www.iva.co.uk

Dispute regarding the firm called: IVA Watchdog


Background: We have received a call saying we were mis-sold our IVA (with Blair Endersby) because we do not have any assets, i.e. house etc and should go for bankruptcy with the IVA Watchdog. They say we could save thousands by doing so and be out of debt in a year. Are they right or are they conning us?


Nature of dispute: Want to know if they are telling the truth?


Dates of relevance: We have been in our IVA since May 2008.

Hi there and welcome to the forum

The only people who can determine whether you were truly mis-sold an IVA are yourselves. Did you choose the IVA? Were you told it was your only option? What made you decide on an IVA rather than bankruptcy? Are you happy with the current arrangement?

All the IVA Watchdog will do is charge you money to help you declare yourselves bankrupt. There must have been some reason why this was not your chosen route a year ago, and if you do decide that you made a mistake and now want to be bankrupt, it is a heck of a lot cheaper simply to make your own application.

Melanie why do people use the word "sold" - you never sold anything to David - you offered advice and he took it - there was no selling on your part>J

That is true J - I am afraid my profession has not always been as squeaky clean as I would like to report, and some of the larger companies engaged a few years ago in very heavy and direct advertising of IVAs, perhaps without exploring all options with their clients.

This has now been stamped on, and there was never any real evidence of "mis-selling" that I am aware of, but as with all things good - in a litigious society, other people will see some way of making money out of it.

As you say, most IPs who engage with their clients directly, have no need of selling skills, but every need of the art of delivering good and reasoned advice about all options available.

Talking of litigation - an advert appeared in the County Newspaper by someone describing himself as an Attorney - he said ( absolute nonsense) that he is able to obtain Judicial Reviews for IP decisions in IVA and BR. Judicial Review - there are only about six firms in the UK who do that work and where would the minimum of £9,000 come from? Absolute rubbish - I hope people on here will not be fooled. J

Hi
The IVA Watchdog seem to be a similar outfit known as The IVA Council.
Basically they assume that as you have no assets then you should have declared bankruptcy and have therefore been mis-sold your IVA. What they do not take into considferation is that some people want to avoid bankruptcy by choice and have opted fort an IVA as an alternative to this.
Lasy year I believe that the IVA Council extracted over 2000 people at a cost in excess of 1k a time, a cool 2 million pounds !!!
You do not need their services, if you want to stop your IVA and declare bankruptcy you can do this yourself or you can use a bona fida company that will charge a third of the cost that the IVA Watchdog will
Regards

Two million pounds - they should be ashamed of themselves! J

So it is rather pleasing to read that a very large chunk of their profit - being money taken from people in IVAs, was actually paid in damages to David Mond of Cleardebt - as a result of a very robust case put up by him on behalf of IPs generally!

Trouble is though that they reappear under a different name within a very short space of time!

From experience, I have seen literature sent in from a number of our clients who have been contacted by various companies offering a better solution. It is a very devious, underhand and downright nasty campaign on behalf of these "companies". Should you receive any of these letters / emails or phone calls, let your supervisor know as soon as possible.

Thanks