www.iva.co.uk

(Think I posted in wrong section last time...sorry!)

Thought I would share our experience. IVA was agreed October 2006 with Unity (first payment made September 2006) Tenon took over a few years later.

Told that final payment was November 2011 and we would receive completion in 12 weeks.

In January 2012 we were asked to provide confirmation of 2 offers of re-mortgage. (We were Obviously refused).

March 2012 I was told that we had only made 59 payments (Husbands redundancy had given us a payment break of 3 months and they had miscalculated). Monthly payments were not reduced, even though my husband got another job that paid half of what he was earning when the IVA was taken out.

60th payment was made.

June 2012 letter received about VAT Ruling. Tenon proposed not to delay closure and we text details as requested on letter.

Tenon arranged variation meeting which was accepted by creditors.

Case took over by Grant Thornton a few months later.

Another variation meeting was set for December 2012. (Previous meeting not completed fully... Surprise! surprise!).

This was accepted with PPI payments. Told it would take 6 months to close account.

Now June 2013 (6 months later) and still no sign of a completion certificate.


7 years next month since first payment made. We cannot begin to tell you how much stress this has caused us. If we could afford a solicitor we would get advice on the total mismanagement and incompetence of all 3 companies involved with our case.

We feel the contract we originally signed has been pulled out of all proportion regarding time scales and contractual obligations. I'm sure we would have a pretty good case.

If we knew an IVA would have been this stressful back in 2006, we would have gone bankrupt instead, a few months stress is better than a 7 years of complete misery.

It seems unfortunate that you have been caught up in the PPI and VAT issues which have plagued all IPs over the past couple of years, and also the transfer of your case from one IP firm to another - none of this has been your fault.

I can only suggest that you continue to badger your new IP, and try and get them to commit to a definite timeline in which they know they can get your case closed.

Thank you for your reply Melanie. Just to add it is exactly one week since I emailed Grant Thornton. I have sent 3 further emails since and I still have had no reply.

I did get to speak to a couple of representatives in the meantime...one said that she could not see a date for our next variation meeting and the other said that we should have received forms to agree to another variation meeting because of the VAT ruling.
Received nothing to date.

Neither of them could put me through to our IP

We understood from Grant Thornton from our last correspondence in December 2012 that our closure would take 6 months. All we want now is the certificate.

If I hadn't made a call to chase things up it seems that no one there was doing anything with our case.

As far as we were concerned we were only awaiting the CC which is long overdue. You can imagine now how frustrated we are.

What else can we do? Is there any governing body that we can take our case too because we are totally stressed out and it's effecting our day to day lives. This should not be happening, when we have fulfilled all our obligations in the contract.

Hi

What a horror story

Why should anyone who has fully complied be treated like this ? and how can the goverments own Insolvency Service allow this to happen ?

Truly shocking

Regards

Hi Andy
Thanks also for replying to us. It is so reassuring to hear from you all on this site. It helps to know that we are not the only ones going through this nightmare.

It would be so much simpler if all Insolvency Companies had standard rules and time frames with regards to IVA procedures as some are receiving their certificates (and quite rightly so) despite the VAT
problem.

We will continue to us the forum for moral support as there seems very little else we can do! Thanks Again.

Hi

Frustration for the many people still bound by IVAs even though they have fully paid and complied must be at boiling/breaking point

Regards

Another awful story that quite frankly makes a mockery of IVAs and the 5 (or 6 in some cases) and be debt free claims.

Its written in black and white on most policies that the IVA must not run longer than X months and must be closed within Y months yet this is simply ignored so creditors can claim they are 'paying out PPI compensation' when actually they are simply just sharing that supposed compensation between themselves. The fair thing to have done would have been to simply ban anyone in a IVA being able to claim for PPI at all. No confusion, end of story.

It also seems some IP firms have stopped doing the things they're supposed to be doing relating to completion and closure in favour of chasing down the PPI monies, hence very late in the day people are finding out they havent had the remortgage clauses dealt with or other aspects of their cases have been overlooked and that introduces even further delay when it should have been sorted months or even years ago.

This in no way is reflective of all IPs. As we all know there are some (including several that post on here) who will do all they can to complete cases effectively and promptly and understand the detrimental affect not doing so has on peoples lives.

