help please, so confused

lucieloo

so i am now in my 6th year of my iva, last payment dec 14, should have been march 2014 but had a few payment breaks so catching up. I have received letters asking me to change my terms and conditions of my iva which we have declined as we are happy with the way everything has run up until now, but we were being hounded at work with phone calls from my iva company telling us to sign which made me feel uneasy so we declined to sign, anyway yesterday i came home to a letter asking us to send a mortgage statement in as they wanted to look into re mortgaging which is fine by me as i believe if we had any equity we should pay it back but we are in negative equity so i rang to ask what would happen.
The lady was vile and told me they would extend our payments for a further 12 months which would take our iva up to nearly 8 years. I have looked forward to dec 2014 like you would not believe. I feel sick i looked into our arrangement and it says nothing of a extension if a re mortgage is unavailable and the iva will be concluded after 72 payments and that a dividend of 58 p in the £ is achieved. so far we have paid 61p in the £ back and still have the rest of my payments of £360 per month left.
I know we have made this mess and i want to pay it all back if i could but im heart broken i wanted to try and save next year to take my children on a holiday but this will not be the case. The lady was so horrible to me too i sat and cried. My question is is there anything i can do to contest this? my review was due march too and when i asked her why it had not been done she said they had a backlog and is in a que, more like they are harassing customers with letters scaring the wits out of them. I feel physically sick when i see a letter from them and dec 14 was my goal. I am constantly worried that they will fail it and i will be back to square 1:(

dancingfairy

I'm confused as to who made you sign something for the mortgage - your work, your mortgage company or the IVA company?
How is this related to the end of the IVA (or is this just a extra stress in your life)?
Presuming you haven't signed something to do with the IVA then you need to dig out your paperwork and see what you originally signed up to. Generally, nowadays if you don't have any equity in your house you offer an extra year of payments. However this may not have been the case when you signed up 6 years ago.
I hope one of the experts can help you further.
df

lucieloo

oh sorry, my iva company have been hounding me to sign a new agreement which i declined and now my iva company want me to re mortgage. I have looked at my agreement and it does not say anywhere if a re mortgage is unavailable a 12 month extension will be applied so im hoping that they can not do this?

i feel that because i have not agreed to new agreement they are trying to make me now do this?? It states that a re mortgage shall be investigated at month 54 of my iva but i am now in month 66??

If they do this then the end of my iva will be further away and it causes me stress yes. Just wish i could fast forward to the end

dancingfairy

I definitely wouldn't sign anything. It may be that they are trying to get you to sign to say you are happy to pay an extra year of your IVA as there is no equity.
I hope one of the experts on here can help further.
df

longtermplanner

Is this DFD? They have been asking a lot of their customers to sign assignments / deeds of variation. But they certainly shouldn't be hounding you at work about this, and you are totally within your rights to refuse to sign, as this article says: http://debtcamel.co.uk/dfd-iva-variation/

It sounds as though your IVA might have been 6 years originally - was it?

It is "normal" to be asked to remortgage - but if you have negative equity obviously you can't. It is then "normal" to have to make another 12 months of payments.

But "normal" here doesn't mean much - what matters is what the specific IVA you signed said, as they don't all have to follow the same pattern. Have you got yours to hand so you can read it? Would you mind quoting what is says about a possible remortgage here?

Are you struggling to make the payments?

lucieloo

hi, thanks for reply yes it is dfd and they have been calling me 3 times a week saying they could take a verbal agreement too but i said i wanted to speak to my husband before i agreed to anything so they kept ringing me to see if i had spoken to him, it was really stressing me out if im honest.
I am making full payments and i am lets say ok in meeting them, nothing major just have to be careful sometimes but thats normal and i accept this, my problem is the extension as i was so looking forward to the end of my 6 year iva.
I have dug out my paper work and this is what it says -

After month 54 of the arrangement the supervisor will obtain a professional valuation of the property. The debtor will then obtain a professional valuation of the property. The debtor will then obtain 2 remortgage quotes from reputable brokers/lenders to satisfy the supervisir that the equity realisation is the maximum achievable. The property shall be remortgaged to a maximum of 85%ltv less existing secured borrowings. A remortgage of less than 85%ltv is allowable where the lower realisation will introduce funds equating to 100% of the debtors equitable share or where the arrangement will receive payment in full. The amount by which the additional secured borrowings increase shall not exceed 60 %of the monthly arrangement contribution at the time the mortgage offer is obtained. Where it is demonstated after month 54 that the equitable share is less than £5000 gross the property is to be excluded from the arrangement without extending the existing term.

i read this out to the woman at dfd and she said we have no where to go with it, it will be extended if no equity


hope this helps, thanks for your help

sourcrates

Hi,
I too am with DFD, there is a lot of information here in this link, have a read, then contact DFD again, and see if this still applies to you :


http://debtcamel.co.uk/dfd-comment-iva-variation/

UpToMyNeckInIt

...Good link that for Debt Camel.

