After 5 years in February I made the last payment to my IVA. I won't lie at times it was a hard, a journey that many a time I thought would never end. But eventually time as it does passed by and here I was at the end of my agreement ready to move on with the next chapter of my life.
Unfortunately the great feeling I first had is being dampened & squashed by the fact that I still do not have my Completion Certificate, thus not being able to completely move on with my life.
In my t&C's there was a 3 month admin wait after the final payment, which meant I should have received my certificate by the end of May or before. After this period passed still with no sign of my certificate, I then was issued 2 3 month extensions.
During the period of the 2nd 3 month extension Kingsgate informed me that I would receive my certificate on or before a date in the middle of November (this was the first official date I was given). This never happened. As you can imagine I chased them again and was eventually told it would now be a date at the beginning of December and it could not go on for any longer than that, which again did not happen. I am beginning to tire of hearing phantom dates from Kingsgate and wonder if any of you are in the same boat?
Unfortunately I have been one of many who has got caught up with PPI problems. One of my creditors at first flatly refused to look into it, then more recently after a year sent through a copy of the application form and again said that was the end of it. So the case is now with the financial ombudsmen. But earlier in the year I received a letter from Kingsgate changing the t&c's on which it stated that PPI will not prevent Completion Certificates being issued, so what is going on? Or was this statement just a carrot so you agreed quickly to the terms?
I must also add that since my IVA has finished I have to send in multiple emails before anyone has the decency to respond to me. I am trying to get something in writing as anything I seem to get told on the phone when I call is not true. It's such a shame it has come to this as I had no problems with them during my IVA, but since my payments to them have stopped it's like they no longer want to know or care.
Is anyone else experiencing the same treatment from Kingsgate?
I have no experience of kingsgate but wanted to say persevere ... Weekly contact by phone and email may just push it along ...it is totally unfair how some people are left hanging on, whilst others are fortunate to receive their certificate in a matter of days/weeks.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
There is a solution for everyone .... Just need to stay positive !
hi we are with kingsgate and had our proposal accepted in march this yr. We had completed two yrs, had a yrs break due to ill health and then put a proposal in as I couldn't go back to work and luckily it was accepted, however im still awaiting the certificate. They told me it would be three months after completion date so I rang in august for update and they said it wouldn't be long, in September they said they were awaiting final figures from creditors, last week they said they had a back log of completion certificates to do but someone would ring me back (they never did) and this week they are saying ppi is holding things up as a creditor has paid the ppi off the money we owed them rather than into IVA, bearing in mind this creditor agreed back in sept 2012 to pay into iva not themselves so taken 15 months and ive only just heard about it. They couldn't even tell me if other ppi claims were a problem. I know I had two ppi claims as part of the proposal as they already had received the money and had a letter saying if anymore ppi then it would go into iva even when got completion certificate. I am at a loss what to do too, im tempted to complain as don't seem to be getting anywhere and when I ring up different people say different things. They were a problem when we were putting the proposal together as missed vital information out of the proposal and it read like I just gave my job up instead of bein ill but they did fight for us in the end though as only alternative would have been bankruptcy. Paperwork wise they have always been slow though, not sure what to do. Like you just want the certificate so can put it all behind me.
Thanks Luluj. Yes I will keep chasing until I get a result, but am miffed that it has come to this & I have to.
Thank you for adding your story George123 even though I am sorry to hear you are stuck in limbo too! Did you have the letter which altered the t&c's of your IVA? If so, if it was the same letter as mine it said at the bottom that PPI issues would not hold up Completion Certificates (which I have pointed out to them, so that cannot be the excuse unless it was a fib). So if you have this letter it may be worth checking if it says it on yours as well.
UPDATE
I received a new email (after sending the same email through 3 times this time) stating that the final review is complete & my case is waiting to be signed off by management, but they could not guarantee a date. So I have written back and asked for the name & email address of the manager who will be signing it off so I can chase them directly & await a response.
I also received a letter the day after the email asking me to sort out paperwork for a review!!! I rang them & told them I sent in all the paperwork after my last payment & had received an email stating the final review was complete, so was told to disregard the letter and it had been sent in error! I also asked whilst I was on the phone for the name & email address for the person who would be signing off the IVA, but was told I could not be given that so will just have to see if I get any joy from my email.
