IVA Review: kirbydillon on Guardian (Formerly Grosvenor Ptrs) (1381 views)

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Review of: Guardian (Formerly Grosvenor Ptrs)

Review date: 21 February 2007

Insolvency Practitioner who handled case: Mark Philip Bassford

I proceeded as far along as: Accepted IVA

The solution I opted for in the end: IVA

Speed of response

No of days to make a decision after I spoke to IVA company: 2 days

Weeks to IVA proposal after decision made: 2 weeks

Weeks to IVA accepted/rejected after decision made: 16 weeks


IVA Company Ratings
Their debt solutions expertise:	10 out of 10
Their customer service:	9 out of 10
Their speed of response:	6 out of 10
Overall Company Rating:	9 out of 10

Insolvency Practitioner Ratings
The quality of IVA proposal:	9 out of 10
Overall Insolvency Practitioner Rating:	10 out of 10

My circumstances:

We are a married couple who had a combined total £58,000 debt. It all started with problems selling property from before our marriage which was eventually sold at a loss. In the meantime, paying the mortgage from one income whilst being relocated over 200 miles from the property for my husbands work meant a vivious cylcle of overdrafts, consolidation loans and credit card use started which lasted for over 8 years to this point. A significant part of this was business debt and when my small business failed (following a long period of ill health), we were unable to keep up repayments and it soon became clear that we needed external help. <br> As my husband is in Ministry, it was important that we not go jointly bankrupt as this would have affected his employment prospects too. It also felt important that we do the best we could by my business creditors as well as our personal creditors. An IVA has enabled this process to start whereas my personal bancruptcy would have caused almost half the value of our joint creditors to receive virtually nothing as I am currently unable to work. We had hardly any equity but, on sitting down and working out our budget we found that we could make a worthwhile contribution into an IVA.<br>

My interaction with the company:

I was referred to them by Thomas Charles & Co who had done much of the background paperwork before they referred us on to Grosvenor Partners. Our meeting with Mark Bassford was really helpful and enabled us to ask all of the questions that we needed to whilst he gained all of the necessary information from us. we felt respected despite our predicament and that he understood how we had got to that point. We felt very daunted as we travelled to London for the meeting but Mark and his team were very warm and friendly and quickly put us at ease. <br> Telephone communication was always easy throughout the process and calls were usually returned the same day if our link person was not available. Emails were not always responded to but any queries could usually be ironed out with a quick call.

Why I gave the ratings I did:

I rated them 1 out of 10 as despite the time it took to reach the point of the IVA being accepted there were good reasons for that and their tenacity in achieving the IVA agreement for us was impressive. We had total confidence in Mark and his team and knew that they were working in our best interests when we went through the agonising wait as the creditors meeting was adjourned. Their communication skills, approachability and professionalism were exceptional. All of these things outweighed the disadvantages of the wait for it all to be agreed....as the wait resulted in the desired outcome.

One thing they did - which really impressed me:

Their detailed understanding of how certain agents acting on behalf of some of our larger creditors operate and how they worked with that (including adjourning the creditors meeting) to achieve the desired vote.

One thing they did - which I felt could be improved:

The long wait from starting to process to completion was excruciating at times. If that could be shortened in any way then that could only benefit others.

Other points

Our estimated dividend (all things remaining equal) is 37.06 pence in the pound. Obviously, if I start working again during the IVA that will improve significantly. The resulting estimated deficiency is £36,531 after all of the fees have been taken into account.<br> We have been living to the budget set for 4 months now and, whilst it takes concentration each month to ensure that we do not overspend on a budget and leave ourselves short, it is such a relief to know that we have budgeted money available for all of our regular expenditure. In some ways it is easier to manage each month than before because we know that if we do it right the money is there. before we had the nightmare of whose payment to delay an whether we could afford petrol to get to work etc. We find running 2 cash accounts works for us...one for all income and direct debits then the other that we transfer housekeeping funds etc to so that we are not tempted to draw more out that budgeted for each month. These are skills that we will certainly be teaching our 2 daughters so that they do not end up in the same mess that we did!

Quality?	Genuine?	Date
5 out of 5	4 out of 5	22 February 2007
Quality?	Genuine?	Date
5 out of 5	4 out of 5	21 February 2007

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Review from kirbydillon (1381 views)

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