Your IVA is not over until you have received a Completion Certificate. This is a document signed by your Insolvency Practitioner confirming the Arrangement is over.
Included in this article:
- Why is the Certificate important?
- When should you get your Certificate?
- What to do it you have not received it?
- Reasons why your Certificate might be delayed
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Why is a Completion Certificate important?
You may think that your IVA is over when you have made your final payment. However this is not the case. You are still legally bound by its terms until you get a Completion Certificate.
The certificate is a formal document (often in the form of a letter) from your Insolvency Practitioner (IP). It confirms that you have met all the requirements of the Arrangement and they are no longer acting as your Supervisor.
It is vital that you get your certificate as soon as possible after your last payment is made. Until you do your IVA windfall clause is still active. Your name remains on the Insolvency Register and the repair of your credit rating will be delayed.
If you receive any type of windfall BEFORE you have received your Completion Certificate it still has to be paid into your IVA.
When should you get your Completion Certificate?
You should receive your Completion Certificate within 8 weeks of making the final payment into your IVA. However some IVA companies can take longer.
Once you have made your last payment your IP will need to carry out a final review of your circumstances. You will normally have to send in recent wage slips and bank statements confirming nothing has changed.
Any final payments to your creditors also have to be made. Once this is done your completion certificate should then be sent out to you and your name taken off the Insolvency Register.
Most IVA companies will need you to carry out a final annual review before issuing your certificate.
What can you do if you have not received your Certificate?
If you have been waiting longer than 8 weeks for your Completion Certificate you must contact your IVA company. Ask the reason for the delay.
It is possible there could be a delay because there are assets which still need to be realised for your creditors. This could involve property or an outstanding compensation claim.
However if you are told that the company is just to busy this is not good enough. You should then threaten to escalate a complaint unless you receive your Certificate within 2 weeks.
It should not take longer than 3-6 months to complete your IVA after the final payment. If your IVA company says it will take longer than this without good reason you consider making a complaint.
Reasons why your Certificate might be delayed
A common reason for a Certificate to be delayed is outstanding PPI claims. If any claims have not yet been processed by the relevant banks your certificate can be withheld until after these have been finalised.
The problem with this is that it means that your life is put on hold. Your name will remains on the Insolvency Register and there will be a delay in you being able to start repairing your credit file.
One way this problem can be resolved is to agree with your IVA company that they can still keep any PPI paid after the Certificate is issued.
If you sign a Deed of Assignment agreeing that all subsequent PPI compensation will be paid to your IP you may be able speed up them issuing your Completion Certificate.
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Hi.
I have recently paid the final due payment of my IVA, which means the total paid is the 100% figure (debt, statutory interest and fees). I have a couple of questions:
1) The company used are saying it can take 3-5months for the completion process, is this correct? I have done some research and found that it shouldn’t take any more than a couple of weeks?
2) The 6yr point is 5/2/19. Will this automatically drop off my credit file, or will it remain their until a completion certificate is served? If the latter, and if 5/2/19 comes and goes before the certificate is served, will the IVA stay on file for another 6 years?
3)The company are asking me to sign a PPI form BEFORE they will complete my IVA. They insisted me using a PPI check company a year ago, who found no outstanding PPI due. Surely if there was any PPI compensation outstanding, then this wouldn’t be due into the IVA as I have paid the 100% figure?
Apologies for the questions, but the company I used were extremely informative at the start but much less so now I am at the end and throughout!
Hi Lee
I would say that a couple of weeks to get your completion certificate would be very quick. As highlighted in the article above it is fairly normal to wait 2-3 months. I would say more than that is unreasonable and would be grounds for making a complaint.
I confirm that the record of the Arrangement will automatically come off your credit file 6 years from the start date. As such in your case this should be 5th Feb 19. This happens whether you have already got the completion certificate or not.
If your IVA company are insisting that you do a final PPI check you must comply with the request. If there is any further money due for this reason it will still have to be paid to them. They are allowed to collect not only 100% of the debt you owed but also their fees and 8% interest on your debt since the start date of the IVA.
Having said that to withhold your completion certificate while they do a final PPI check seems unreasonable. In March 2017 the Appeal Court ruling of Green v Wright made clear that PPI compensation awarded after a completion certificate will still have to be paid to the IVA company if they so require it. As such there should be absolutely no reason for them to delay the issue of the certificate on these grounds.
Hi there. I completed my iva March 2018 and have a certificate from the company closing my iva. 3 weeks ago I received a letter from them they wanted to re-do my mis-sold ppi’s and that any income from this would go towards the iva.
Is this correct – can they do this and am I still bound to them? If so, this could go on for years – Surely if i have completed my iva and have a certificate they cannot force me to re-check them?
Thank you
Hi Elaine
If you have already received your completion certificate your IVA company is no longer your supervisor. As such they have no authority to make further demands of you. You are therefore not obliged to co-operate with this letter.
That said if you were to go ahead and make PPI claims on your own or give your authority for someone else to do this on your behalf any compensation awarded would still be paid to your IVA company. This is based on a Court ruling in March 2017 known as Green v Wright.
This situation is really only to do with PPI claims. In theory these claims could have been made while you were in your IVA because you had been mis sold by that time. As such your IP may still have a claim on them now. However it does not apply to other windfalls that you now receive. For example if you were to now get an inheritance, win the lottery or be in an accident and get a payout such monies received would be yours to keep.
My husband’s last IVA payment was in January 2019. He received his completion certificate in August 2019 and came off the Insolvency Register on 1 November 2019. He and his ex wife sold their house and completed on 29 November. Can the equity from the sale be claimed by their creditors now?
Hi Janine
Once the completion certificate has been received the IVA is legally over. Your husband it no longer bound by its terms. Therefore given the property sale was after the date on the letter received from his IVA company he can keep his share of any proceeds. His old creditors have no legal claim on them.
The only time a windfall still has to be handed to the IVA company after the certificate is received is if the reason for it being paid existed during the IVA. For example a PPI claim or inheritance due after an individual passed away during the arrangement.