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IVA completion certificate delays are too long

In 2018, delays on completing IVAs aren’t as bad as they were a few years ago. but some still take over 6 months to finish, often with no good reason.

This article looks at why these delays matter and what you can do if you are waiting for your IVA completion certificate after 6 months.

How bad have delays been?

In 2014 an Insolvency Service report said:

 “a high proportion of complaints are about Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), in particular in relation to delays in the closure of the arrangement due to the supervisor of the IVA claiming Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) refunds”.  

The Insolvency Service’s statistics showed a few hundred people as being affected. These seem likely to be the tip of a much bigger iceberg, as few IVA clients get to the stage of complaining through the Complaints Gateway.

The Comments at the bottom of this page have examples of people complaining of waiting nearly two years, 27 months and even 39 months!

By 2016, the Insolvency Service still wasn’t happy with the delays, see the Insolvency Service’s report on the IPA, one of the main IVA regulators:

“Where the complaint relates to an IVA, and specifically the delay in the debtor receiving their completion certificate, the Insolvency Service has previously agreed with all of the [IVA regulators] that, if the delay exceeds six months from the date of the debtor’s final payment, the matter will be investigated. In three cases sampled the IPA closed such complaints without an investigation.”

What happens at the end of an IVA

When you have made your last payment, your IVA firm has to check that no more money should be paid into the IVA. For more about this process, see What happens when I have made my final IVA payment for details.

When the Insolvency Practitioner (IP)  is sure no more money is due, a final distribution to your creditors is made and you are sent an IVA completion certificate. Actually if you are expecting a real “certificate”, you may be disappointed to find it’s only a letter headed Completion Certificate.

Mock IVA certificate - no one gets anything like this in practice

This is an important legal document – you need to file it somewhere safe and keep it for at least six years – I would actually suggest forever.

At this point your IVA is legally finished and you are released from all the debts that were included in it.

Don’t wait more than 6 months

This closure process used to typically take 4-8 weeks, and many IVA firms are still working on that sort of timescale. However some firms, including a few of the largest arrangers of IVAs, appear to be experiencing prolonged delays in dealing with PPI refunds.

On IVA forums such as iva.co.uk and MoneySavingExpert clients have been asking whether nine months, a year or even longer is acceptable.

There are two good reasons why these delays are not reasonable and you should want to get your IVA completion certificate as soon as possible. Until you do:

  • your IVA will remain on the Insolvency Register and your creditors aren’t going to mark your debts as being satisfied, so you aren’t going to be able to start improving your credit record. This can badly affect your ability to remortgage.
  • if you get a windfall such as an inheritance you may be obliged to pay it into your IVA. (Some Insolvency Practitioners are saying that they wouldn’t ask for the inheritance to be paid into your IVA in this situation and you may also be able to challenge any request based on the wording of your IVA.)  If this happens a year after your last IVA payment, you are going to be rightly very upset.

The Insolvency Service’s report on complaints says:

“we are in ongoing discussions with the regulators over their handling of these complaints and we are pleased that both the ICAEW and the IPA, who handle the vast majority of these complaints, have agreed to take forward all cases for investigation where the delay in closing the IVA exceeds six months from the debtor’s final payment.”

That suggests that six months is generally considered an unreasonable length of time by the industry as a whole.

Put in a formal complaint

Before you decide to complain, do think about whether you have contributed to the delay. Have you provided the information your IVA firm has asked for? Is your IVA firm saying it will close your IVA if you agree to sign a form allowing it to reclaim PPI after your completion certificate has been issued? If you feel confident the delay is not partly your fault, here is how to put in a complaint.

Your IP will want to have as few cases as possible being investigated by their regulator, so you should put in a formal complaint to your IP before the six month point as this may well get your case speeded up. I have written a previous article on complaining about an IVA that you may find helpful – this covers both complaining to your IP and taking the complaint further.

This is a particularly simple case – you just need to state that the delay is unreasonable and that if it is not resolved you intend to complain through the Complaints Gateway. If the delay is causing you specific problems, you should state these (eg “I am unable to re-mortgage / obtain car finance”) but you don’t need to be able to point to these. The delay is unacceptable in itself and a good reason to complain.

I suggest that you should put in this complaint to your IP after four months, with the intention of going through the Complaints Gateway at six months. If your delay is already longer than six months, I suggest you put in the formal complaint to your IP and through the Complaints Gateway at the same time.

If you have inherited money

Go through the procedure outlined above first. If you feel you have been badly affected by unreasonable delays by your IP, your IP is insisting that this inheritance has to be paid into your IVA and the Complaints Gateway process doesn’t result in an acceptable settlement, you may wish to consider legal action against your IP, see my previous article on How to Complain about an IVA.

More Debt Camel articles:
When and how to complain about an IP

When and how to complain about an IP

Improving your credit score after an IVA

Improving your credit score after an IVA

What happens after your last IVA payment?

What happens after your last IVA payment?

