EIC requiring me to 'waive all my rights of confidentiality'. IVA finished in July 2012

[wh523480]

Hello to all.

I finished my IVA in July 2012 and have neer missed a payment, which I am proud of, but just when I think it's over, I have been contacted by a company called EIC (Expert Insolvency Claims) who tell me they have found 10 claims of unfair charges/ppi etc and require me to 'waive all my rights of confidentiality', which I feel uncomfortable with!!!

Can anyone tell me, does this mean they will have access to my personal bank account or only the accounts to my credit agreements as I do not want this company snooping around in my private account(s)!?!

Do I definitely have to sign these 'letters of authority' or can I decide to opt out of the reclaim process; will this affect my IVA as it is not technically ended yet even though I have stopped making payments to Grant Thornton???

I would appreciate some advice on this please as I am a bit concerned.

Kind regards,

Richard.

[Gareth]

Hi Richard,

Your IVA is only officially completed once you receive your final report and completion certificate.

If your IVA has not been officially concluded then Grant Thornton most likely are investigating any potentially mis-sold PPI so that it can be paid into your IVA for the benefit of your creditors. It is likely that that they will require you to consent to a PPI investigation prior to completing your IVA. This is an industry wide issue which is affecting almost all clients who are awaiting their IVA completion.

If you have any concerns regarding the wording of the letter contact Grant Thornton and ask for more information. They should explain the purpose of the letter and answer any specific questions you may have regarding its contents. hopefully this will reassure you.

Kind regards,

Gareth

[MelanieGiles]

I am not sure what a "waiver of confidentiality" form actually is? Can you clarify this with EIC and let us know. If it is merely giving them the opportunity to investigate those claims further, then my advice would be to co-operate with the process in order to get your case closed as quickly as possible. Do make sure that any monies are rightfully caught under the terms of your IVA - ie they are assets which are genuinely caught by the terms of the IVA proposal.

[Heretoday]

Hi Gareth

And here we have it, the one single issue that has angered so many people who have entered into an IVA:

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

Your IVA is only officially completed once you receive your final report and completion certificate.

It does not matter one bit if you have made all the agreed payments!

It does not matter one bit if you have lived within your means for the last 5 -6 years plus! The truth is :

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

Your IVA is only officially completed once you receive your final report and completion certificate.

Whilst we all agreed to the terms and conditions when the lifebelt that was an IVA was thrown to us in a sea of financial turmoil! Even those of us who actually read those terms and conditions may be forgiven for not understanding the true implications of what they had agreed to!

Even today, the Chairman of the Debt Resolution Forums own web site states “Become debt free within 5 years or less with an IVA”

We all signed up believing that when we had served our sentences’ that we would indeed be debt free! The truth though Gareth is that

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

Your IVA is only officially completed once you receive your final report and completion certificate.

My signature below paints a picture of my own pain and suffering after enetring an IVA in February 2006!

[Foggy]

Heretoday --- I entirely agree !

It is another case of moving goalposts, for whatever reason, and by whatever means. My proposal specifically gives deadlines for the issue of a completion certificate (as I imagine most others do these days). However, these deadlines are constantly ignored by the IP's in question (naturally, if WE miss a deadline we are in breach !! ).

[MelanieGiles]

Am not suret that I strictly agree with Gareth - as it seems more and more likely that IPs will be able to issue completion certificates once the debtor has complied with all of their requirements and co-operated with the PPI process. I am lobbying the powers that be heavily on this point - and hope to have answers soon. Other firms are in the process of arranging mass variations to also deal with this matter - but I am trying to limit costs in my own cases in the interests of creditors.

[Gareth]

Hi Melanie, Varden Nuttall are also lobbying to try and find a solution to this problem. As it currently stands the final report and completion certificate is still the official completion point of the IVA. Hopefully we will hear something on this very soon and as you say it is likely that progress will be made in the near future.

