IVA Council makes false claims
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If you have recently received a letter from ‘The IVA Council’, then make sure you read this.
Recent press coverage of The IVA Council (IVAC) has exposed its false claims made in letters sent to people already in IVAs which attempt to link it to government and The Insolvency Service. The letter’s recipient is warned that they might be a victim of mis-selling by their Insolvency Practitioner resulting in a possible refund of fees and contributions. A “government licensed debt adjuster” is offered in support of this claim. However, The Insolvency Service has confirmed that there is no relationship between the two organisations and that its lawyers are currently investigating the situation. Any person in an IVA who has received a letter from IVAC needs to be aware of the following:IVAC has no ‘Consumer Credit Licence’ number evident on its website. You need this to be able to give debt advice, according to the requirements set out by the Office of Fair Trading IVAC offers no ‘Data Protection’ registration details which is necessary for a business that will be recording data. IVAC has no ‘Limited Company’ (Ltd) details, registration number or company address which is a mandatory requirement on all emails and letters from any Ltd company IVAC has used the logo of IP trade body R3, which it does not have permission to do. Credit Today published that ‘numerous attempts’ to contact IVAC had been unsuccessful. (25 October 2007)
Comments 12
I was recently sent a letter for The IVA Council. I thought fantastic, the end to my struggling with payments each month, but, it seemed to good to be true so I took my time thinking about it and sought advice because I got a little suspicious after 2 phone calls in 2 days from 2 different guys from The IVA Council. Thank goodness I did, although it has opened my eyes and I am still seeking advice from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau with regard to my situation, I most certainly won’t be contacting The IVA Council.
I myself have just been contacted by the IVA council offering me a magic solution to my ever worrying financial situation! Thankyou for the advice as I was in two minds as to where to go next. This company seem to have an answer for everything and seem to want to bully you into bankruptcy, this being a very last resort for anyone. If you could suggest the best place to seek fair advice it would be greatly appreciated.
I received a letter from the IVA council stating I had been miss-sold my IVA. I called them and was passed on to a company called UK bankruptcy. They stated that bankruptcy would be a better option for me and they would be able to sort it all out for me and get all my money back from the IVA company, they advised me to stop my IVA payments. I have since had advice from the Citizens advice bureau and will not be dealing with the IVA Council again as everything they told me was nothing but lies. The Citizens advice bureau stated that anyone struggling to make the IVA payments should discuss it with their IVA company, not a bogus company offering miracle solutions.
I have also received a letter from the so called IVA Council. Thankfully I checked on the web and got your sound advice. I wish companies like these could be stopped from trying to capitalise on people already trying to do the best to resolve their debt problems.
I also recieved a letter from the IVA council followed it up with a phonecall to them and they want me to become bankcrupt as they are possitive I have been miss sold my IVA. As i’m having difficulties in paying my IVA at the moment I thought this was an easy solution but after looking for them on the web to find out more I came accorss all these negative posts about them where can I get the advice which is needed from people who do not want to rip me off!!
The IVA Council are up to their old tricks again it seems. Please don’t ever pay anyone to petition for your bankruptcy – I know how it works and it’s easy. Get the court or the CAB to help you. Insolvency Practitioners are regulated by their licensing bodies – if you’ve got a complaint, talk to them, not a bunch of unqualified, unregulated people who have had a bad experience with their IVAs and now see this as a way to make some money off desperate people in debt.
Regarding IVA Council they tried to make us bankrupt when we were happily paying our debts of with agreed companies rang seven times in 2 days and said we were making a big mistake. have since reported them to financial ombudsman and they are looking in to them.
Just phoned them ‘cos I got a letter and could only speak to the receptionist because everyone else was busy, but they promised a call back after reading the info’ on this site I declined the offer
I, for one, am disappointed to hear all of this as I thought I had found a solution to my problems. To be honest, my IVA has become the bain of my life and wish I had gone bankrupt in the beginning. It’s never-ending and you cannot have a life on it, as they don’t allow you to have a pension (for your future), money for holidays or even money to buy Christmas presents with, its a dogs life. I had been wondering why the IVA Council’s line is always engaged, been ringing for days. Think I will stop now..
Hi Catherine
Yes, the business with the ‘IVA Council’ is unfortunate – however, I think given your feelings about your IVA, you should speak with your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) – they should be perfectly happy to discuss perhaps changing the terms, or indeed reassessing bankruptcy as an option.
IVAs are a good solution for many people – but if you aren’t happy and are struggling with yours, then please get some further advice – even if it’s from someone who’s qualified and who isn’t your IP. There’s absolutely no benefit to struggling alone.
Hope this helps you!
Paul
I am really distressed to read all the comments left on this page, I have had a hell of a year both in an iva and with the iva council and uk bankruptcy, me and my husband were on a debt management programme, we were then offered an iva with cheaper payments which, of course, sounded great. It was great for a while but payments became difficult and changing circumstances weren’t taken into consideration! So when we received a letter from the iva council saying we had been misold our iva (as we did not own our own house, car, business or have any assets) we thought this was our saviour and were passed onto uk bankruptcy who promiced to help us through all stages of the bankruptcy procedure, we paid just over £1000 for this service and were relieved that everything would be sorted out for us. We were very dissapointed with the service we were given by uk bankruptcy, we had to fill out multiple copies of the same form over a period of six months, we could never contact the same person, things were lost and we never felt like anything was explained to us fully. We received the draft petition in November and because of the time taken to complete paper work, all our income and expenditure forms were incorrect and my husband work details were not up to date, this was the final straw!! Luckily, family members, who had been unable to help previously, offered their help and we were able to pay off our debts, thank goodness!! I just wish we had found this website before, we were in such a desperate situation and felt we had nowhere else to go. We have paid £2000 to our iva company, none of which was paid off our debts and £1000 to uk bankruptcy, all of which I fear we will have to write off and call a very expensive mistake! I wish websites like yours were made more known so that people would know they are not alone and people in the same situation could offer REAL advice.
Hi Claire
I’m very sorry to hear of the experiences you’ve described. Payplan makes the utmost effort to promote free debt advice, but unfortunately, there are some very aggressive ‘players’ out there.
If you’re interested in sharing your experiences further for the benefit of others, you could use http://www.debtquestions.co.uk/debt_forum.
Best wishes for the future
Paul
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