was about to follow the advice but rang me to check before pulling the trigger.

He was happy with his IVA which has been running for 2 years. He was allegedly told that:

1. It is in his interests to go bankrupt as he has no house and wouldn't lose his job

2. It would cost £1000 plus the bankruptcy petition costs to do it - total £1500.

3. He was told nobody ever reads the bankruptcy advert (a very interesting comment considering other posts on this forum!)

4. He was told about an IPO but the inference was that he would pay virtually nothing. Given that he had managed to pay £280 per month into his IVA I wondered about that one!

5. Importantly he claimed not to have been told that the bankruptcy would start a new 6 year blight on his credit rating! He wasn't impressed with that one.

6. It was suggested to him that he would be able to get his fees back from the IP firm.

I drew his attention to this forum and the statement about the IVA council on the Governement Website. I also read out his information that is on the DTI website which tallied with that of the IVA Council.

As a consequence, he indicated that he didn't think it was in his interest to collapse his IVA given that all he would do is save himself something on his monthly contribution (albeit at a cost of £1500) and he wouldn't finish paying any sooner given that his IVA only had 3 years to run.

Ian

PS - on appointment I warn all my new clients about the junk mail they will receive simply by being on the register.

Hi there all, i have just recently been accepted for my IVA and when they sent me the paperwork to sign the mods, they also enclosed a letter warning me about the IVA council and it also gave this web address so you can have a look at our forum i thought this was great to be prewarned about it. obviously i knew anyway because of reading posts on here, but i think that is a great idea for those people that have never been on this fab forum

Thanks to everyone who replied. I had my doubts about the IVA Council, but my husband was keen to contact them, which is when I told him I would find out on here first. Hopefully when he reads these responses he will decide not to bother. Thankyou.

Payplan's turn this week! It will be someone else's next week no doubt, but no news of the progress of the alleged test case(s) they keep claiming are being brought.

Hi
I wouldn't hold your breath,I think that they are getting exactly what they want,business for their linked company UK Bankruptcy.

Regards

I have never received one of these letters but was interested to read in jc4's post that the letter they received states that payments in an IVA should be "comfortably" affordable(!!!!) I wonder what that is meant to mean exactly?

I have always understood that an IVAs prime purpose is to repay the creditors with the maximum possible whilst leaving the debtor sufficient to maintain a reasonable but basic lifestyle (hence the wide usage of the CCCS guidelines).

Dont think "comfortably" is really the right word to use when writing to people in IVAs (!!) - makes the whole thing sound like it is designed to be a walk in the park. I am sure everyone realises by the time that they enter an IVA that it involves a lot of belt-tightening.

Good Luck to you both jc4. Hope you will stick with your IVA if you are happy that it is right for you and the right thing to do.

Hi
The IVAC forum is interesting,seems to have three or four 'regular' posters only.Topcat seems to be at the helm and does seem to be a very educated and informed person.
Sadly wasted on a comatosed site,maybe he/she should jump ship ?
Regards

Hi - I do post on the IVAC forum as well as here,debtquestions.co.uk, and a single parents site, each has a different outlook , its all a question of balance.

However I would point out a couple of things on the IVAC site there seems to be no one representing the IVAC anymore, just a few individuals, most of the 'chat' is about rights & wrongs of IVA's and how BR is better.. the biase is towards BR. No one will give 'advice' .. those are the site rules.

This site is an IVA site and therefore you get lots of IVA info and advice, some BR info but the biase on here is towards IVA's - and thats ok - it is an IVA site.

[:(!] Personally I get annoyed by any company that uses the insolvency register to contact those in debt to try and sell a service - be that 'service' trying to get you out of IVA and into BR, or help you anul your BR and get you into an IVA , or sell your house, or offer you a loan.

Yep I know thats it's legal, I just find it morally repellent that people in debt should be targeted this way. We have gone thru enough pain to get to this point without some parasite trying to use that as leverage to make more money out of us - which we just dont have.

I think that one of the experts here uses the insolvency site mail list to contact people, its not just the IVAC - no Im not defending any of them . As I said .. my opinion .. parasites.

Thats it rant over
Mish

My wife and I completed our (full and final) IVA in January, but since then we have been targeted with mail shots from both the IVA Council and Debt Doctor (Debt Dr.). I wonder if these two organisations are linked - especially as our names are no longer on the Insolvency Register.

Andy -

Further to your post I have had a look at the IVAC website - I honestly think that Topcat comes across as a bit aggressive on that forum. I am sure that he wont be offended given his outspoken comments on the IVAC site - and everyone is entitled to their view. The IVAC Forun is certainly very different to this one!!!!

Perhaps the (very limited number of) site experts on this site who have used the Insolvency Register to direct mail those in IVA's could remind other visitors to the site why it's justified in their opinion?

Hi Andrew

as you know we used to send letters to people in IVA's a while back but took a decision not to continue with the practice primarily because of the feedback from this site.

It is interesting that there are 2 sides to the practice.

The view held by the majority on this site is that it is taking advantage of people in desperate situations and that the activity is paracitic.

In truth there are only 2 solutions offered by the IVAC, debt DR, Integrity and the other 9 companies that do the same thing etc etc etc. Either Bankruptcy OR remortgage house and buy oneself out of IVA early. Standard fee structures will range from 3 - 5 IVA contribution payments PLUS court fees to fees of X,000 for the early settlement from a remortgage.

THE IVAC has by far the most aggressive letter suggesting that you have been mis sold an IVA whereas debtDr and Integrity are actually the same letter ( Nick from Integrity is ex debtDR) and are less aggressive but do still suggest that there are better solutions.

When my company elected to write to people in IVA's we were coming at the problem of "failing" IVA's from a different angle.

We clearly realise that there are GREAT IVA providers and LESS helpfull IVA providors. I have also seen the fail rates and when one examines these closely it is relatively clear the companies with higher fail rates seem to have higher numbers of people with LOW monthly contributions - and as already discussed previously the 200 - 250 per month IVA's are always more challenging then the 400pm ones ( little room for manouver if things go wrong)

So our initial thoughts were to try to help with:-

1. Keep person in the IVA by acting as an intemediary between client & IP. We can't charge for this as there is simply no disposable income to be paid by - however it is a valuable service and enjoyed by the IP and client alike. We have actually helped 7 people save their IVA since Feb 08.

2. Give advice on Br and the consequences and procedures & directing people to free forms etc.

3. Exploring the early conclusion of an IVA by a remortgage. Although this seems to be getting more difficult.


There are people out there that are really struggling with their IVA and have no idea about their options or that a forum like IVA.CO.UK exists for some self help.

I would like to ask a question relating to the mailing of people in IVA's.

Q. What feedback would we get if a mailing letter offered free help in terms of :

Access to an Income & Expenditure Calculator.
Directions to this site
Tips on Cost Cutting activities
Advice on how to deal with the IP when things go wrong
Details about IVA protection Insurance
etc etc etc

I would be really interested in your views on the subject. it is a real pity that some people with good intentions are mared with the same brush as the IVAC,

Thanks