www.iva.co.uk

Just a quick question really, have had 2 days in a row letters from Jefferson Hobbs. Very vague details are given, i.e. Please phone us on this freephone number as we have something important to discuss with you.

Never heard of them but have decided to tear them up and throw away, am assuming that this is another one of the helpful companies who want to get you out of an IVA, anyone else had letters from this company?

Many thanks

You've assumed correctly gettingthere. Lots of posters have, not me personally as yet but if you do a search of the forum there has been many a debate.

You did the right thing that's for sure. x

You'd do right to throw the letters away. They are people who no nothing about you only that you are in an IVA. They find that out from the insolvency register.

If you are managing your IVA well then why fix what isnt broke

Thanks Lesley / Lisa, I did think it was some scam or other but you can get a bit paranoid about things at times I guess : ) No problem with the IVA, learning to live within means and feeling much better for it to boot.

Do not know why your details should be public knowledge if you are in an IVA though, it's amazing that normal law abiding people who for whatever reason have gotten into financial trouble are publicly viewable this way whilst criminals who have caused physical or mental harm to others cannot be named for legal reasons? Is this not against people's "human rights" who happen to be in an IVA?"

The mind boggles with this country at times.

I would love to see the Insolvency register protected so as only those who need to see it can do and it stop being a public knowledge.

Hmmm -- you might have something there, Gettingthere. Andy, and the forum have tried lobbying Number 10 regarding getting the Register hidden from public scrutiny, with no luck ....... with al the recent Hoo-Haa with the European Court of Human Rights and prisoners being denied votes and Paedophiles now being allowed to petition to be removed from the Sex Offenders Register ... can we (Andy ? ) take this isssue to ECoHR ???

You're right Foggy and I would support anything that helped get that register removed. x

I agree - one of my clients has endured a phone call today from a firm of accountants in Southampton - who will remain nameless until I have sorted this matter out - where a very aggressive lady advised them that they had been mis-sold and IVA, and as IVAs were not for people like him they should go bankrupt and pay them to do it.

I wonder how they expect to get business acting in such a shoddy manner - and I will be speaking to their head of practice on Monday who has been asked to call me. If we now have firms of accountants at this mucky game, what hope is there?

Thank you all who have responded, I honestly think that something really needs to be done to protect those in an IVA from this kind of harassment, and that is all it is really, harassment.

The recent debates about giving those in prison the vote and other offenders having the right to remove themselves from registers really highlights how much removed from reality the government has become from the norm of society.

Yes, we are in an IVA, we are not criminals yet we have less rights than those who are.

I could not agree with you more. It is time to deal with this issue, and I am furious that my own clients are being contacted in this manner, when I personally spend a lot of time with them ensuring that they are sure they are making the right decision for the right reasons.

What disgraceful behaviour by that company Mel! I wouldn't like to be in their shoes when you get hold of them!

As to Jefferson Hobbs, they seem to be bombarding people with mail at the moment.

To be honest Jan I am seeting - because I know the care that we take over making sure that we cannot be accused of such nonsense. And the fact that this is now being done by a firm who call themselves professionals is beyond belief.

When I know more I will post more on the forum. My client was highly annoyed that his quiet enjoyment of his IVA has been bombarded in such an unwelcome manner.

After the Rip Off Britain fiasco companies like JH are going to go on a feeding frenzy!!

I wait for the postman to stagger down the road under the weight of the junk from these people!

Then one can only hope that the Courts will look a little more closely at applications from persons who have deliberately failed their IVAs. I heard of a Court recently who had refused to make a bankruptcy order until it was proven that the IVA had failed through no fault of the debtors. This, coupled with the increases in Income Payments Agreements and Orders, makes a post-IVA bankruptcy less attractice as the "easy option" it is sold as by these firms.

So if a client in an IVA deliberately fails it, and hopes for a bankruptcy which is denied, the ironic thing is that they will end up being subjected to ongoing creditor harrassment which was probably the main reason that they applied for an IVA in the first place, with nowhere else to go.