Mis-sold IVA

warriorqueen

Hi, 
I recently entered into an IVA for around 13k debt, I am a home owner and was advised that as I was struggling with my debt an IVA would be the best option for me. Although i had debt which was tough, I was struggling but managing. I never missed a payment to my debtors and didnt miss bill payments. I had a very good credit score but there wasn't a lot left over to pay off more than the minimum amounts. So I contacted  national debt helpline for advice. This is when I was advised that an IVA would be the best option and 'thats what she would do in my situation' so i took the advice and entered into the IVA. Although the option of using the equity in house was mentioned it was not discussed in detail, I was asked if i had contacted my debtors to discuss my struggles which I said I hadn't. Although I was told that an IVA would affect my credit rating I was not told that it would ALWAYS be an issue for getting a mortgage in the future. Me and my partner had always planned on buying a house together and also some rental properties so had I been made aware of the actual impact of the IVA I would never have taken it out. 
Once I realised my mistake I began (again) reading through the various documents I had been sent to sign. In one of them it states that I had enough equity in my house to pay off the debt but that wasn't possible due to affordability. I have no idea how they worked that out as adding 13k to my mortgage would be cheaper monthly payments than paying the IVA. It also states that I had contacted my debtors to try to discuss my struggles but that they had not been helpful (or words to that effect). 
so my question is...do i have a claim and if a claim is successful can the IVA be completely removed from my credit report? I thinks the problem I'll have is that Ive  signed the documents which contain these lies. 
Any advice is much appreciated. 

sourcrates

Well you are the debtor for starters, the companies you owe money too are your creditors.

An IVA will affect your credit file for 6 years, the same as any other debt solution, or default, I don`t know where you get "forever" from ??

With 13k of debt, an IVA was not the best choice, a debt management plan would most likely have worked out far better.

How far into the IVA are you ?

Ideally reading the various documents, as you put it, should have been done prior to signing anything, insolvency is not to be taken lightly, but amazingly many people do not bother, and here we are.

You won`t have a claim, but you may have grounds for complaint, however you are expected to read the documents you are sent, entering such an agreement without fully understanding the consequences, is unfortunately quite common with IVA`s, and although there are no maximum or minimum debt levels, they only really suit those who have large debts and can`t go bankrupt.

If you feel you were mis-led in some way, then by all means send a written complaint to your IP.
It is doubtful though, even if upheld, that it will be removed from your credit file.

Billy_B_North

You made the decision, yourself, to take a debt solution that caused you to stop meeting your contractual obligations. You would have known that doing this would be viewed negatively by lenders, so I don’t think that you can now claim it’s someone else’s fault.

fatbelly

At least in your case you did have an asset to protect. I see IVAs sold to people on benefit-only income, in rented accommodation and small debt total.

I think your initial mistake was to confuse National Debtline (who are fine) with National Debt Helpline, who were presumably fly-by-night scammers and passed you to someone like creditfix for your IVA, picking up a couple of thousand in a referral fee.

You may be asked to release equity in year 5 to cover the remainder of the debt and the IP fees so it is worth reading up. Better late than never

https://debtcamel.co.uk/complaint-iva/