I have rung them up again today and it seems that mine has been sent to be signed off by management too, apparently they looked into it last week and ticked all the check boxes and sent it for management to review and send completion certificate (even though last week they said ppi was delaying things). They are going to speak to the person who has dealt with my case and get them to ring me back asap. Again they didn't know when it was going to be signed off, the ppi agency I used are also chasing up the ppi for me as well (they were more helpful). Im awaiting their call and then after new yr will be ringing them every week to discuss, I will actually ask for the person who is doing my case - her email address so I can contact her rather than ring her as its expensive. not happy though, hope we both get our certificate asap.
I guess that in larger firms this process does take longer - but in reality it actually takes around 15 minutes of my time to close a case, so hopefully the IP at your firm can see their way to doing this as soon as they can.
I received a response this time from a different different member of staff, who again described my case as being with senior management awaiting to be signed off. They added they could not give me a timescale as to when it would be signed off, but they could provide me with a letter that barring the final administration saying I had met all my obligations under the iva.
They did not provide a name nor an email address of the person who is dealing with the case like I had asked for.
Update 2
I thanked the member of staff for their response (I am grateful someone is now at least responding to my emails) & asked them to send out the letter they described in the meantime. I then again asked for the persons name & email address who is dealing with my case so I can contact them directly with regards to my certificate.
Response:-
I was advised the letter would be sent out (not received anything yet) & that they were unable to give me details for the senior management team, but they would keep in touch with me for updates. They have set a calender reminder to contact me once a week even if there are no updates.
Update 3
I have responded as I am obviously still not in touch with a member of staff who has access to my case details & knows when my certificate will be sent out. I do not believe that no one has an idea of timescale. If it is a case of just signing off the person will know how many cases are sat on their desk waiting to be signed off & what number I am in the que.
With them mentioning weekly updates suggests to me that I could be waiting some time, so someone somewhere has an idea of time. I also asked how this process can take so long. I again mentioned that I cannot understand why I am being prevented from dealing with a member(s) of staff who knows the answers to my questions?
To this I am currently awaiting a response.
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Have you had any joy George123 with getting a name for the person who is dealing with your case?
Thank you for your informative message Melanie. After one of my last questions I have put to them this confirms what I thought would have been the case in terms of a timescale in closing off a case. This is why I am frustrated that if I am in a backlog/que someone in the firm would know whereabouts I was in the que.
Update 1 - the IP acting for you is ultimately the person responsible for finalising your case, and if you need to contact them via e-mail you can easily find their e-mail address on the Insolvency Service's website.
Update 2 - ditto above if you do not get the letter you have requested within a reasonable timescale.
Update 3 - ditto above and escalate this to the IP personally if you feel that you need direct support from him/her with regard to your closure.
Hi I spoke to kingsgate again today and got a clearer picture, with regards to my case ppi was delaying things then they had a variation meeting regarding ppi in September which meant that they had authorisation to do the final report and then deal with the ppi afterwards. There was a change about in the office after that delayed things too. This means that person doing my case has ticked everything off and it goes to management to be checked, then if they see any problems like ppi etc it goes back to the team again - however once management has looked at it the team can send the variation report and completion certificate to ourselves and hold onto the money until the creditors give their final balances and give the ppi back into the iva rather than taking it off their own balances. So in theory ppi cant be holding things up now. The person I spoke to was a *name removed* who is going to email me. Although she couldn't advise she hinted for me to complain as a lot of her customers are complaining which will hopefully speed up the process for me, im writing the complaint in an email to her and also posting complaint off. She also said she would give me an update via email about the progress to as me ringing up is costing me. A date couldn't be given regarding completion but complaining and emailing her will hopefully speed things up. She was very helpful - first helpful person I have had and went through it all in more detail, I know there are outstanding issues with my ppi anyhow but if they can complete IVA and send out certificate and hold onto the monies until creditors do their bit its more encouraging, think a lot of people are in same boat as us regarding kingsgate - im definitely complaining and wouldn't be recommending them to anyone going on an IVA (unless its just me that's had bad experiences all along the way). Lets hope early 2014 brings us the certificates we deserve!!!!
Last edited by george123 on Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
May I suggest that someone from Admin deletes the Kingsgate employee named in this post.
I am sure that no employee of any company would encourage a client to make complaints, and it is not really fair for her to be outed in public where her employers may read this - putting her own position perhaps in jeopardy - when it appears she was just trying to be helpful.