Author: Sara Williams Tagged With:

Comments

  1. I finish my IVA at the end of Sept after 6 years we had to do another year as I fell pregnant and lost my job so we have been paying extra on top of the original payment we have just received a letter from out supervisor at LC who is saying I must sign it for them to go for my mis sold PPI’s I just think this is another way to get more money out of us which I can understand why but then they are saying that they will charge me £50 and if I don’t sign it will hold up my completion do I have to do this as no where in my contract does it say I have to let them do it please help

    Reply

    • hi Michelle, less than 2 months to go, well done for getting through what sounds like a difficult time!

      They are entitled to reclaim PPI for your creditors but it is seriously annoying that your IP has waited this long – they should have been organising it a long time ago. I have no idea why they are trying to get you to pay £50, I think this is well out of order.

      I am not clear what you are being asked to sign. If it is something like a letter to a PPI reclaim firm authorising them to go ahead, then probably you should sign it as you probably have a duty to co-operate with your IP taking action under the IVA. (Sorry about the “probablies” but I haven’t seen your IVA and am giving generic advice.) I would certainly object to the £50 however. I have written a post about complaining about your IP here https://debtcamel.co.uk/complaint-iva/, it sounds as though you are at Step 2, write and ask why.

      If you are being asked to sign something which is varying the terms of your IVA then that is completely different and you are not obliged to do this at all. Do you care much if your completion is delayed?

      Reply

      • Thank you so much for your quick reply, the letter I have received is consent to IVA variation: Mis-selling claims with a consent to variation document to sign also not sure if it helps but my Iva is not on an Iva protocol as this came out after I originally took out my iva, I am concerned about completion being delayed as I wanted it all done and dusted by sept, some of the creditors haven’t even acknowledged how much I owe & have still not claimed the money that is sitting in the pot for them, so after the 6 years I have paid off completely the ones that have confirmed what we owe so the money if any should come to us so personally if there were any Mis-sold which I know there isn’t it should be in out pockets but I would think that LC would find another excuse to keep it

        Reply

        • If you would like someone to look at the doument you are being asked to sign, you could take it into your local Citizens Advice Bureau. It may be that there is no detriment to you in signing this, though I still can’t see why you are being charged £50.

          Reply

    • Don’t sign it – they will try to tie you in to a long term loan
      Stand your ground – 50 quid is fine compared to a 15,000 loan

      Reply

  2. my iva finished after 72monthhs in January 2014, and this month(October) im being asked to supply my wage slips, bank details etc so they can close my iva and send my completion certificate,, they have clamed all my PPI and they tried get me sign a form in February which I refused. and to supply my details to my creditors, I asked why after 9months after I finished paying do they require my details again, whats going on is anyone else having same problem

    Reply

  3. I have had an iva since aug 2007 which stopped after 60 payments and have recently been recontacted from the company saying i should have paid for 66 months and it was their fault for not taking tje payments but are now wanting the other 6 monthly payments or they will not complete the iva last payment was sept 2012

    Reply

    • hi David, 66 payments is an unusual number. Had you missed any payments so extra ones are being added on after the end of the original 60? Has the IVA company explained why you have to make these payments? If not, I suggest you ask for an explanation. If it seems that you should, then can you now afford to? Perhaps you could have a couple of years ago, but now your income has reduced or your expenses have risen and you can’t afford them now. If this is the case, I think you should explain this and ask your IP to propose to your creditors that your IVA is completed, as your IP has admitted the delay is their fault.

      Reply

  4. Hello there. I’ve not received a certificate, but on the 9th December 2014 I received a letter from my IVA Supervisor confirming that my IVA had been fully implemented and that he was vacating office and would cease to act as the supervisor of my arrangement. He also enclosed a ‘Notice of Full Implementation which documented the dividends my creditors had received. On the 19th of December 2014 I received a letter from Lloyds saying they had awarded me £10,000 for mis-sold PPI and had paid it straight to the IVA management company. I rang them straight away and was told that as they had made the claim for the PPI while my IVA was active they were still due the money. I suggested that this would mean that my IVA would have realised over 100% of the original debt. She said she’d talk to someone else and come back to me. I’m surprised that having already accepted a payment from me as ‘full and final settlement’, and having closed the IVA and stepped down as my Supervisor, that they can still claim the PPI money? Ive not heard anything further an have just drafted a letter to them. Having checked the figures it means they’ve had 100% of the original debt + over £3.5k of fees, and there’s £2,400 not accounted for. Would be really grateful for any thoughts or advice, thank you.

    Reply

    • Hi Jane, if you have had a F&F settlement accepted, it is the terms of that settlement and your original IVA that matter in deciding whether the PPI should be paid into your IVA. If you are happy to put a lot of these on the Internet, then http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_hot_topics.asp is a good forum to discuss your problem. However face to face advice is often better, as the advisor can see all the documentation, so you could go to your local Citizens Advice.

