Ppi & iva

mismatch

Hi
Not sure if anyone can help but I entered into an iva 2 months ago which is going fine, but prior To the iva I had a claim company doing a ppi claim against 1 of the companies included in my iva. The claim company is now saying they think any compen awarded will be paid direct into the iva fund not direct to them which won't allow them to take their fee leaving me liable for the fee. Does anyone know where the money will go in this situation as I'm kinda screwed if the cc company pay it straight to the iva and I'm starting to worry a bit. The ppi people want a copy of the iva doc and I don't know If I should send it and I seem to always be asking Stepchange more silly questions so wanted to see if anyone here had a similar experience before I go annoying them again with something they probs can't answer
Thanks in advance for any advice

Nasqueron

IVAs on this forum have done both, bank offset against unpaid debt and paid to you direct.

You should never have employed a claims firm in this circumstance and you should complain now to the FOS Claims Company about this case and then if the claims firm do not respond appropriately, escalate to the Legal Ombudsman as they are now regulated - they should not have taken on a case knowing you were in an IVA and might not see any refund so would then have to pay fees on top.

I would suspect they also didn't tell you you could do it free yourself did they?

mismatch

Thanks for the reply nasqueron, I started the ppi claim before starting the iva but the iva people said it would not be an issue so I guess it's more my fault in a way. I knew I could claim myself but if I'm honest it was easier (lazier) to have someone else argue as I have no paperwork from the 10yrs ago when I took the card, again my fault. Think I may have to do the stupid woman on the phone again to Stepchange bless whoever has to try and sort me out

Insider101

Nasqueron wrote: »

IVAs on this forum have done both, bank offset against unpaid debt and paid to you direct.

You should never have employed a claims firm in this circumstance and you should complain now to the FOS about the claims firm as they should not have taken on a case knowing you were in an IVA and might not see any refund so would then have to pay fees on top.

I would suspect they also didn't tell you you could do it free yourself did they?

No lender should pay directly to a customer knowing they are in an IVA. Generally, any redress entitlement needs to go to the insolvency practitioner if it is not set-off. If the lender paid directly to the customer then the customer would be expected to account for the funds to the IP. If they didn't then the IVA could be failed and/or the IP may consider taking action against either the customer or the lender for recovery of the sum (probably not the latter as whilst they may huff and puff about it, most of them don't have deep enough pockets for expensive and lengthy litigation).

Whilst lenders generally have the right of set-off in IVA situations, Step Change have taken to inserting sneaky little clauses into their IVAs prohibiting set-off of PPI redress. Why lenders who the customer owes debts to ever agree to this is beyond me, but it is probably a case of the left hand not talking to the right hand. So any redress in this instance would probably need to go straight to Step Change.

You can't complain to FOS about a CMC because they don't have any jurisdiction over them. If the OP has a complaint about a CMC, the correct course of action would be to raise it to the CMC first and if a satisfactory outcome is not forthcoming, raise it with the Legal Ombudsman. In this instance, the OP made the complaint before entering into the IVA. However, if the OP was in arrears then the CMC still should not have taken the case on as they knew, or should have know, that the lender would take any redress to pay the debts. Hence a complaint would be in order.

Nasqueron

Thanks Insider, I must get the bodies the right way around next time!

Nasqueron

mismatch wrote: »

Thanks for the reply nasqueron, I started the ppi claim before starting the iva but the iva people said it would not be an issue so I guess it's more my fault in a way. I knew I could claim myself but if I'm honest it was easier (lazier) to have someone else argue as I have no paperwork from the 10yrs ago when I took the card, again my fault. Think I may have to do the stupid woman on the phone again to Stepchange bless whoever has to try and sort me out

Shame you were sucked in by the CMC myths - they have no special powers, they can't do anything you can't do yourself (including getting copies of paperwork). All a CMC does is post off a letter with a load of complaints (some of which may not even apply to you) - so it's "easier" in the sense you don't have to write down a few things and walk to the postbox, but certainly losing 30+% of a refund for saving a minute or two walk is not my choice....

magpiecottage

If the IVA company said that the fact that there was an ongoing PPI complaint involving a CMC that was poor advice.

You should complain to the IVA company about that advice. Debt counselling is subject to the Consumer Credit Act 2006 and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

So if your complaint is rejected, you can complain about them to the Financial Ombudsman Service - the same organisation that considers PPI complaints.

Don't get the CMC to do it for you, though!