IVA - end of mortgage term/equity release

Lincsdebt

Advice please. Our mortgage is due to end in 10 months (I am 60 and husband 61). I am in the last few months of an IVA and have been asked to release over £25k equity on our house, I expected them to request some money, so this is not a question about that.
Our mortgage provider will not talk to me about additional borrowing, until the End of Term team has sorted out the present outstanding mortgage (we have been only paying interest for the last few years due to lack of money). We've had a number of technical problems over setting up a new application, though I'm hoping this will be sorted out next week. So I've not able been to ask for extra money yet and don't even know if we will be able to re-finance our original mortgage, let alone extra. This has been going on for two months.
Now I am getting letters from my IVA company saying I have missed a payment and am in arrears. I checked on my online account as I have never missed a regular payment, so I told them this. I was told this is because of the outstanding equity issue and they agree I am not in arrears at all. The letters are getting patronising and slightly threatening, saying I am affecting my IVA at this late stage and so on.
At all times I've kept the IVA company informed of what is happening with the application, making it clear our present mortgage is ending and that is why I haven't been able to ask for extra borrowing. My last email of two weeks ago went unanswered, though another arrears letter arrived last week.
This is all very stressful and I am concerned their actions will make it even more difficult for us to re-do our mortgage.
Can someone advise whether they are within their rights issuing these letters and if there is anything I can do to sort this out?
Thank you.

Lincsdebt

As no-one has answered this question, may I ask something that might elicit a response. Is it right for the IVA company to be asking us to extend our mortgage anyway? Advice sites say any remortgage should not extend beyond the current term. Obviously this is not going to be possible, given our mortgage expires May 2016.
Should they not be offering me the extra payment option in this case?
Thanks to anyone who replies.

debtfree2016

Hello Lincsdebt, who is your IVA company ? others on this site may have had similar issues with the ?

Lincsdebt

It is Payplan. I have mostly found them reasonable, I just don't understand why this is becoming such an issue and could affect my IVA right at the end.

debtfree2016

I was with Payplan and found them most accommodating, they have an online site you can view all of your details. Have you had access to this? it will show all payments that have been made by you, do you correspond with them via phone or email ?
Sorry for the questions.

DorisTrousers

Under IVA Protocol compliant IVA's, equity release should not involve extending the mortgage term.

You will need to check the wording of your own proposal on this as each agreement is different, but your IVA may have been accepted before the introduction of the protocol anyway.

It may be, for example, that 3 attempts at releasing equity, with failures, which, given your age and credit rating factors, will be enough to let the additional year, in lieu of equity release, kick in, but please do check the wording of your own proposal, I can't stress enough the importance of that.

Lincsdebt

Thanks debtfree2016, I have always used their online site, it is a useful tool to see how much I have paid. I've found them ok in the past, it's just frustrating that I have not had any response from them about this. I always tend to email, as it is useful to have a written record of what has been agreed.


DorisTrousers, thank you, I will check the agreement, but from memory I do not recall any special wording regarding the equity release. The IVA was set up in 2010, so maybe that was before the protocol was accepted.