www.iva.co.uk

Hello there,

As you may have gathered, I am new here!

I have to thank and congratulate the kind people who are sharing their knowledge and information on this forum. It has certainly helped me a lot with questions relating to IVA's.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions relating to my IVA and I'd sincerely appreciate some advice.

My IVA was set up in January this year with a company called Baines and Ernst. I later discovered that my decision to go with these people was a massive error as their administration charges for setting up an IVA were in excess of £2500! How I wish I'd of read the T & C more carefully!

Basically, my first question is - as we all know, with the credit crunch the cost of living etc has risen somewhat and in my personal situation due to the cost of fuel, food etc it is leaving me seriously short every month. To the extent that in the 3rd week of every month I am totally out of pocket. Is there anyway I can get a reduced payment setup to my IVA to make my balance a bit more healthy?

I spoke to Baines and Ernst and they said my reasons for a review of payments were not valid ones and there was nothing they could do.

I must point out, I have no problems paying my £570 IVA agreement each month, it is just that I am seriously short of money at the end of the month and have to go begging to my parents.

To be honest, having reviewed my proposal documents etc the IVA is only saving me approximately £100 per month than I was paying before entering into the agreement. It is my own fault, I know, I should have never accepted these terms but at the time I needed a quick fix to my problems.

My second question is this, I recently had my 6 month review and had to send my payslips to my IP. They then contacted me saying that I owed them over £2000 because of increased wages etc. In actual fact firstly these extra payments I received from my company were expenses which I had previously paid for out of my own pocket to go on business trips. It was not any additional money.

I received nearly £2000 in my wages one month extra as well because of a benefit scheme we have at my company. Basically, the company pays for you to go on holiday if you so wish but there is no cash alternative. You have to pay for the holiday and submit a valid receipt and the company gives you the money back.

I have been having huge arguments with Baines and Ernst regarding these "extra" payments and explained in much detail what they are and they are unbelievably dismissive and have told me that I still need to pay the outstanding £2000 to them.

Surely this cannot be right?

If someone could answer my questions, I would be very very grateful indeed.

Regards,
Andrew

Hey Andrew, welcome to the forum. Blair Endersby who are Baines and Ernst's IVA company, I think, post on here and they always advise that if you have any problems then email ip@blairendersby.co.uk directly. I'm sure one of the technical experts will be along to advise you too.X

If you are stuggling to maintain your payments into the IVA, and can only do so by borrowing off family at the end of the month, the payments have either been set at too high a level or your expenditure is excessive. If the IP has put forward the proposal under the IVA protocol, they ought to be able to reduce your payments by up to 15% without recourse to creditors, although you will have to be prepared to make up the missed payments by extending the IVA into a sixth year.

IVAs are not meant to save you money, they are meant to be a way of repaying unaffordable debts over a realistic timescale. The set up fees you refer to are, I assume, the IP's fee for acting as Nominee, which ought to have been agreed by you prior to them acting for you - and do not appear to me to be that excessive in line with current market trend. Were you given a letter of engagement which asked you to agree the basis of the IP fees?

With regard to the request for uplifted payments, this will be determined by the terms and conditions of your arrangement, and ought to be discussed directly with your IP if you feel that you are being advised incorrectly by their team.