A Completion Certificate is issued after you have made your final IVA payment and all your obligations under the agreement are fulfilled.
Jump to article contents:
- What is an IVA Completion Certificate?
- How long does it take to get one?
- Why could the issue of your Certificate be delayed
- What to do it you are still waiting
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What is an IVA Completion Certificate?
A Completion Certificate is written confirmation that you have completed your IVA. It is a statement by your Insolvency Practitioner that they are no longer acting as the Supervisor of the Arrangement. It confirms their interest in your affairs is over.
It is very important that you get your Certificate as soon as possible after you finish paying your IVA. Until it is issued the Arrangement is not officially over. This means any windfalls you receive in the mean time still have to be handed over.
You will also find it more difficult to improve your credit rating until you have your Completion Certificate. This is because your name will remain on the Insolvency Register until it is issued.
What your Completion Certificate looks like will differ depending on your IP. Some will issue an actual certificate. Others will simply send you a letter confirming that your IVA is over.
How long does it take to get an IVA Completion Certificate?
Before your Completion Certificate can be issued your IVA Company will normally carry out a final review of your circumstances. They may ask you to provide wage slips and bank statements for the last 12 months.
This is normal practice. They simply need to check whether you earned more in the final year of the Arrangement and whether you need to pay anything extra as a result.
You should be asked for this information shortly after you have made your final payment. As long as you respond promptly your certificate should be issued to you within 6-8 weeks.
If you have not received your Certificate 8 weeks after you made your final payment you should contact your IP and find out why.
Why could the issue of your Completion Certificate be delayed?
A common reason why your IP might delay the issue of a Completion Certificate is that they are waiting for outstanding PPI claims. If your certificate is issued before such claims are finalised the IP could lose their claim on any compensation still due.
Delays for reasons of PPI may be overcome by agreeing to a Deed of Assignment. However signing such a document means you will lose all subsequent PPI compensation paid after you have your Certificate.
Your IVA Company might offer other excuses for why your Completion Certificate is being delayed. One relatively common example is that they are waiting for your creditors to confirm that all monies have been received.
Excuses other than PPI are generally not acceptable. Whatever the excuse it is normally a simple backlog in your IVA company’s completion department that is to blame.
What can you do if you are still waiting for your Completion Certificate?
If you have been waiting longer than 8 weeks for your Completion Certificate you should contact your IVA company and find out the reason for the delay.
If you feel the answer they give is unacceptable one option that may speed things up is to threaten to make a formal complaint.
You may be concerned that making a complaint will somehow jeopardise your chances of getting your certificate. This is not the case. IPs and their governing bodies take formal complaints very seriously. Volume of complaints is one of the areas that their performance is measured on.
If the reason for the delay is that your IP is waiting for PPI claims to be completed then complaining may not solve this issue. The only option may be to ask about the possibility of signing a Deed of Assignment.