[wh523480]

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

I am not sure what a "waiver of confidentiality" form actually is? Can you clarify this with EIC and let us know. If it is merely giving them the opportunity to investigate those claims further, then my advice would be to co-operate with the process in order to get your case closed as quickly as possible. Do make sure that any monies are rightfully caught under the terms of your IVA - ie they are assets which are genuinely caught by the terms of the IVA proposal.

Hi,

I have 10 'letters of authority' that I have been asked to sign, but I have to waive all rights of confidentiality!' - the letters also say that 'this process may require requests to be made of a credit reference agency' - what exactly does this mean: will they be snooping around in my personal profile??

The letters go on to say:

"I formally authorise EIC to request and receive on my behalf any and all information and documentation relating to my financial affairs that I/we would normally be able to request personally, including but not limited to all information to which I/we are contractually entitled under any credit agreement or arrangements to which I/we am/are a party and all documentation to which I may be entitled by statute and in particular under the provisions ss.77 to 79 and s.82 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and s.7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 to include in particular copies of any credit agreements and accounts with yourselves (the lender) to enable a claim to be lodged."

Does this basically mean that EIC require authorisation to 'look' at my credit agreements and bank/credit statements/transactions - I used to bank with Barclays so will this mean they will be able to view all my old statements as this is private info I am not comfortable with EIC looking at it; this sounds silly, but I like my private affairs to be kept private! [:(]

I also hope this does not mean that they will be able to sell on my personal information either by me 'waivering all my rights'!!!!

Many thanks.

[lem]

what does 'waivering all rights of confidentiality' actually mean? I have no problem my IP investigating PPI reclaims on my behalf but I would have an issue signing a form that asked me to waive all rights of confidentiality, I wouldn't want them accessing my credit report and delving so deeply into my past financial history, if we weren't in an IVA and instructed a claims management company to do this, we wouldn't have to sign our financial lives away like this would we? we would essentially give them details of the debts we wanted investigating, as in creditor and account number and then that's it.

[MelanieGiles]

The clauses that you have quoted seem reasonable, so long as those powers only extend to investigating the existence of any mis-sold PPI. IPs will need to access credit reports to do this, and this is perfectly reasonable - and it is necessary to look into debts which may have been discharged prior to the IVA as there may be claims to also make on those.

[ivaclosure]

I am in the same position and had to sign the same forms. I have never had PPI and have always turned it down on loans etc if offered but have been told if I don't go through with this process my IVA can't be closed. This seems ridiculous, why can't I just sign something to say I have never had PPI?

[MelanieGiles]

But you may find that you were sold something without your knowledge. It does happen, hence the need to check - as if this did exist on one of your accounts that would be a classic mis-selling claim.

[ivaclosure]

Yes I suppose that is a possibility. I just hope if that is the case it doesn't go into dispute and the 18 month wait.

[Grant Thornton]

WH523480 - the EIC Letter of Authority when signed by you allows EIC to act on your behalf in submitting the claims and all liaison with GT and your creditors to enable the process.

Hope this clarifies,
Kind Regards
Karol

[wh523480]

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

WH523480 - the EIC Letter of Authority when signed by you allows EIC to act on your behalf in submitting the claims and all liaison with GT and your creditors to enable the process.

Hope this clarifies,
Kind Regards
Karol

Hi,

Thanks to everyone for your advice. [:)]

I called EIC yesterday and spoke to someone in their call centre. I told the lady I was quite concerned about the wording of their letter(s); she agreed with me, in particular, the text 'waiver all my rights of confidentiality.' She said it was not meant to sound worse than it was and said she would pass on my concerns to the management to have it reworded! [:D]

She also reassured me that my details would not be used for marketing purposes and that they would not pry into my personal bank accounts either - they only need to see copies of my credit agreements, it is the lenders who will look at the transactions, not EIC!!

Just thought this info might be useful for other people in the same boat. [;)]

Rick.