www.iva.co.uk

Hi there I thought I posed this question before but obviously have not. We have been in a joint IVA since September 2009. We were advised by CAB to go with Grant Thornton who were cited as being a reputable company. When we received the proposal we signed it and did not pay too much attention to it. The only thing that stood out was that it was over 6 years and not the standard five. Additionally, they had grossly under valued our property. We were so stressed out from threatening phone calls and letters from creditors we would have signed our life away. Anyway, after meeting the repayments but struggling to live I decided to consult the budget sheet. I noticed that they had added £80.00 per month to my salary, and forgot to add the £80.00 per month it costs me to get to work and back. I rang customer services who stated that they used my last three months salary when calculating my income. I checked my payslips for this period and I earned even less than than I thought and it seems they even increased my salary up to £100.00 per month. I have requested a revision meeting but have to wait until the end of August for this to happen.

Have you any thoughts on this? This is surely a breach of contract on the part of Grant Thornton?

Any advice would be welcome.

Not really a breach of contract,but it does highlight the need to read everything properly before you sign??

I was the same when I got my paperwork though,you just want to get it signed and done. As for under valuing your property I am not sure that will make much difference as the chnace of a remortgage to release equity is slim. Having said that if there was enough equity to pay uour debts then you werent strcitly insolvent to start with,do you know how much equity there is and how much do your debts total??

Paul

I agree with Paul - it is crucial to check everything before you sign - I know easier said than done when you're feeling desperate though and too late in your case Tom.

GT are not in breach as they haven't broken any agreement, at worst, a mistake might have been made but you signed to approve it so unfortunately that confirmed to them the details were correct.

Couple of things to check - are you normally paid monthly or 4 weekly - income is calculated up to cover 12 monthly payments (instead of 13 if 4 weekly paid) so if you are 4 weekly your income figure will look like its been inflated, same with any benefits too.

With regard to house valution - values are given at forced sale prices, i.e if the property were to be sold within a month or so, it is not the normal price that it would sit on the market for 6 months or more.

Do you have Northern Rock as a creditor - they often ask for a 6 year IVA from the outset. Or it may be GT offered 6 years as your monthly payment was low - but that would have been discussed with you.

I see you've got a meeting planned for end of August which will be upon us before we know it. Hopefully you will get the matter resolved then as if the numbers are wrong and you cannot actually afford to maintain your payments you could find yourself in breach which of course no-one would want to happen. I'm sure GT will work with you to clear this up asap.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

Regards,

Hi Paul to answer your question, there is around £20,000 equity in the property and the debts are around £30,00 for which we pay £350.00 per month.

Whilst you may feel let down by your IP firm, the proposal is yours and it should have been thoroughly checked before it was signed. How much contact did you have with your IP firm whilst the IVA proposals were in preparation.

Hi Tina we don't have Northern Rock as a creditor and I thought £350.00 per month was average. According to our budget sheet we are paying back 57 pence in the pound as well as Grant Thornton's fees. We recently had our property valued and the estate agent said it would attract offers of around £125,000.00 for even a quick sale. Grant Thornton valued it at £94,000.00 less than 12 months before.

Hi Melanie we had an initial meeting with some sort of sales woman who sold us on the IVA then I think we had two telephone conversations with them with regards to our expenditure.

Hi Tom 2509, I think you are not alone, I went through the same I did try to check everything but most of the phrases were so difficult, and my IP staff kept sending messages urging me to send the proposal, I did not not know how serious IVA until I found this forum but it was too late for me to change any thing but to find a solution and this is what I am trying to tell all my friends who are thinking to go for IVA

Hi Raqia I totally agree with you. Entering into an IVA was the worst thing I ever did.

Hi Tom - how long have you been in an IVA?

You say its the worse thing you ever did, but would you prefer to struggle to pay your full debt and potential charges to creditors?

Sorry you feel like that Tom.

I know mine is the best thing I ever did.

I echo Julie's comments as well.

I have to say I'm happy within my IVA and I know I've been criticised for using the word 'happy' in an IVA before but it's how I feel. I've struggled at times and won't tell anyone it's been easy but most of all I have the security the IVA brings and to me that is worth the struggle. Things are a little easier now and I have a great IP who is approachable and lives in the real world with us and I believe truly respect those within an IVA.

I'm so sorry that raqia and Tom haven't got on with their IVA's and feel it's the worst they've done, but I guess IVA's don't suit everyone and if you're with a bigger company I do sometimes think you can hear the frustration in some posts in respect of communication.

Hi
When you are in debt you can often just go ahead with the first solution and first company that you come across, this is very common.
It is important that the IVA is affordable and you need to fill out a frsh income and expenditure form based on your current income and expenditure. Speak with GT and try to work out a way forward.
I would think that GT used a forced sale valuation of your propery, usually 85% of the market value, so they have done nothing wrong in my opinion.
Do you know wht you had the extra year on your IVA ? was it instead of any equity release in the final year ?
Regards

Hi Andy thanks for your post. I'm hoping Grant Thornton will be accommodating after all its in both our interests that the IVA doesn't fail. I haven't seen anything in the contract about equity release but thought that was standard in any IVA.

Hi Lesley I am glad you are happy with your IVA. Don't get me wrong there are many pros with an IVA. I suppose I am just annoyed at myself for ending up in such a financial predicament in the first place.