We are at our wits end

[MelanieGiles]

Chrissie

First of all find out your facts before you tell him. This should have been clearly explained to you at the time of your IVA, and if it wasn't then you have grounds for a complaint. Can you get the IP to send you copies of the following documents, so at least you can show your husbands where this issue arose from:-

1 Copy of IVA proposals
2 Copy of Chairman's Reports
3 Copy of your signed agreements to creditor modifications
4 Copies of the Supervisor's annual reports

You are correct that you borrowed the money, and are now repaying it, but this is no excuse for not having important issues like this explained to you properly by your IP.

[kah]

All the widespread advertising of IVAs (75% of your debt written off)has a sort of subliminal effect. You accept that SOME debt will be written off - you are vulnerable - panicking to the point of being incapable of being able to understand - your IP and you agree a plan. There is a creditor's meeting - they aren't quite ready to accept -by now you accept any terms your IP suggests will get you through. If this is familiar to enough people - well something is going wrong with IVAs

[MelanieGiles]

No - something may be going wrong with some IVAs, Kah.

I can assure you that the majority of IPs work to very strict guidelines and would never coerce their clients into accepting modifications which were not properly explained. I insist that my clients sign their agreement to modifications, which we take time to explain fully, before we confirm that the IVA has been accepted, as I assume most reutable companies also do.

It is a shame that some bad apples spoil the barrel.

[chris.b]

Hello me again.........we need someone who can help us try and get a final settlement. I broke the news to my husband this morning as I have been up all night worrying. We know our initial proposal was 31,000, _ 11,000 of that is fees if it goes to term (5 yrs). We reckon we have about 40,000 equity and our IP said that 75% could be used. Does this mean we could offer a settlement of what was agreed initially and try and get a secured loan//mortgage to wipe out the IVA now? If anyone can help us and recomend a broker we would be extremely greatful, but also dont want to be ripped off again either. Love Chrissie x

ps I have requested copies of all our documents from the IP asap.

[MelanieGiles]

The three brokers who regularly post on the forum have excellent reputations, and understand the insolvency service well. I am sure that either Andrew, Tony or Mike would be happy to speak to you about raising equity.

[Andrew Graveson]

Hi Chrissie,
There's three brokers that post on the site, all of whom have experience of this type of situation and all of whom have helped forum members in the past. Along with myself there's Tony Parsons (Welshboy) and Mike Burridge (Mikebdomain).

[chris.b]

Thank you Melanie, don't you ever sleep????

The advice given has been invaluable, I am going to email Andrew Graveson this evening.

Love Chrissie x

[Adam Davies]

Hi
It saddens me when I read of situations like this.How many times have we read of similar situations on this forum where the equity release has not been explained and/or understood.
I realy do feel that a solicitor should be involved in the pre IVA stage with regard to equity release clauses so that there is no miss understanding.
I can think of no other situation where you would you sign away your equity without taking legal advice other than bankruptcy and an IVA.
regards

[Lisa2009]

Hi Chrissie i just wanted to say you will be in safe hands with Andrew. He dealt with our remortgage when my hubby wanted to settle his IVA early.
Please dont be nervous about speaking to him. He wont judge you and hes extremely polite and will do all he can to help.

mrs skint

[Skippy]

I totally agree Andy. I don't own property, so my IVA was quite straightforward, but I would have hated to find myself in the situation of trying to understand an equity release clause. When you're under pressure from creditors you'll agree to anything, so I can see why so many people agree to their modifications without thinking things through - I wasn't even told I could ask for the meeting to be adjourned to consider the mods, I thought it had to be done there and then. This is such a major major, life changing modification though.

[chris.b]

[:I]Dear all,
I spoke to Andrew last night and he has advised me to contact my mortgage provider re; further advance on the equity if possible then we won't incur any brokers charges. How honest and such good advice, but we will go back to Andrew for help if we need it, he sounded "sound", we are warey of everything now. I have also contacted our IP and asked how much would the final settlement be, we think we could raise about 30,000, we owe 77,000 and the IVA was 27% so with fees on top, + we have paid in 7,000 already we are hopeful. Fingers crossed.

Love Chrissie x

[Adam Davies]

Hi
Well that is a credit to Andrew from Brightoak,best advice coming before new business.
That's exactly what this forum is trying to champion.
There is no problem paying for best advice and good service,as long as it is offered in the first instance.
Regards

[Martin2011]

Hi Chrissie,

Sincerely hope the advice of the experts and brokers helps get things sorted for you.... I was interested in your post because coincidentally we have the same IP... As so often happens when reading posts here I find myself reaching for my IVA file to check things out. I don't have a mortgage, but can happily confirm that the few mods to my agreement were sent to me for consideration and the meeting adjourned to allow me sufficient time for this. When I was satisfied I returned the documents as requested, and in fairnes to CS, they were immediately sent back to me as I'd forgotten to sign them as requested (I have what I like to think of as particularly dim days, weeks sometimes!!)

Once again, hope your situation gets sorted properly for you and very best wishes,

Martin

[chris.b]

[:(!] Help!!!!
We managed to persuade our BS to release 30,000. The total agreed for settlement was 22,475.00 On top of the 10,492 already paid in so we thought this would be plain sailing. But it seems not. Michael Reeves at Clearstart is now not happy that we did this ourselves, despite constantly ringing his office speaking to different members of the team,who give different advice, phone calls promised never returned, he's always in a "meeting", writing several letters for which we had to wait up to 2 weeks for each reply!!!! This has driven me to distraction I am now taking Zantac, blood pressure pills. Now he wants the house revalued again at a cost to us, by our calculation the IVA initally was 29% (77,000 owed). We are offering 40,545 which by my calculation is approx 55%, what do we do next.

[MelanieGiles]

Are you sure that this person is your IP as he is not listed as working for Clearstart? If not I suggest you attempt to speak to your IP directly and no-one else given the confusion you have already been subjected to.

I would suggest that an offer of 55p in the £ is far better for creditors than the 29p in the £ you originally offered, and that ultimately it is your creditors' decision whether to accept it and not your IPs - although it would be good to put it forward with the IP's recommendation.