      Reply

      • Hello Sara, thanks ever such a lot for your reply. I’ll check out the link as I see no reason to not post my details on the net – people ca search pretty much everything about us now anyway can’t they? :o) I’ll dig out the F&F acceptance letter, and will definitely go to the CAB if I don’t get a good response to my letter to the IVA company. I’ll let you know what happens! Again, thanks for your response and for offering a place for people to ask about this stuff. All the best, Jx

        Reply

  5. I have had massive problems getting my certificate and finally got it sorted today after finishing the IVA October 2012 and being promised several times by debt free direct. They asked in November 2014 to get Representative to come round my house and take three months wage slips and three months back statements I wasn’t very impressed. I spoke to financial ombudsman today and they said find out which group dfd was under it was fairpoint group spoke to them and complained and said I had spoken to the ombudsman and within 3 hours I had my certificate emailed to me and hard copy in the post. If anyone else has this problem go his way as after nearly 2 and half years of worry it finally sorted ;-)

    Reply

    • Hi there,

      I had the exact same problem. Making my final payment in March 2012, it finally got completed in Feb 2014. Absolutely ridiculous…Technicaly according to my certificate my IVA Lasted 7 years!!

      Reply

      • I made my last payment after 6 years with Grant Thornton (Originally Blair Endersby) in May 2015. I was told that it takes 6 months to get Clearance Certificate on the telephone but subsequently after sending an email got a reply that I did not complete until August and that this was being handed to closure dept and would take 6 months. This will take me to February, which will be 7 years, if it happens. I also received a request from a legal firm to sign PPI claim forms (this is the third company appointed) in June 2015. I am not amused and have decided to give them until February and then, if nothing happens, to get in contact with the Financial Services Authority.

        Reply

        • I am having similar issues with GT now Aperture. I paid my last payment (after 75 months of being in the IVA due to a variation) in August and was told that it would be sent for review. As I have heard nothing from them since except more PPI claims forms when I have already done it twice and they have managed to get a small amount back in 2014. I called today to be told they need another income and expenditure form. Not entirely sure why as they only had one 4 months ago as part of my annual review and nothings changed. And it will take 2-4 weeks to send it to me after already been 2 and a half months since the last payment. They have then told me upon receipt it will go for final review and that could take 6 months and then a further six months to close if its deems it can be closed. I am so sick of them dragging their feet with everything. These IVA’s were supposed to be a way of getting debt free, not keeping you in insolvency for as long as they can.

          I asked to speak with a manager and they refused to allow it, so I am now going to write a complaint. 3 months just to send out a form to me that they claim they need back is unacceptable. Then it could take up to a year at best to get closed, that’s if they don’t wait for more PPI.

          I just want it done. After 75 months of paying for this and a further 3 already waiting for news of closure I am sick of the stress of it all.

          Reply

  6. Hi I finished my iva in dec & now I get a phone call saying I have to send wage slips & bank statements so that they can complete, I asked why is this then ,he said it’s just to make sure u have not come in to any money etc ,

    Reply

    • Hi Darren, it’s not a very funny one! If you haven’t yet put in a formal complaint, you should do so as this article says.

      Reply

  8. I finished my 7 year (still not sure why it was 7) IVA with DFD last September, so almost 7 months. I didn’t realise at the time and continued paying by standing order until November, so paid two months more than I should. I was told I wouldn’t get a refund of these two payments until my IVA is closed.

    My PPI is resolved, I wasn’t owed any. However, I received an email this week to say that the delay in my closure was due to ‘industry wide issues’. I can’t seem to find any details of these issues on the internet. Does anyone know what these issues are or are they just flannel?

    They now say I’ll received my completion certificate and refund in 4-6 weeks. Is it worth me complaining to the ombudsman and surely I’m entitled to interest on the £350 overpayment of mine they’ve had for 6 months?

    Reply

    • You can complain if you feel fed up with the way this has been handled. Plenty of other IVA firms are managing to close IVAs promptly – “just flannel” seems an accurate way of describing DFD’s excuse. It’s perhaps worth getting some perspective though – the lost interest on £350 over this period is probably less than £10. Complaints have to go through the Insolvency Service’s Complaints Gateway to the regulator though, as described in this article. They don’t go to the Financial Ombudsman.

      Reply

      • Thanks Sara. I’ll wait the 4-6 weeks and then ask them two questions. What was the industry wide issue that caused a 7 month delay? Why did my IVA last 7 years and not 6?
        TBH, I’m terrified of rocking the boat beforehand. I just want my certificate and my refund.

        Reply

        • The 7 years – sometimes a creditor insists on 6 years not 5 at the start – NRAM had a habit of doing this. This could then have had another year added if you had equity in a house but couldn’t remortgage? In other words there may be a good explanation but you are entitled to know what it is so do ask.

          Reply

  9. Its been 2 months since my final payment to DFD having paid an extra 12 months as couldn’t re-mortgage. I am concerned about poor communication and management of my IVA and all I want is completion certificate. I received the final creditors statement which stated there was an annual income & expenditure review outstanding. If the extra year’s final payment was made in Feb 2015 would they want this annual review in Jan 2015 and for what purpose ?

    Reply

    • Hi Balibali, it is normal to have an income & expenditure review after the end of an IVA. DFD will want to check that you didn’t earn more during the last year than you said you did.

      Reply

  10. Hi I completed my iva with debt free direct in January 2012 still hadn’t got my completion certificate . Different reasons were given – in March this year I put a formal complaint in with insolvency office and guess what I received my certificate today 39 months after completing my iva

    Reply

    • 39 months – that takes the top spot for reported delays so far! Good to see putting in a formal complaint kicked them into action.

