IVA Completion Certificate

08/10/2021
IVA Completion Certificate

A Completion Certificate is issued after you have made your final IVA payment and all your obligations under the agreement are fulfilled.

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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.

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41 thoughts on “IVA Completion Certificate”

    Dawn G says:
    17/11/2021 at 11:24

    hi, i have received my IVA completion certificate do i need to send it to the CRAs

    Reply
      James Falla says:
      17/11/2021 at 11:31

      Hi Dawn

      It does not hurt to send a copy of your completion certificate to the Credit Reference Agencies, but you should not need to. Once your name comes off the insolvency register (normally 3 months after the date of completion) they should automatically update their records to reflect the fact.

      Remember, even though your IVA is completed, it is likely to have little impact on your credit score. The record of the IVA will remain on your file until 6 years from the start date. Only then will it be removed and your credit score significantly improve. If yours was a 5-year IVA, this would mean you have another 12 months to wait.

      In the meantime, if you want to take action to start improving your credit score, there are some things you can do such as using a credit repair credit card.

      Reply
    Dawn G says:
    17/11/2021 at 12:38

    Hi James,

    Thank you for your timely reply and your advice this is much appreciated. My letter enclosing the completion certificate did advise me to let the 3 CRA’s know that the IVA was final. The IVA started in June 2015, so it is actually over 6 years. I just need to be patient for a little while longer I guess.

    Thanks again.

    Dawn

    Reply
    Moira says:
    07/06/2022 at 16:02

    Hi..I paid my iva off early on February 18th this year with a full and final payment which was accepted 100% by my creditors. It is now almost 16 weeks since my last payment and i have not received my completion certificate. I have emailed and complained but have just received an email from one of their insolvency advisers who said that it takes up to 6 months and that my creditors need to close my file on their side after being paid the money. They said they are still working on my case. In other words im still no furtber forward. Any advice on how to deal with them would be appreciated.
    Thankyou

    Reply
      James Falla says:
      07/06/2022 at 16:12

      Hi Moira

      I have to say that your IVA company certainly does not need to wait for the creditors to do anything in order to issue a completion certificate. This is just an excuse they are using because their completion department is likely understaffed and has a huge backlog…..

      That said, these days it seems to be the norm for an IVA company to take between 3-6 months to issue a completion certificate after the final IVA payment has been made. As such you could well be waiting until August.

      If you don’t have it by then, I believe that would be unacceptable. If this happens, the best advice I can offer is to threaten to escalate a formal complaint to the insolvency service (there is information on how to do this in the above article). This sometimes jump starts the company into action.

      Reply
    Janet E says:
    19/06/2023 at 10:05

    I have been given a number by Equifax to call the insolvency office to ask for a completion certificate. My IVA completed last November but the number is not recognised

    Reply
      James Falla says:
      19/06/2023 at 10:09

      Hi Janet

      I can confirm that the only way you can get a copy of your completion certificate is from the IVA company that was running your IVA.

      I am not sure what number the Insolvency Service have given you but ultimately you will need to contact the company that was dealing with your IVA. No-one else can help I’m afraid as there are no public records of completed IVAs.

      Reply
    Lou says:
    28/08/2023 at 12:59

    I paid a lump sum Iva. Creditors agreed. Just waiting for buy to let to sell. Once I completion is confirmed what are the next steps, timeframe, documents needed? And do I have to go through the whole financial review, ID checks once again (that was alot of work?

    Reply
      James Falla says:
      31/08/2023 at 12:12

      Hi Lou

      The process for completing your IVA will depend on the specific requirements of your IVA company. Each company will do this in a slightly different way. That said, if yours is a lump sum payment IVA, I do not believe there should be any requirement to do further ID checks or another financial review. The settlement amount paid was based on the review completed before your proposal was sent to your creditors.

      Reply

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