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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:07 pm
by Mark77
Hi

I am only new to this forum and have only recently discovered it.

My Story.........

I have been in an IVA nearly 2 years. I owe £38,000. I have paid £350 for first 6 months and £200 since then, with £3000. This gives a 25p in £ payback to creditors
Since August of last year I have 3 variation meetings in an attempt to end IVA early. Our latest offer was for 36.67p in £. My creditrs have voted by my partners have not voted on 3 occasions, they are Cahoot. We contacted Cahoot ourselve who asked us to make offer. We contacted Supervisor to advise they wanted offer and we were threatened with Bankruptcy. Is there anything we can do to get this creditor to vote and end our misery ?

The other option we might have as our family don't know my situation is to get them to help increase our remortgage and repay everything ....when we enquired about this our Supervisor said she did not think that this was possible.....HOw can I get out of this.?

Has anyone come across this before or can anyone give some advice.

Help please..........

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:40 pm
by zoe
Hi there
Which IP are you using.
Zoe
xx

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:43 pm
by Mark77
zoe wrote:

Hi there
Which IP are you using.
Zoe
xx
A company called McCambridge Duffy.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:46 pm
by zoe
and tehy threatened you with bankruptcy if you settled with a creditor?
z

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:55 pm
by Mark77
zoe wrote:

and tehy threatened you with bankruptcy if you settled with a creditor?
z
They advised us we had no right to contact the creditors and it was against the terms of the agreement. We advised that they are willing to accept an offer and gave the IP the phone number we had for the correct Department. We were told that this is not the correct process and they would not be phoning. We were then told going against the terms of the IVA can lead to them filing us for Bankruptcy. We have been told this on no less than 5 occasions, i felt it was a threat.

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:57 pm
by zoe
It sounds as though they are not happy because they will loose money in fees to me, however one of the experts is better to advise!

Zoe
xx

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:02 pm
by Mark77
zoe wrote:

It sounds as though they are not happy because they will loose money in fees to me, however one of the experts is better to advise!

Zoe
xx
This is what I thought too. But they quoted us £6300 in fees for the term of the IVA (5years) and in a report for variation meeting advised if it end early we they would be charging us £5200. So they are not really get much extra for another 3 years "work".

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:16 pm
by steve532
Hi it would be interesting to here melanie's view on this as she used to work with this company

steve

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:43 pm
by MelanieGiles
Hi Mark

Your experience here does sound a little odd, and I can confirm that you are doing nothing wrong by contacting a creditor directly. Unlike bankruptcy, when you are discharged from your creditors from the date of the bankruptycy order, in an IVA you remain responsible to them until the IVA has successfully concluded.

Am I right in thinking that your partner only has one debt with Cahoot? If so, the IP does not even have to call a creditors meeting, she can negotiate with them directly with regard to your offer. Where was the offer of early settlement coming from?

What I don't understand is, if your own creditors have accepted your variation each time, but your partners have not, then why the IP has not made more effort to contact Cahoot. I think that you should ask for a more detailed explanation.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:42 pm
by Mark77
Hi

Thanks for your replies.

It is strange and really annoying. I only wish I had found this website 6 months ago. I have lost all faith in this company and in particular the supervisor we have who is representing them. I am afraid to ask for another supervisor as it is the local branch of this company we are dealing with and we have friends who work there who do not know our situation.

When we first entered the IVA the only 2 creditors who voted in favour of my partner were Cahoot and Capital One. Therefore is it true that these are the only 2 creditors who will be asked to vote at a variation meeting ?
I also had an account with Cahoot but this was sold on to Eversheds who were more than happy with the offer.
The IP has advised that the creditors do not have to vote and that they are not obliged to phone but to simply fax them a copy of the offer. We were also advised that we probably wont get a vote until the creditor sells on my partners account to a company like Evershed. I don't see how this is the case.

I am about to go for another variation meeting and this time I have worked out it will be 38.51p going to creditors.

Should I mention to my IP in a letter that They should do all they can to get a vote on this occasion as I do not believe they are dooing what is best by me.

We are getting the money to make this offer by way of remortgage as we do have enough equity in our home to do this.

It is really frustrating that we are in a position to do this but we cannot get the 1 vote we need. I have just looked at the latest fees the IP has sent me and if we carry on for the full term then the IP will only get £900 more than if it was ended now. It does not appear the IP are doing this for the money they will get from me, could it be more a case of my Superviosr is just not doing her job right or making the effort to conclude this.

Thanks again for your help so far - it really is a blessing to be able to talk to people who know about IVA's. I have tried for so long to get a 2nd opinion and other advice.

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:00 pm
by MelanieGiles
Hi again Mark

As your partner has more than one debt, then a formal meeting will need to be held to get an appropriate agreement to her variation as well as yours.

Why not get her to prime her creditors first, and see who the proposals need to be sent to and whether they are prepared to vote in favour. Technically your IP ought to be doing this, but there is no harm in your partner making a few phone calls to be sure.

Why do you say you only need one vote for your partner? Is it that Cahoot are owed more than 75% of her overall debts? Your partner's proposal will need to be put to all of her creditors, and not just the two who voted at the original meeting.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:01 pm
by neverending
What a ridiculous situation,you are trying to pay 38p in the £1 instead of 25p,your creditors should be biting your hand off.
I feel that your IP is not pressing your case as she should therefor I would consider recontacting Cahoot direct and inform them of your offer and the variation date.
Write to your Ip and ask them to contact Cahoot by phone prior to the meeting,also ask them to confirm in writing that they will do this,or not.
If you fail to get a vote again then I would consider a letter to the licensing body because i feel that this has become a personal problem with your IP rather than a professional one.
Good luck

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:11 pm
by Mark77
Hi Melanie/Neverending

Thank you for your replies.

The reason I said one vote was that none of the other creditors seem interested however Cahoot are interested in an offer, but then we were warned that we went against the terms of the agreement by contacting our creditors.

I will do as you say and send a letter off today.

Thanks a gian for your dvice this forum is excellent if only I found it sooner.

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:28 pm
by Mark77
Just as a matter of interest who are the licencing body that IP's answer to? ....is it the FSA ?

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:34 pm
by MelanieGiles
Hi - IVA providers are now answerable to the Financial Ombudsman as well as their own regulatory bodies from Jan 2007. Just to clarify the voting - the IP needs to get a 75% majority of all creditors who attend your variation meetings (usually by proxy!). This means that so long as one "yes" vote is received, then the majority is achieved. But all creditors do need to be circulated.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

For further details contact me at http://www.melaniegiles.com and view my IVA blog at: http://melaniegiles.blogs.iva.co.uk