      Reply

  11. Our IVA ended in 2011 and we are still waiting completition they say they are stilll chasing PPI they recently sent me a variation they say i have to sign it and they can release our certificate and still keep chasing the last of our PPI im very dubious about signing anything but need this saga over im at a loss what to do i dont want to sign the variation can you give any advice how i can get this sorted and finished with

    Reply

    • Dear Julie – that is an extremely long time to wait! I suggest you put in a formal complaint, both to your IVA firm and to the Insolvency Service’s Complaint’s Gateway as this article suggests.

      Reply

  12. Hi , I made my final payment in September 2015 after 5 years. I am still waiting for my completion certificate (9 months this month) . I telephoned PDHL (Personnel Debit Help Line) whom I had my IVA with, they have told me today that the last 2 PPI claims have been closed, so now they are going through my file to close it down and issue my certificate, which I thought Great finally, but when I asked how much longer I would have to wait for the certificate and IVA to be closed they said it could take at least 2 – 3 months . You can guess I was not happy. Have you any suggestions to what I should do now to try and speed this up , Thanks

    Reply

    • Hi Helen, put in a formal complaint to the firm and to the Insolvency Service Complaints Gateway at the same time as this article says.

      Reply

  13. Hi
    Completed 5 years + 1 extra year of IVA with Grant Thornton (Originally with Blair Endersby) in May this year. Have been told it could be 6 months before receiving completion certificate.
    I am 71 and want to retire from part time job and still have a mortgage, free myself of some of financial burden, want to sell up and move away to be nearer to family. How long have I to wait.
    After reading some of the above I feel that I may not last long enough to do this!!!
    Do we all really have to wait for such a long time after complying with all initial regulations? Particularly in view of the fact that in my case the IVA providers took more of the IVA payments that went to the creditors!

    Reply

    • Hi Robbie, I agree it is absurdly long – 6 weeks is reasonable, 6 months isn’t! You could ask Grant Thornton if they could speed up this process if you agree to let them carry on collecting PPI after your completion certificate.

      Reply

      • I am not going to contact GT until the 6 months is up. I have received a report from them which is dated end June but does not include the final payment made in May!. As far as PPI is concerned, I contacted companies before the IVA started and was assured that there was none payable. GT have appointed 2 different companies to claim PPI and they managed to secure a small amount from 1 company in 2014. Nothing since, and, they appointed the 2nd company thereafter. No mention of PPI since other than on the bottom of the report, where they say they are still chasing. As far as I am concerned I have completed and complied with my IVA contract and shall write to them at the end of 6 months for CC and if not received shall take matters further. I have had enough of the stress of it all and I am sure that many others feel the same. The matter that concerns me is that BE/GT have taken more than half of the contributions which is not as I understood it originally when explained before I signed up for the IVA. We live and learn! I wish I had taken bankruptcy instead!

        Reply

  14. Hi, I’m not sure if you remember me ,TODAY I received my completion certificate!
    This has taken 1year after our last payment to dfd, we have put in a complaint with icaew and we are waiting the out come because we had been treated really unfairly.
    I wanted to say thank you for all your advice and to tell other people that there is light at the end of the tunnel !!

    Reply

  15. After waiting 9 months , I have finally received my Completion report and Certificate by email today with a copy being sent out in the post. I ended up chasing my PPI claims myself to get them sorted.

    Reply

  16. I had a full and final settlement on my IVA agreed in April 12, got the letter from the creditors meeting August 12 and the letter of agreement from DFD which stated the any PPI claim PRIOR to this letter was still in the IVA. They said the completion certificate would be with me in four weeks – was well pleased – then all the PPI claims from IVA companies started …[lengthy history of PPI reclaims omitted] … finally got the completion certificate Feb 14.
    June 15 Lloyds phoned me for my new address for the PPI payment as they have put a claim in April 15 and was upheld then get a letter saying they had paid it to the DFD as their records show I am in an IVA with them. So after all I have been through, lost 2 houses and postponed a wedding (went down like a lead balloon) because of DFD and the Completion Certificate delays, my question is can they still take the money? I feel that the IVA companies are playing with peoples lives after they have been through this torrid experience.

    Reply

    • Hi Craig, that was a long and sorry story of unreasonable delays, I took the liberty of shortening it. You might find this article on PPI after an IVA of interest https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-claims-after-iva/. However your case may be more complex because of your full and final settlement agreement and whether you should have been asked to sign further PPI documentation afterwards.
      I think you should consider taking legal advice as that article says, go to your local Citizens Advice, a local Law Centre or a solicitor who has experience in personal insolvency.

      Reply

  17. Hi Sara,
    we are with it was grant thornton but now called Aperture. Trying to contact them is a nightmare neither email or phone calls are returned.
    The only information we have received was on Sept 1st 2015 stating “I wish to confirm receipt of your income and expenditure documents” considering they received them in June! It states “I can confirm that no additional income is due into your arrangement, as a result of my review”. That is all we have had barring the PPI papers and our final payment was made in March 2015.
    We are at our wits end. My wife who is disabled with a spinal injury cannot wait for the end of this situation as its driving her mad.
    May I add I came across debt camel purely by chance and find many others are in the same situation, our hearts go out to you, as with my wife and I our debt was not one of choice, my wife had an accident whilst I was away on contract, and as I had not completed the contract had to pay another contractor to finish the work, that led to our borrowing the funds in the first place, but got out of hand, and we hoped the PPI would help alas a big no to that one :(
    Sara may I congratulate you as to this website as it give some hope and advise to so many, thank you.

