Step Change Error - fair?

poppit123

Hi All, 
My partner has an IVA with Step Change and due to a change in my circumstances I was able to make a 3rd party payment offer to close the arrangement for him. We arranged this in August and sorted the paper work and in Dec 2021 I received an email stating the final figure had been accepted and could I please pay. I paid. We thought that was it and have been waiting for the completion certificate. We had a call today from Step Change stating there had been an admin error and as my partner still had equity in his home the lenders had rejected the already agreed completion unless he remortgaged or presented a further lump sum to complete - failure to comply will result in cancellation of the completion and we'll be back to square one in the middle of the IVA and with my funds refunded to me. Obviously he cant remortgage, he's got no credit score. I am astounded that StepChange has allowed this to happen despite agreeing the final figure, asking me to sign an agreement and taking my money. Do we have any hope of avoiding the extra lump sum? 

sourcrates

That a bit slack on their part, not very professional at all, you can file a complaint against your IP for the mess this has created, unsure of the outcome though, even if it were upheld, but something you should do next without delay.

The other option`s you have are to just carry on with the IVA, or to just stop paying and walk away, allow the IVA to fail.

Whatever money is in the "pot" will be distributed to the creditors, and then collection activity will, eventually, re-start for the remainder of the debt.

You can then deal with whatever is left at your leisure, saves you paying the lump sum. 

The down side is if there is still a lot of debt outstanding, I would go down the complaints route first, see if that bears any fruit.

Complain about an insolvency practitioner - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)