Your posts on the whole seem pretty fair. However, you and I both know that a lot of shabby practice goes on within the industry. Debtors are looking to make the stress and pressure go away, and go away quickly. MANY IPs gloss over a detailed and hefty document which is the IVA proposal and tell clients not to worry they will take care of everything. Granted, nobody reads them before they sign, but no one is given them away to read and take idependent legal advice, and what about a cooling off period - there isn't one.
Ian, see if you can track down an Insolvency Lawyer. They may be your best first call.Too many so-called experts on here with limited knowledge and far too generalised 'advice'. As long as IVAs are produced and managed by private business and not someone like the FSA the IVA WILL always be pushed as it makes the IPs a fortune. We must rmember that Insolvency legislation protects the debtor, not the creditor. Many of our creditors have made irresponsible lending decions. They have been making a fortune out of us for years. Due to insurance and tax write offs they recover about 80% of your debt anyway. I also dont buy this 'people feel better about repaying their debt' bandwagon. If the law was explained to people and their rights as far as insolvency, PROPERLY, there would be far fewer IVAs in the world.
I think you talk here about some firms and not the majority of hardworking and dedicated insolvency practitioners.
Are you in the industry and do you speak from personal experience, as some of the comments you make in your first paragraph are completely alien to me I am afraid and are certainly not representative of my working methods.
It is dangerous to make such sweeping statements, unless of course you are an industry regulator who has knowledge of more than one firm.
Jforbes
Your tone and content of your postings remind me of the input that we once had from The IVA Council.
Your views are totally one sided and are not for this forum,I welcome healthy debate but your comment
"Too many so-called experts on here with limited knowledge and far too generalised 'advice'" is a step too far.
For that reason I've terminated your membership
Regards
Thanks to everyone for their input on this! We were recommended to sell our house on the behest of our creditors but did go into this with our eyes open! We did not want the stigma of bankruptcy (rightly or wrongly) and agreed between my wife and myself that an IVA was the best route.
To date we have had no real issues with Debt Free Direct who are handling our case - it is just that with the global meltdown in house prices this could not have come at a worse time for us.
I got us into this mess and will do my utmost to get us out of it!!
Thanks again...
my IVA proposal was for 6 years and on condition of the sale of the house, which was in negative equity anyway! and we were told to get rid of our cars! Not sure how they thought we could manage with the kids and both having jobs and no cars [:0]
Our secured payments were £1300 per month for the house and secured loan
We could not sell anyway, secured loan company blocked sale and we felt the IVA payments were totally unrealistic so chose bankruptcy.
I just thought " well, if I am to lose the house and cars, whats the point of an IVA?, might as well go bankrupt!"
Our secured payments are just over £2000 a month and at no time was it suggested that we sell our house, even though we had about £40,000 equity in it. In fact we can't sell ours at the moment because there was a restriction placed on it for the duration of the IVA.
We were also allowed to keep the car as well. It's quite a recent one as it won't be three years old until December and we weren't asked to sell that.
If they had done that with us, I think I would have stuck with my DMP!
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
We do not have a car to sell as I have a company car.... I do not really mind selling the house because after all it is just bricks and mortar and a home is wherever you are with your family. The only thing that I am upset about is that we will not have anything to leave to our kids.