    Reply

    • Hi Mark, as this post says, put in a formal complaint to Aperture and then go to the Insolvency Service Gateway if the delay is over 6 months. I really don’t think some of these firms understand how hard it has been for many people to get to the end of their IVA, only to find that completion doesn’t arrive!

      Reply

  18. Hi just had even more bad news from Grant Thornton now Aperture,
    our last payment was made in march 2015, no sign of a completion certificate,
    have phoned them and have now been informed that from approx. 2 weeks from today we will have to wait a further 6 months,
    before a completion certificate is issued, can anyone advise ?

    Reply

    • Hi Mark, that will be over a year after your last payment :( Put in a formal complaint to the Insolvency Service Gateway.

      Reply

  19. I started an IVA with DFD in 2007. They are useless. Just an IVA factory. I have signed a Deed of Assignment which allows DFD to claim PPI after completion of an IVA. Every time I rang them I just got bullshit excuses from their call centre chimps. I have complained to them and the Insolvency Service last week. I still don’t expect a resolution. When will someone hit the nail on the head? It’s IVAs that have been mis sold, forget PPI.

    Reply

      • Last payment was more than 2 years ago. They delayed and then asked me for a statement of my finances, again.. They delay for months, then ask for a financial statement again. The whole time they hold you in an insolvent state. They had all they asked me for and then started all the PPI crap, when I also gave them Deed of Assignment. Every phone call since just got me fobbed off. I eventually received an email stating that my completion certificate had quote ‘gone for a final draft’ – this of course was utter BS. I replied to the email as a formal complaint which has been acknowledged. I gave them 7 days to send me a completion certificate or be reported via the complaints gateway, which I have now also done. Even if I receive it I still plan on taking legal proceedings against the Supervisor, although in this context ‘supervisor’ means someone who sits on their fat arse doing nothing for their client.

        Reply

  20. Hi all

    Made a complaint through the gateway and the Insolvency Practitioners Association took it up but did not have to proceed with it any further as GT (now Aperture) sent me a completion letter and a note which appears to be a completion certificate (not a professional looking document) but, I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Best of luck to all.

    Reply

  21. I’m very dubious of that. I expect they are telling the regulator ‘we will sort it’ then send you some crummy quick fix document. Make sure they get you off the register and supply a Completion Certificate.

    Reply

  22. Our IVA with Aperture formerly Grant Thornton ends in July this year after 6yrs. We did all the PPI claim stuff about 5yrs ago now through Grant Thornton / EIC. We got told by EIC all the claims had been settled & had been closed & sent to Grant Thornton last year but then we got a letter from Grant Thornton saying that the Financial Ombudsmen had got involved & that cases had to be re-investigated so Slater Hayward Law got appointed & we had to fill all the forms in all over again. We have called Aperture & keep getting told that the interest payments that clients are due to are starting to be paid out but this keeps changing with each phone call & when I phoned them today they are now refusing to discuss it & said we need to speak to Slater Hayward Law. We are almost resigned to the fact that we won’t receive any of the interest due back but are more concerned when we read how long it is taking to get the completion certificate. I did speak to Aperture about this last year & mentioned about our concern after reading all the complaints & they said they were aware of this & were trying to resolve things so that certificates were sent out quicker. Overall we cannot complain about Grant Thornton / Aperture as things have been quite smooth it’s just since the PPI claims became a factor. Do you have any suggestions how to proceed as like a lot have mentioned on here you are sometimes afraid of rocking the boat.

    Reply

    • Hi Matt, there is little you can do at this stage as you are just worrying about potential future problems. When your IVA has finished, I suggest phoning them up every month and asking (a) if there is anything you need to do and (b) when you are likely to get your completion certificate. If you don’t get it within 6 months, put in a formal complaint.

      Reply

      • Hi Sara out of curiosity once the IVA is complete should a certificate be issued even if the PPI claims are still being investigated?

        Reply

        • Most firms are prepared to issue a completion certificate if you sign something agreeing that they can carry on collecting the PPI afterwards.

          Reply

  23. Forgot to mention that DFD sent me my completion certificate only after I complained to the Insolvency Service. Just need to wait a further 3 months to drop off the insolvency register.

    Reply

  24. I had a final settlement agreed with my creditors in January, I’ve since found out via the Internet my Iva firm Varden Nuttall have gone into administration. I have been in touch with them several times since completing to be fobbed off by advisors that seem to know nothing about what they’re doing. Can anyone shed some light on how long it could take to get my certificate please?

    Reply

  25. Having received my Certificate of completion nearly 9 years after starting an IVA with DFD, I contacted the Insolvency Service to enquire when my IVA record would be removed. They told me that DFD hadn’t told them of the completion. What a surprise. This was more than a month after the completion date. Fortunately the Insolvency Service is staffed by helpful and professional people. They removed the record after I sent them a copy myself. Next step is Experian who apparently haven’t been removing public IVA records, but merely amending them to say ‘completed’. They will remove these if you write to them and ask. The other credit reference agencies apparently do remove IVAs from public record, once informed, though I will be doing this myself, as above.