I read on another forum regarding DFD doing this, that they CANNOT make you attempt equity release again, if you have already done so in Month 54.

This is the problem with dealing with 'customer service' people at IVA firms - some of then are clueless, giving incorrect advice and causing a whole heap of stress.

My advice to any DFD customer being harassed to sign new terms etc. is to politely, but firmly advise the caller that you will only correspond in writing directly with your actual IP.

If they persist in hounding you, take their name, and be sure to advise them that you will mention them when you make your formal complaint to the IP's regulatory body etc. That should get their attention, and your case file will be referred to their 'Manager'. That should mean that someone reasonably competent will be reviewing your file.

Bottom line is that you agreed a legally binding contract. Any agreement to new terms has to be just that: 'agreement'.

Hope any DFD customers get this sorted out soon. There must be hundreds of you in the same situation.

lucieloo

UpToMyNeckInIt wrote: »

...Good link that for Debt Camel.

I read on another forum regarding DFD doing this, that they CANNOT make you attempt equity release again, if you have already done so in Month 54.

This is the problem with dealing with 'customer service' people at IVA firms - some of then are clueless, giving incorrect advice and causing a whole heap of stress.

My advice to any DFD customer being harassed to sign new terms etc. is to politely, but firmly advise the caller that you will only correspond in writing directly with your actual IP.

If they persist in hounding you, take their name, and be sure to advise them that you will mention them when you make your formal complaint to the IP's regulatory body etc. That should get their attention, and your case file will be referred to their 'Manager'. That should mean that someone reasonably competent will be reviewing your file.

Bottom line is that you agreed a legally binding contract. Any agreement to new terms has to be just that: 'agreement'.

Hope any DFD customers get this sorted out soon. There must be hundreds of you in the same situation.

hi, thanks for info and i will be taking this further, its not nice at work either as nobody knows i am on an iva so could not speak i think i have written it wrong i have not been down the remorgate route yet, it says in month 54 they will investigate the possibilities but moth 54 has now passed and im currently in month 68. They never contacted me at month 54?? just got it last week.

longtermplanner

dfd should NOT be phoning you at work. You have every right to feel upset about this. Your IP is supposed to be on your side, helping you through the IVA process, not adding to your difficulties. I would encourage you to put in a formal complaint about this: http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk/complaints/

But the most important thing is whether your IVA can be extended. I am going to assume that you do NOT sign the new dfd documentation, so what matters is what your original IVA says.

You wrote "Where it is demonstrated after month 54 that the equitable share is less than £5000 gross the property is to be excluded from the arrangement without extending the existing term." and also said your house has negative equity. In that case, then THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN EXTEND THE TERM. They just have specifically ruled that out!

I think you should write to them and state this. And tell them to stop hassling you.

The 54 / 68 month stuff is irritating but it isn't relevant to the main point which is as you are in negative equity the term cannot be extended. So I wouldn't bother to mention it.
think you should but in a formal hassling you at work.

lucieloo

longtermplanner wrote: »

dfd should NOT be phoning you at work. You have every right to feel upset about this. Your IP is supposed to be on your side, helping you through the IVA process, not adding to your difficulties. I would encourage you to put in a formal complaint about this: http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk/complaints/

But the most important thing is whether your IVA can be extended. I am going to assume that you do NOT sign the new dfd documentation, so what matters is what your original IVA says.

You wrote "Where it is demonstrated after month 54 that the equitable share is less than £5000 gross the property is to be excluded from the arrangement without extending the existing term." and also said your house has negative equity. In that case, then THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN EXTEND THE TERM. They just have specifically ruled that out!

I think you should write to them and state this. And tell them to stop hassling you.

The 54 / 68 month stuff is irritating but it isn't relevant to the main point which is as you are in negative equity the term cannot be extended. So I wouldn't bother to mention it.
think you should but in a formal hassling you at work.

Thankyou very much, i shall write to them asap now. I did tell the lady at dfd a customer advisor and she was horrid, made me feel like i was a child. Im just happy that they will not be able to extend it to nearly 8 years and my goal is still in sight Thanks for your help x