Nearly finished IVA

ManyWays

What happened to the car, did you hand it back or was it repossessed, I'm just checking to make sure you don't still have the car and just stopped paying for it.

The IVA has now finished but I assume you are waiting for the completion certificate? 

Have you sent VWFS a clear complaint saying their credit reporting is inaccurate, given the details of the IVA attach proof that the VWFS debt was included? 

lordcockerspaniel

The car was handed back nearly 8 years ago…

I’ve just sent the company handling the debt the guidance from here:

https://www.scoronline.co.uk/key-documents/

it seems pretty unequivocal that if a debt is included in an IVA it should be marked as a default. 

This is making my life impossible. I have not got a prayer of renting anywhere whilst this is recorded on my credit file. I’ve spoken to Stepchange and they say they’re in the process of completing the IVA. 

At the moment I’m sharing a roof with the partner and sleeping on the sofa. I don’t know what chance I have of renting, but I need to get out of where I am. 

It seems to me that an IVA I’ve paid for six years, overpaid into, and completed is less likely to be a problem than a company reporting a debt as missed payment every month for the last five years. I originally bought the car in 2015.

ManyWays

You will find it almost impossible to rent without a guarantor with an IVA on your credit record, but that will get sorted when the IVA completes, so you also want to make sure the VWFS debt is marked as defaulted back 6 years ago and so drops off.

Have you made a formal complaint to VWFS, not just sent them letters saying what they should do? If you have made a formal complaint then after 8 weeks you can go to the Financial Ombudsman. This wont be fast but there is no point in putting off starting it.

lordcockerspaniel

Just received this back from the people handling the debt:

We have received correspondence from our client who have advised that the balance will report as late payments while you are in the IVA. Once the IVA has been completed the balance will be cleared down to zero, however our client would not look to remove the late payments.

I currently have six years of late payments against my name.

Given the guidance here:

https://www.scoronline.co.uk/key-documents/

And thar VWFS have been recording the IVA payments as ‘late’ and never marked the account as defaulted, have I genuinely got a complaint, and are the obmundsman likely to uphold the complaint? I always presumed that when you had finished your IVA you had done your time and you could start to rebuild your life. This would mean I have six further years of black marks against my name going forwards. It seems rather malicious. 

I will write to VWFS registering a formal complaint tomorrow, do I then have to wait 8 weeks before I complain to the obmundsman?

How do you complain to the obmundsman?

Thanks everyone for your help so far. Stepchange tell me they are in the process of wrapping up the IVA and making final payments. If the IVA disappears and there is just the VWFS record left, is there any chance of renting then. As the IVA is more than six years old it will disappear won’t it? 

lordcockerspaniel

A bit more research and I found this on debtcamel.

https://debtcamel.co.uk/repair-credit-record-iva/

is there anything more I need to do?

lordcockerspaniel

I’ll keep updating this for the benefit of anyone else in a similar position later who may need to follow a similar path.

VWFS received my letter on Monday. I used the debt camel wording, just added the phrase formal complaint to ensure they understood and there was no room for wriggling out.

Yesterday I received an email saying I would get my own ‘executive’ who will contact me. 

I intend to simply quote the guidance, tell them I expect them to apply a default in May 2018 (when the IVA started), and say that if they haven’t done this by March 10th that I will contact the ombudsman myself regardless of whether they consider the complaints process exhausted.

In other good news I received the certificate of completion yesterday, dated the 17th of January. I wonder when that will start to show on the register?

RAS

Do make sure you keep copies of the certificate of completion, perhaps including scans and email yourself copies.

At the moment there are a lot of spurious claims regarding debts long since statute barred but occasionally debts that were included in IVAs that ended a long time ago. So it's worth keeping evidence of the completion and of the debts included in the IVA. Because there's no other evidence retained after 6 years by the creditors or the register.

lordcockerspaniel

Thankfully barring this VWFS debt, there’s nothing showing at all.

They have emailed it to me. I have it saved in my emails, on the iCloud, and also on a separate email server!

Thanks.

RAS

Belt and braces, print of a copy or two as well. I can still access a 1592 legal document easily. You've no idea what media will be available in a decade.

lordcockerspaniel

The IVA has dropped off all my reports now… 

Nothing back from VW yet. Despite their promise of contact I’ve heard nothing for two weeks. I’m presuming no news is good news.