    Reply

  26. My IVA should have finished this month April 2016. I have had no contact from Credit fix and am due to make another payment of over £500 on May the 1st.
    Will I get this back or should I stop the standing order?

    Reply

    • It’s too late to to stop the STO! You need to phone Creditfix and say what has happened. If they agree your IVA should have finished, you can stop June’s payment and should get the May one back.

      Reply

  27. Hi all, I successfully completed my IVA in May 2008 and received my completion certificate within weeks of completion. Two years ago I received a letter from santander stating I owed £4500 in interest. I have never had any dealings with santander. Upon telephoning them I was told it was interest from a loan I had with allience and leicester which was included in my completed IVA. I contacted my IVA practitioner and they told me to send them the letter and they would deal with it. Twelve months later another letter came from santander stating I now owed over £5000 in interest again I sent it to the IVA practitioner who again told santander that the debt was included in an IVA. I also rang santander myself and was given an apology and assured they wouldnt be contacting me again. Yesterday I received a third letter from santander stating I now owed nearly £6000 and they were about to begin recovery of the debt. As I have moved house and received this letter 6 weeks after it was posted I am now concerned that it will have a negative effect upon my credit status. I also don’t have the completion certificate anymore as I completed my IVA over 6 years ago. I have again contacted my IVA practitioner who are sending me another copy of my completion certificate. Do I have grounds to complain about santander and if so, who should I complain to? What can I do to stop them sending me letters as its now starting to get on my nerves that a mistake I made around 13 years ago that I thought I had legally rectified by entering into and successfully completing an IVA is still causing problems today. Any help will be gladly accepted.

    Reply

  28. Hi I have recently paid my last IVA payment (aug2016) and have been told that I should get my closure certificate within 3 months. Having read posts on here, is it true that the closure process may involve collection of further wage slips & bank statements? If so, how far will they want to go back? We only completed income & expenditure 9 or so months ago so why would they need to see this info again? I am concerned as my husband did do some overtime but as Our IP had seen the wage slips I assumed they could see how much he had earnt and let the overtime go? Also, we have used our overdraft on some occasions which the IP could see from our bank statements and again didn’t come back to us on this. Does the closure process check whether you have done overtime/ used overdrafts etc for the first time as I assumed this would be done as we go along??? Now I’m concerned they will come back and take more money from us

    Reply

    • It is normal for the closure process to involve looking at bank statements but I don’t know what your IVA firm will do. The reason for wanting to see them is because you could have had in improvement in your finances in the last period which you should have reported. If you have been having regular reviews, most firms would only want to see these since the last review.

      Reply

  29. Hi, I completed my 72 month IVA in March 2016 and shortly before this completed an income and expenditure sheet. I emailed the company a couple times to confirm that it was finished and enquire when my certificate would be sent but never got a reply. Chased this s couple times but nothing. Received notification that the company had been taken over. I received a letter today asking for income and expenditure details even though it states on the paperwork that the iva was for 72 months and 72 months have passed with no arrears.

    Do I still need to send this again? I really thought that this was done and dusted and all behind me and it’s just dragging it all up again.

    Reply

    • The IVA needs to be closed down properly so your creditors get the money, you get your completion certificate and your debts are written off. Annoying though this is, probably the best thing at the moment it to supply them with whatever they want as soon as possible :(

      Reply

  30. Hi Alison sorry in advance for the long message but I hope it might be of some help !

    We had similar problems, when came to the completion ! Normally at the end of the iva the procedure is that the iva provider put a final expenditure together and let creditors knows that you have now completed it all and the creditors have still have so many weeks to come back( in our case 6weeks) and make sure that you have payed everything into the iva ( they often after ppi repayments ).
    If you have already forwarded all the necessary documents recently( and repetitively) and if all was ok , and accepted by your iva company ,they should not need to see anything else .Obviously I appreciate that the company was taking over but they still should honour your contract unless you signed something stating otherwise ?

    The key is to get everything in writing , has in: have they accepted your final expenditure?where are you in the process of receiving your certificate of completion and in the closure of your iva ? Write to them with your worries and questions of course keep a copy of it all .

    The company we used was debt free direct and I must say it was awful ! They kept sending the same paperwork over and over for us to sign ,
    I could not get any answers over the phone as to why all seems to be ok one minute and the next the same process will start all over again for no apparent reasons ! I managed eventually to get in writing that all was signed payed and in order but still no certificate.
    In the end we put a formal complaint to the charter accountancy board against the person in charge of my case and the governing body which regulate all iva companies ,in that particular case against debt free direct .
    Our certificate came through within weeks after that .

    I am not suggesting that you do the same , I am not a professional adviser simply someone who suffered the stigma of an iva , with very little help or advice from anyone as it seems Iva provider can do what they like or so it seems.
    My message to you is that like anyone ,they have to follow a code of conduct , and can be made accountable for their actions or lack of it when it comes to completion! Just dont feel like you have to wait for ever until they graciously decide they will send it to you , if all is In order your end and you can prove it you have got nothing to worry about .

