Terry, unfortunately your posts do come across as having a go at Mel personally. As the others have said she and the other experts give their time freely to help people so being rude to them isn't going to help anyone.
I would disagree that there is something wrong with the IVA industry as a whole. There is good and bad in every profession and, while you may have had a bad experience, tarring all IPs and all companies with the same brush doesn't help anyone.
Regarding IVA companies, I will also say that it's down to the individual to do their own research before deciding which company to use - in a lot of cases we have to take some responsibility for our decisions before we sign that piece of paper.
I understand where your coming from but I got passed to my IVA company by the citizens advice bureau because they said that they were 'one of the best'.
Reading this forum and others plus cuurent newspaper articles it seems the IVA industry could be starting to see some problems ahead.
I think it is important to put things in context, you have had a bad experience wth your own IVA partly because it wasn't explained to you and partly becuase you didn't take time to understand exactly what you were signing up to. The vast majority of IVAs run smoothly and many thousands of people are happy with their experiences
Are you using a bankruptcy assist company to help you go bankrupt ? how much are they charging you to fill out the bankruptcy forms ?
After reading all the comments on this posting I would agree with the majority regarding the RX1, it is supposed to be put in place at the start of the IVA, but I would also say that in many cases do we as debtors actually understand the reasoning behind it?
I would probably say in our case things moved very quickly, we didn't "shop around" in fact we only contacted one company and that was because someone we knew were using the DM arm of cleardebt, I know for sure we didn't ask questions regarding lots of things, we didn't even know that annual reviews had to take place, had not read all of the paperwork sent to us about windfalls, uplifts etc etc. we just signed the paperwork and paid the money they asked when they asked! We were so thankful that there was going to be an end to years and years of our mounting debt problems.
I think in some cases - especially in larger firms - that the professionals forget that for us entering into IVAs it's all new and we don't have a clue of all the implications for the next 60 months and then the penny finally drops when we hit problems, like releasing equity or the lack of equity and having extensions or having to secure monies to finally be debt free that we feel conned, when we have been informed at the initial enquiry that IVAs are 60 months and any unpaid debt is simply written off! We don't find out until the scenario hits that actually if we can afford more then we need to pay more - let's agree on one thing we spent it so we really should pay as much back within the allotted time scale that we can afford then that's it the end, any PPI claims should be dealt with early and not left until the last minute - completion certificate issued no delays or excuses PLEASE
Hopefully anyone reading this will realise I am not whining or having a go at anyone, just plain and simply saying it as I see it in our case. Xx
All of those things should have been clearly discussed with you Karen before you agreed to sign the proposals - whether you asked questions about them or not.
Made bankrupt this morning and just had receiver on phone. Told receiver about IVA company issues and they said and I quote
"The Insolvency Service has been aware of issues surrounding IVA companies and PPI for some time now. We are currently conducting an internal invetsigation into this matter and have a full list of cases and companies which have conducted this buiness outside of normal practice rules and insolvency policy. Don't worry we will be asking all companies that have unlawfully claimed PPI to repay it to us so that we can fairly distrubute it between creditor."
She was an examiner and she also said my house would be fine and gave the normal speil about having an interest etc etc. She said I may pay something back but it looks unlikley as I have no spare money. my solicitor obviously did a great job helping me with the statement of affairs then [8D]
So if the Insolvency Service are bothered by this then there is definately a big serious issue here.
I'm very surprised that an examiner at the OR's office told you that.
I'm also surprised that she told you your house would be fine as she has no way of knowing - the house will be valued again in 2 years and 3 months so what happens will depend on property prices at that time.
I'm glad your solicitor was helpful - they should be for the fees they charge!
