www.iva.co.uk

Can an IVA company, look into some one's personal bank account.

Not without permission. However, if they do ask, it could be deemed a reasonable request, depending upon the circumstances, and refusal will be looked upon in a bad light.

A lot of companies will ask for bank statements at review.

They cannot look in i.e. bypass your security details or approach your bank for access.

If they do ask it is likely to be only in a situation where 1) they believe that you are hiding income or 2) where there may be another issue e.g. if you have a gambling addiction.

During 5 years in an IVA with Payplan I was never once asked to provide information about my bank account.

PJG never did but apparently CF do.

There is a lot of variation.

We do not unless we need to see evidence of something such as if a client lost a wage slip or insurance for example increased. How you spend your own money is your own concern.

We look at a year of statements at each review.

CF require 6 months bank statements at review time

Like others say companies vary in what they require at review time. Worth checking with your own IP to clarify.

Even if you do have to submit bank statements they are looking only for those irregular payments or large incomes that are adhoc .... they are not interested in the every day debits on the statement ....

ok, one part of the IVA standard conditions 2008 (the 24 page one) is that in section 8(2) it says that IP's can ask for anything that they please, then in the same document 10(11) is says that they will ask for P60, Payslips and I&E

Now given that the UK courts, and the European courts have measures in place to ensure that companies do not overstep as far as data processing goes, how does 8(2) appear to be the go to option for most IP's, when infact its the one closest to a good old fashioned law suit?

I'm interested in how IP's justify the fact that their own rules are badly put together and borderline illegal.

Doritos - you need to be careful around the wording and not to draw too many generalisations.

In terms of processing data IVA companies/IP's are processing in accordance to the Data Protection Act because their activities are defined by statute i.e. the Insolvency Act 1986.

As such the issue is around the use of words that then inform standard contracts or the RX guidance that the IP's "comply" to e.g. "reasonable" in terms of requests from the IP, "promptly" when closing down an IVA after the final payment received.

These are both words that I would never use in my professional life as they are too subjective and what may be reasonable to one person may not be reasonable to another, what may be prompt to one person may not be prompt to another etc.

I actually think that if you could identify a link between IP activities and the Human Rights Act that would become the main driver. I half think that because IP's at this stage have to be authorised by the Insolvency Service that link is established and Articles 4 and 8 might apply.

Even with the IP's that contribute to this board there is variation in terms of what they ask for or expect.

The Insolvency Act itself is the problem - it relates to a time when things were far different, IP's were less commercialsied and they were a "profession" rather than an "industry".

Oh - and if IP's really want to change/make themselves more cost effective they should consider clients doing self assessments.

There seems to be confusion between the R3 standard terms and conditions and those of Protocol. We have always used the R3 ones although we have incorporated some of Protocol into our IVA proposals. The R3 T&Cs state;

23(1) [Duty to co-operate with Supervisor] The Debtor undertakes and agrees that
during the subsistence of the Arrangement he will:
(a) give to the Supervisor such information as to his assets, liabilities and other
affairs;
(b) attend on the Supervisor, his agents, representatives or nominees at such times;
and
(c) do all such other things;
as the Supervisor shall reasonably require for the purpose of carrying out his functions
and duties under the Arrangement.

The supervisor has obligations under the terms of the IVA and the debtor must comply with any reasonable request which enables the supervisor to fulfil that task. We do not ask for bank statements as we see no need but then again it does not seem unreasonable to do so should the supervisor feel that he/she needs them.

The debtor can always make a challenge should they wish but I very much doubt if any would.

Micahel

There are occasions when I can tell the police to get lost when they are making "reasonable" enquiries and come back when "reasonable" is supported by their boss in writing with a clearly defined explanation of what is needed.

I would generally be more responsive to someone like you simply because you would probably provide an explanation.

I've previously said that good IP's probably need to be a little "bullish" at times as they need to get answers in place - unfortunately some take off the ish and add the y.