    In my case I felt that they were unwilling to communicate relevant informations, they did not communicate from on service to the next , refuse to write down relevant informations, and at time were threatening over the phone with this underlying ” better comply or else ” , always pushing the goal post further away and of course confusing ….
    They should be providing you with clear guidance and help as you are in the end paying them a huge fee for their services .
    I found all the informations in regards of who to turn to to speed up the process on line , and after trying so hard to resolve the situation with Debt free direct first had no choice but to bring outside regulating bodies to help .The reasonable amount of time should be to for months 6 to an absolute push anything after that us not acceptable if all is ok . ( obviously your credit file will be affected until you finally get certificate and even after that it can take up to six months to still show )
    Anyway keep strong and best of luck , we completed our iva last may and our certificate came through in January !
    Sylvie

    Reply

    • Hi sylvie

      Can you please give me a little more information on who you complained to. We finished our iva in January this year and despite complaining to DFD and Complaints Gateway have still not heard a thing nor received the final certificate and they are still asking us to sign forms for PPI.

      Any help would be greatly appreciated.

      Thanks

      Dina

      Reply

      • If you haven’t signed the form they are asking you to which will let them claim PPI after your certificate is issued, your IVA will not be closed. And there is no point in complaining to The Insolvency Service or your IP’s regulator.

        It may seem unfair to you, but you have a simple choice – sign their PPI authorisation or wait possibly years until they decide there can’t possibly be any more PPI to come.

        Reply

        • Thanks for responding Sara. So will it just be PPI or would it also be for any monies received later down the line eggs inheritance or proceeds from a sale of a house?

          Many thanks

          Dina

          Reply

          • It should just be for PPI – but read carefully what you are being asked to sign and if you don’t understand it, ask questions!

      • I initially put a complaint to the isolvency services complaint gateway after speaking to them and explaing our case and after consulting a solicitor via citizen bureau advice ,then my complaint was passed on to the ICAEW ( institute of chartered accountant in England and Wales) who dealt with the practice responsible for my case .It took about four months , otherwise I dread to think how long it could have been !
        Over the phone they told me that althought all ppi was payed and all was in order , if I did not sign ( baring in mind it was not a compulsory amend of contract ) they would not even look into starting the closure , and that’s after telling me totally the opposite for over six months pre that , without the help of the icaew I do believe I would still be waiting for my certificate.
        Don’t give up ,don’t sign anything you don’t understand and , ,have all put I writing and chase your complaint if you already had one or start a new one if you need .
        I also find out that you can request a meeting with the practice at their head office ( most company do it may be not all they hate it and avoid it as they dint want to deal with someone face to face ) so you can look at it all make note and try to sort this out ( but don’t sign anything unless you 100% sure )
        Hope this help ! I know every case us diffrent you might need to sign and give more paper but don’t just accept it all because they are scary to deal with !

        Reply

  31. I asked for an early settlement value as my sister wanted to help me be debt free, I received the money and paid it to my IVA company, also sending in a letter from my sister stating it was a gift, and a letter from me to confirm details, they said it must go before the creditors and would take around 2 months.
    In the meantime my husband passed away and I did not realise he had some money, but left it to me, enough to cover the funeral and wake, with a small amount left over.
    Do I need to let my IVA company know this after I have already made the offer to settle early, and if I do, do they have the right to take all the money ?
    The timing between all this happening was a matter of days.
    In the meantime I am continuing my regular monthly payments and have paid the amount they mentioned to settle the IVA, all being well and it gets accepted by the creditors.

    Reply

    • First I need to say in case anyone else reads this that you should NOT have paid your sisters money to the IVA firm before they had confirmed that this would be acceptable as a full and final settlement.

      If your husband didn’t leave much money, then paying for his funeral costs is the top priority for his estate. Next comes settling any debts that he had. Only after that is done will the remainder come to you and it is only this remainder that could be “at risk” from the IVA.

      You do need to let the IVA form know about this. In the sad circumstances I hope they will feel it is reasonable to just continue with your settlement offer.

      (I will be moving this comment to https://debtcamel.co.uk/iva-settlement/ after a few days as that is a more relevant article for your problem.)

      Reply

  32. I will be paying our last IVA payment at the end of this month. I have been given the rubbish that it will take 6 months for them to settle the ppi and send out the certificate. What I would like to know as the company I am with could not answer me is do I have to adhere to the IVA rules until we get the certificate? ie no credit cards or loans etc? Thanks

    Reply

    • You can offer to sign permission for the IVA firm to continue to collect PPI after your complaetion certificate is issued…

      Until it is, yes you should abide by the IVA T&Cs. Anyway, until your IVA is ended, you coould only get approved for credit at a horrible rate of interest.

