www.iva.co.uk

Good Evening,

my last payment due on my IVA was 8th March 2013, officially payments made 58. I still owe another 2 payments due to payment breaks over the last 5 yrs. OK no problem there. However an hour ago I received an email requesting income and expenditure ????, mortgage statement and house valuation. Up until now the last two items have never been requested, I knew they were needed but was expecting more correspondance from my IVA before now. However why do they need income and expenditure ?????

It is possible that they are envisaging that you may need to extend your payments into a sixth year to deal with any equity you may have in your property, in which case it would be correct to do a review at the end of the fifth year of your income and expenditure to ensure that the payments for the final year are set at the correct level.

Thank you for your reply. I understand that this course of action has been decided and actioned for sometime. However, is there a reason why this course of action could/should be challenged. I feel that I have overpaid on some of my debts for sometime now and only took the option of an IVA due to severe and debilitating depression having been paying into a debt management plan for 5 yrs, paying a considerable amount of the debts off through this plan only to discover 5 yrs later that 75% of the money paid into the debt management plans had paid for interest, bank charges, and extortionate charges for letters which caused the depression and subsequent illness . Most of my debts have now been running since 1995, and paid for all this time, every month without fail until 2003, then in a dmp 2003-2008 and now in an IVA from 2008-2013. Do any of these facts have any part to play in the cold light of day to say enough is enough, where is it written that a 60 month loan takes 19 yrs to pay back. I know that I have a clause written into my IVA regarding taking more money from my home I didnt know at the time that the IVA was agreed though, and yes it is far better to pay for another yr than to face giving even more money back to the blood suckers, but I am sick to the stomach to think my life is on hold for another yr. Its enough to put a body into an early grave.

It would be worth looking into a claim for unfair bank charges, as this money could assist the IVA in being concluded at an earlier stage.

I find it hard to believe you did not know about the equity release provision molly, as this is very commonplace and IPs are required to ensure that their clients are absolutely sure they understand the provisions of this. Which firm are you with?

Thank you for your swift reply Melanie. The 1st IVA was Soletrader on 2008, the IVA was set up by them I was told what the repayments would be and not what could have been afforded, it was take it or leave it, I was advised to pay this amount and then go for a variation in 12 months time. That 12 months was horrendous there were times when I couldnt afford to put diesel into the car to get to work. This is the time where I missed 2 payments, i just couldnt afford to pat it. 12 months later a variation was agreed for the original amount that was proposed at the outset and I have been paying an extra £25 per month to cover the 2 missed payments. After 14 months of the IVA being in force the IVA practitioner stopped dealing with IVA's and it was changed to F.A. Simms, it was during a conversation with them that I found out about the re-mortagae. Some would say "why didnt you read your paper work" my answer would be "when the paper work came to me it was put into a draw and never looked at" I just didnt have the mental capacity to read it. So here we are 5 yrs of hell and now looks as if it is not yet finished.

Dreadful advice to tell you to accept unaffordable terms, when you stated that you could not afford the payments - with the advice to vary the term in 12 months time.

I am afraid that it is no real defence to say that you did not understand what you were signing up to, but that said it is down to the individual IP to make sure that their clients do understand all of the terms of the IVA. For these reasons I, and my fellow IP Sue Clay, always speak with all of our clients fully before they receive their IVA proposals to sign to ensure this is the case.

You are now with a good firm, so why not arrange to meet with them and enable them to fully explain all of the terms of the IVA to you now so that you can understand and ask questions if you are unsure.