www.iva.co.uk

Im in a IVA with debt free direct and im not happy with the way they are handling my case am i able to discontinue with them and go with another company?

If your IVA has been accepted by creditors already it will be nigh impossible for you to change your provider I am afraid. Why are you not happy with the service you are being provided with?

I'm not happy due to them always losing correspondence. They've worked out my payments based on 18-20 hours overtime that isn't guaranteed so I often find it difficult make my payments. From the very beginning they gave me no other options to consider other than an IVA and I now find that I would have been better off going bankrupt as I have no property or assets. They encouraged me to lie on my income and expenditure form as they said the IVA may have been rejected if I didn't. From the very beginning there has been problems and I spend a lot of time having to contact them to amend errors. So any advice would be welcome.

Some pretty serious stuff there Pinkshady ... encouraging you to lie on your I&E is very serious.

You say that you would have been better of with BR ... are you contemplating this or would you rather hang on in your IVA if you were to have better service?

Debbie

I just want to do which ever is best for me and don't mind if it is BR

Do you have any plans for how to progress from here PS?

Feel free to bounce some of your ideas off on us ... often a trouble shared is a trouble halved ... and remember "today is the first day of the rest of your life" [:)]

Debbie

I thought they worked out what you could afford on regular income only. This sounds to me like someone has made it look like you could afford to pay more just to get you an iva,rather than suggesting perhaps bankruptcy as a viable alternative.
How long has the iva been running??

If your IP encouraged you to state false figures in your IVA proposal, it is no wonder that you are fed up and want to look at alternative options. Perhaps bankruptcy proceeds would bring some finality to your situation.

I believe that i was miss sold my iva as i have no assets at all and live with my father in rented accommodation ive talked to the insolvancy service and they said if i apply for bankruptcy it would probably get turned down as i am already in an iva. I am currently going through my second payment review and am already experiencing problems with missing correspondence again. I have been in the IVA for 2 years and don't look forward to another 3 years of misery.

Those circumstances do not mean that you have been mis-sold an IVA! Presumably you agreed that this was the best way forward when you signed your IVA proposals.

And the Insolvency Service are incorrect to advise you that you cannot go bankrupt if you have an IVA in place - although they Court may wish to see a letter from your IP confirming the IVA is in default.

Are you struggling to pay your IVA payments?

Whether you can petition depends upon who you ask! There are a couple of ways of looking at this. Some courts take the view that when you are in an IVA you have no debts that can be enforced against you and as a result it can be argued that you are not insolvent. Others will simply allow the petition. Also, some of the Courts will look at the legislation and some will conclude that you can't. "Why?" I hear you ask.

Section 264 (1)(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986 provides for a debtor to be able to present his or her own petition. However, Section 264 (1)(c) says a petition can be presented "by the Supervisor of, or any person (other than the individual) who is for the time being bound by, a voluntary arrangement". That could suggest that where an individual is in an IVA he or she is actually the only person bound by it who cannot present a petition. By inference that will override 264 (1) (b) where the debtor is in an IVA, although the fact that debtors have been able to petition their way out of IVAs would clearly suggest that view is not universally held.

When you talk about a further 3 years of misery, you need to bear in mind that if you end up with an Income Payments Order that will run for 3 years. Also, the bankruptcy will be a further blight on your credit rating that will last for 6 more years so you need to take these factors into account when deciding what is best for you.

On balance I would say that your best option might well be to see if you can make the IVA work on terms you can live with. I would therefore say you need to approach your IP to see what can be worked out at which time you could also voice your concerns.

Ian

I would like to know if I breach the IVA contract what is the worst case scenario? I'm told by them that they would not necessarily make me BR but would not elaborate on what they meant. I've requested someone to contact me about leaving them but they are ignoring my letters. Thank you

It depends on how you define "worst case" - for some this would mean bankruptcy, but for others bankruptcy could be the best thing that happens to them. If your IP is saying that they will not bankrupt you, the IVA will come to a conlusion and creditors will start chasing you again - so that could be more "worst case" than bankruptcy in your personal case.

It would seem a great pity if, after 2 years struggling through an IVA, it were to fail because the affordability was miscalculated from the outset, whether by mistake or worse. Does the poster have recourse to any regulatory body who can intervene to put the repayments on an affordable basis?

No - regulatory bodies will be very unlikely to get involved in this, but the poster could go to Court to have the situation addressed by a Judge if their Supervisor was not prepared to accept their claims.