In need of serious advice

bolton131278

Hi everyone and thank you for taking the time to read this. My Iva finishes in March this year but I have some serious concerns and would love some advice. Ill try to keep it brief but put in as much detail as possible.
We started our IVA in March 2010 and had to extend it in 2015 for an extra year. Our payments started at £200 a month and when a secured loan we had finished in 2012 we agreed our payments go up to £480 a month. All was fine, we never missed a payment and in May of last year we could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
We then received a phone call from our IP in May 2015 to say that we were in arrears with our IVA and our payments would need to go up. We questioned how that could be as we had never missed a payment and had always paid what they set out for us. The lady admitted over the phone that it was down to no fault of our own but that the arrears needed clearing and our payments needed to go up.
We were obviously shocked and asked how much arrears and we were told it was about £350. Being so close to the end of our IVA we didn't want anything jepordising it so we agreed to up our payments. We then received a call about 3 months latter to say that, due to an error at their end, my wife's wages hadn't been amended on the system for the previous 2 reviews and that we now had monies outstanding that also needed to be paid.
You can imagine our shock at once again being told that die to no fault of our own we needed to find more money. I asked how much the shortfall was and they said £3500!!
I was gob smacked but the lady on the phone actually said to me, but don't worry you can just extend your IVA further and pay it back a bit at a time.
Having done nearly 6 years of hell with them, extending was the last thing on my mind as we are so close to getting out of this mess.

My question to you good people, after reading this and staying with it hopefully is this.

Do you feel I would have grounds to write a formal complaint to my IP disputing the fact I have monies owed and arrears when they have admitted liability. Should I be paying arrears when I have never missed a payment and have always paid what they asked and the arrears are down to their error.
With regards to the monies owed (£3500) having telling them about my wife's change in income 3 times both verbally and declaring it on our income and expenditure forms, why is it that we are liable for this when it was down once again to their error and them not doing their job.

I look forward to any replies

sourcrates

Hi,
Yes by all means, bang in a formal complaint in writing.

Your IP has a duty to treat you fairly, and I think yours may of failed in that respect.
Lots of info on how to complain, and what to do if they reject your complaint, here :

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/debt-solutions/individual-voluntary-arrangements/problems-with-an-individual-voluntary-arrangement/complaining-about-an-insolvency-practitioner/

National_Debtline

Hi Bolton


I would agree that it sounds as if your IP's admin skills have left a lot to be desired. Ask them for full details of their complaints procedure so that you know who to escalate the matter to if the IP's response does not meet your expectations.


Dennis
@natdebtline