Hi. Non committal attitude of DFD towards our equity release is making my wife ill. Please advise.

[Michael Peoples]

I think the poster is referring to the Select Partnership in Chester who have many years experience in the adverse and sub prime market. The principal Shaun Vickery posts on this site and can be contacted in the experts section.

[Til]

Thank you Michael - I was concerned as the only Select Finance I could find seemed to have ceased trading! But I had not heard this company referred to as Select Partnership before so that explains it.

[Struzzo39]

Is this common practice now to ask clients to obtain secured loans in lieu of equity?? and when it comes our time to get valuations on our property who do we use? Initially at the start of the IVA we used Zoopla to give us a quote . We are with Payplan. Thanks in advance for your responses.

[orchid5]

Hi Struzzo, I think Zoopla is one of the internet valuation sites that are used, I would ensure that all the details for your property are up to-date as they over estimated mine! I would also seek documentation for what has happened in and around your area with regards to house prices and send that in when the time comes, good luck.

[GC1967]

A further question. I have had a good chat with DFD. They state my proposal is with the supervisor for submission to creditors to arrange a variation meeting.
My father in law has stated that because he is offering the cash sum as a full and final, one of his conditions is that our last payment of £713 for should be June 1st.
This means that our last 2 payments are cancelled replaced by one payment of £8500.
DFD has stated that we can miss August but not July provided a date has been set for the meeting.
If we have offered a F&F of £8500 then surely payments should stop immediately - shouldn't they.? Otherwise the F&F is almost £10,000. If we'd offered a F&F in year 3 for example and it took 6 months to organise....that would have been over £4200 on top of the F&F.
My wife thinks we should cancel all the future payments with this offer pending.
Your thoughts please experts.
p.s... Melanie... Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a young Meryl Streep?
[:)]

[GC1967]

I'm getting excited at the thought of not having to worry about money.... [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Michael Peoples]

Advise DFD that the £8500 includes the remaining two payments and if there is any delay the amount will drop as each payment is made. It should be easy for them to work out the final receipts and payments on this basis and good luck with the settlement.

[mole]

Interesting story GC1967,

Can you please confirm that DFD DID actually give you the option of a 12 month extension instead of the secured loan.

I think this would have been fair as you could not possibly have remortgaged if you are currently paying 2% without paying over 50% of you IVA payment extra

[UpToMyNeckInIt]

Yet again it’s DFD in the firing line - they seem to be pioneering this practice. Anyone aware of other IVA companies doing this?

This in an interesting example. Yes, the OP has significant property equity, and there is no question, the proposed secured loan is ‘affordable’, but the amount of interest being charged is extortionate!!!

In the right circumstances, I have no issue with the secured loan option, (eg: where an IVA customer would otherwise have to accept a sub-prime remortgage offer, as per the terms of their IVA. (Which as has been correctly alluded to, may well work out considerably more expensive than the secured loan in the long-term). In these circumstances, I would commend the IP for doing a good job.

But, the customer has not been offered a remortgage. So they should expect their IVA company to honour THEIR contract (they drafted it, the customer merely agreed the terms - as did the creditors). An IVA is a legally binding contract - on all sides. Hence, no IVA customer should be compelled to take out a 'secured loan', when the IVA contract only (presumably) has provision for equity release specifically via ‘remortgage’, or (failing to be offered a remortgage), a 12-Month extension to the IVA.

Hence why, we have now heard of one or two customers, armed with the relevant contract law knowledge, being able to successfully resist the secured loan rip-off.

My advice to the OP: I totally understand the desire to reduce your outgoings (quite considerably in your instance). This should, with reasonable negotiation, give you luxury of choice:

1. Accept the loan as proposed, paying thousands in interest (IMO that sucks); or
2. Require DFD to adhere to the terms of their IVA contract with you, and say no to the secured loan. Contractually, they cannot compel you to take it, because a secured loan is not a remortgage. Insist on the 12 Month extension instead, if you can bear the outlay; or
3. Negotiate higher loan repayments to reduce the amount of interest.

Sincerely wish you all the best in getting a sensible resolution to all this.

[Radish]

DFD got some clause that if my partner found work after looking after 2 children and being a housewife for 20 years I would have to pay more (I owed £19k and will have paid £17.4k back at end of my IVA - more when PPI's are sorted) As she cant find work DFD are asking me to carry on paying after the IVA reaches the end date. I have 10 payments to make. I emailed them stating I will refuse to do this but will try to scrape up some money to add onto the last payment if its not over the top. My last payment IS going to be next March. Only winfalls will be payable after this date in my opinion. I have done my end of the original deal as far as I am concerned. DFD need to learn to honour the deal they put in place in the first place and not treat the IVA like its set as some form of punishment.

[GC1967]

I'm going to give a shout out to DFD here....
Samantha Benson is being very professional and is working hard to seek a prompt resolution.
My wifes'health continues to deteriorate but Sam is doing all she can.
We got ourselves in debt....we have to get ourselves out of it.
We've done our bit (almost) and DFD is doing its' bit to conclude the arrangement.

Polite conversation instead of e-mail tennis always works best IMO.

[MelanieGiles]

Melanie... Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a young Meryl Streep?

OMG - no-one every has GC1967. I often get confused with Melanie Griffith - but I think that is more the name than the looks. And on holiday once, a Canadian couple thought I looked like Princess Diana - which was met with hilarious giggles from all of my friends!

As for the subject of this topic - I've made my own views very clear on this in the past. I do not believe that a secured loan should be sought if a re-mortgage is not possible. It is generally better for a client to extend the term of the IVA by one further year, rather than tie themselves into an expensive loan which will last far into the future - however I would agree that if a re-mortgage is possible and the secured loan option is cheaper (difficult to envisage this however) then there is nothing to stop the secured loan route being taken.

What I think we are beginning to see is people possibly being forced to take out secured loans if they have equity in the final year. I do not believe that this is in the spirit of the IVA terms and conditions, because if it was it would give this as an option.

[GC1967]

Quick update folks.... I've had the variation meeting confirmed now following our agreement to a f&f... Both the final two payments were agreed to be cancelled as the agreement was made before the due date for July.
End of this month... It could all be over.
How excited are we this month?
We can afford to have a couple of luxury goods...
Well... Walkers Cheese and onion crisps anyway lol

[Michael Peoples]

Best of luck and I hope this is the end.

[Little miss trouble]

Way hay!!!! Good luck!!! All the best!!! Make sure you share those crisps!!!! X