Now when we do finally get our freedom, we're finding some CRAs and creditors are laying the boot in by writing notices of correction that we never requested and re-inserting default notices that have long since expired just to ensure we can never get credit again!! Or could this be a money spinner for them (IE all people who have been in a IVA need to check their credit files constantly to ensure its in good order - at £2 a pop x2 or £15 a month x 2 - thanks go to noddle/callcredit for having a free mechanism of doing it)

Its all a bit of a disgrace frankly and from what I hear bankrupts experience little of these issues and are normally free to some extent within 1 year and completely free within 3 years (once any IPO has ceased) though of course the initial loses could be greated for bankrupts.

But for those on the IVA trail it appears they are free game to be passed from pillar to post. So much for trying to repay as much as you can!

Hi

A good post and it does make you wonder if many people in retrospect would have chosen bankruptcy. Forum member Terry has been down the bankruptcy route and it doesn't seem two minutes since he was on here considering the IVA or bankruptcy option, he is now discharged !

Regards

Similar story for me .. I made a final payment against an IVA with GT in Nov 2011, I had a notice of intention to complete soon after and have been patiently waiting for a closure cert ever since.

Clearly the VAT/PPI issue is widely commented on and I broadly understand the issues involved - but am becoming increasingly exhausted by GT's failure to tell me what's happening and fobbing me off when I call..

Is there anything I/we can do or anyone you can suggest we can talk to about this? The last 18 months have been far more stressful than the initial problem they set out to alleviate.

Just want to get on with me life really..

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by MelanieGiles
I can only suggest that you continue to badger your new IP, and try and get them to commit to a definite timeline in which they know they can get your case closed.

Have you any suggestions as to how we might do that?

I call GT every other week or so just to check in and see what's new. Generally there's no news, generally they compromise a promise that was made on the last call and recently I even been advised not to bother following the complaints procedure because 'it won't achieve anything anyway'.

Starting to feel like this is never going to end.

Hi Jim
This was originally posted by MerlinL14

http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52916
19th June

Recently I wrote to Jo Swinson, the Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs. Mel gave me her name and I just googled how to contact her. I wrote a very long and detailed letter about the issuing, or lack of in a lot of cases, of CC. Asking why, as guidance has been issued, is it taking some companies a scandalous amount of time to get their act together and issue CC's. The reply came personally from Chris Phillips who is the senior policy advisor, Insolvency Practitioner Regulation Section, The Insolvency Service.
He stated he has read the most current complaint threads on this forum with regard to the delay with the issuing of CC's. Below is an extract from the email I received, it has no personal information in it and contains links to some rather long winded reading material.

I should say that the guidance is issued as best practice guidance and is not mandatory. Only the Statements of Insolvency Practice (SIPs) are mandatory, the relevant SIP for voluntary arrangements is SIP3 which covers both individual and company arrangements. You can access SIP3 by following this link http://www.r3.org.uk/media/documents/te ... %20E&W.pdf. You will note that SIP3 does refer to conclusion of the arrangement, stating at paragraph 9.1 that “Where the arrangement has been fully implemented the supervisor should conclude his administration as expeditiously as possible.” SIP3 is currently being amended and a consultation of the revised draft concluded on 14th May, you can view of a copy of the consultation draft at http://www.icaew.com/~/media/Files/Tech ... 140313.pdf.


He closed the email with advice and a link to a new department as a complaints gateway for the insolvency industry.

As to the IVA.co.uk forum, the link to which you provided, I note that there are a number of people who are concerned about delays in receiving the completion certificate for their IVA. As noted by some contributors on that forum, if any person is concerned that the supervisor of their IVA is acting unprofessionally, improperly or unethically, they may make a complaint to the relevant authorising body. On 5th June, Jo Swinson MP announced a new Complaints Gateway operated by the Insolvency Service, meaning that any person who wishes to complain about an insolvency practitioner can do so directly to the Gateway by completing an online form or by phone. You can find further information together with the form and contact details at http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/contac ... ts-Gateway. If you wish to make a complaint about the wider practices of a firm of insolvency practitioners, you should contact the firm directly

I am pleased that this matter has now been addressed and we now have a direct link to make complaints to a government body.

That pleases me no end and hopefully will now see an end to some of the shenanigans that have been going on, however this will only be as good as those prepared to use the service. Thank god for Jo Swinson who obviously realises there is a problem, not wanting to add fuel to the fire but can honestly say that if you are having difficulties get your MP involved, I did with my case and within 4 weeks it was closed.

Please remember the link posted is to make a complaint about a specific IP, not the company he/she works for.

font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:<hr height="1" noshade>Originally posted by MerlinL14

Please remember the link posted is to make a complaint about a specific IP, not the company he/she works for.

Within a firm several IP's can be regulated by different bodies.