      Reply

  33. I paid last payment to IVA company June 2016. IVA company sent me loads of paperwork to sign so they could send file to closure team. One of the forms I signed stated they have up to 12 months to issue completion certificate. If I did not sign this form then I thought my case would not be sent to closure team. I chased this up in October to be told its near to completion and should receive C.C by Dec 2016, which I did not get. January 2017 I contacted IVA company again to be told they have 12 months to complete & no-one would have told me I would receive C.C by Dec. Is there anything I can do as still on Insolvency register and will be for three months after recieving C.C

    Reply

    • Put in a formal written complaint to your IVA firm and then also put one in through the Complaints Gateway as it has been more then 6 months. 12 months is a totally unreasonable length of time to be asked wait in my opinion.

      Reply

    • We initially put in a complaint to our IVA supervisor who dismissed the complaint and then followed it up with a formal complaint to Gateway but never received a response. However, we did eventually receive the certificate some 12 months later and we didn’t sign anything. I would advise submitting a complaint and pester them.

      Reply

  34. My IVA was due to complete November 2015 but due to two missed payments the final payment was Jan 2016. I was then informed that equity release was required ( I understood that this was supposed to be at Month 54). I then was unable to continue payments due to a secured debt and was told a variation was required. This has dragged on for the past eight months. Yesterday I was informed that as I had paid more than 80% of the total they can now close the IVA. They stated that this could take up to six months. All through the IVA firm have dragged their feed, even on one annual report claiming they were unable to contact me, despite me attempting to get this concluded and getting different stories each time I called or emailed them. At this time thirteen months have now passed since my last payment.

    Reply

  35. I have just got final review and iwe 3.336 settlement due to overtime, i asked if this is the last i will be asked for and just got told it will be reviewed again when paid…i am at my wits end its just going to go on and on! Can they do this after 6 years? Surely not

    Reply

  36. I have had a full and final settlement accepted at the beginning of July! The payment was made straight away, I haven’t heard from them since, (no confirmation letter of payment, no steph by step guide of what to expect) the issue is I work for a bank and have done for 10 years, because the Iva is showing as active I am unable to go for other jobs within the banking industry, nor am I able to replace my car that’s about to go bang some time soon (which was one of the reasons why a settlement was agreed) I know my Iva will remain on my record for a full 6 years but a settled Iva still is better then an active one, how do I hurry this along?

    Reply

  37. Hi, I completed my IVA payments in January 2016. I never recieved a certificate etc. but the IVA company stopped taking payments and conformed we had completed the IVA.
    Now after 20 months they have contacted me to say I am in breach of payments and due to there being equity in our home they want anoyher 12 months or we need to remortgage.
    I know this was part of the agreement BUT is it acceptable to not heat anything for almost 2 years and naturally I assumed the agreement was complete.
    Since it ended I have rearranged my finances which i am now managing well…however this curve ball will but me under massive financial difficulty which is a bit ironic considering they were meant to help.

    Reply

    • Well it doesn’t s a shame you didn’t make sure your IVA had ended properly at the time… but no, this isn’t acceptable. It is very poor administration by the IVA firm. Who is it?

      If you now can’t afford another year of payments, you need to tell your IVA firm and ask for a variation of your agreement so it is completed on the basis of funds paid to date.

      Reply

  38. Started my Iva in 2007 finished my Iva in 2012 didn’t receive my competition letter till 2015 with a section now added saying any future recoveries from PPI claims will be dealt with in accordance with the variation approved by creditors I haven’t signed any thing extra over my Iva term or been asked to. Put in a ppi claim 2 months ago and have had a few returns from company’s totaling £5000 £3800 etc settlement fees signed and sent back, receive an e mail today asking for he lender requires a copy of the discharge letter from the Individual Voluntary Arrangement and We need confirmation of whether your IVA will have an interest in this claim. company was debt free direct, what’s the best course of action I should do not my fault it took 3 years to get my completeion doc and I have done everything they asked started Iva 10 years ago and still are cropping up even now , any advice please

    Reply

  39. i made my last payment last july 2017 and had over paid but i more want my compelition certifacate meaning as its so long should i go to complaints gateway now as i have rang them and seam to get fobed off i want to move on with my life sorry about any spelling mistakes alistair

    Reply

  40. I paid a full and final settlement on my iva in June 2014 with clear debt. I never received my completion certificate it was only in 2017 that we thought about it. By then they had been taken over by apature we called them and got a completion certificate dated 2017. This is now stopping me getting a mortgage. Is there anything I can do regarding this situation?

    Reply

  41. Had an IVA with Debt free direct which we finished paying in July 2013 (I received email confirmation that payments were all made and it was with the completion team), called many times and was told the completion letter was in the post. Never did receive it or any correspondence to this day. Now had a PPI claim paid and have been told that so much will be paid to clear the outstanding account balance and the rest will be paid to my IVA.. debt free direct are no longer contactable and nobody has contacted me to say the IVA is still operating or that my account has been taken over. The IVA started 10 years ago -and ended 5 years ago!! I have written to the PPI company, who do I write to/complain to about the appalling treatment surrounding my IVA..

    Reply

  42. We done six years in iva with GT now Aperature. They stopped taking payments after January 2019 that we thought laast payment so we cancelled direct debit. When contacted they said we should not have cancelled as we need to expenditure which we did and received email to say they had received it. Several emails later nothing! We have noticed on our credit file that it says no iva ccjs etc. and shows 0 under volenrty liquidation. Confused!

    Reply

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