www.iva.co.uk

Hi all, it's been a while! I hope everyone that remembers me are all doing well. Me and my husband had IVA's agreed in 2011 and had a variation agreed in 2014, we didn't get completion certificates until Feb 2016 due to PPI reclaims and an outstanding debt that was originally missed and had to be included. We've moved on with our lives thankfully and are now in a much better place.

At the time, we had a prime mortgage with Accord on interest only, since the IVA ended we changed to repayment and have stayed with Accord since whilst our credit files improved. The IVAs are no longer on our credit files and our reports are in good shape.

We have remortgaged onto a new deal a couple of times with Accord and not had any issues. Recently we wanted to obtain some additional lending to upgrade our kitchen as its really tired and obviously we had no funds for a few years whilst in the IVA.

We were honest with accord when applying for the additional funds that we were in an IVA from 2011 to 2014 but they have now come back to us to say that because we weren't 'discharged' (thats the term they keep using!) until 2016 it falls outside of their lending policy as we have to be 6 years post 'discharge' I keep telling them that you aren't discharged from an IVA, that we had a variation which was agreed in 2014 and weren't required to contribute further, we were just waiting for loose ends to be tied up essentially (PPI etc), so they are now asking for evidence of this.

We were with the lovely Melanie Giles, I have emailed her but not sure if she's still around as at the time I think she was giving it up.

I guess I'm clutching at straws here but I assumed that once the IVA fell off your file it would be easier, I didn't realised that not only is it on for 6 years but then following completion its a further 6 years before anyone will consider lending to you?

Can anyone advise?

Some lenders do have a 6 years post completion policy, some 6 years post start and a few never again !!

Mel is still in the industry, so might come to the rescue, but, terminology apart I think your lender is going to stick to post completion plus 6 years --- which, is from the date of the certificate !

You could investigate remortgaging with a new lender and I would suggest a chat with Ryan or Shaun in that regard.

thanks Foggy, I thought as much, I'll wait to see if I hear anything back from Mel but I guess it's not looking good.

I don't think we could remortgage at present, we have a really good fixed rate of 1.99% with 68% LTV and in year 3 of a 5yr fix so not sure if its worth moving as there'll be a penalty to pay but I'll get in touch with Shaun or Ryan anyway and see

Hi Lem. The reality is that many lenders don't actually understand IVA's at all and some have an extremely archaic approach to lending to someone who has previously had one. You may be interested to know that clients (almost exclusively ex-IVA'ers) we have placed with one particular lender outperformed every other broker in the country, so that serves to make a mockery of the other lenders doesn't it?! The good news is that there are certainly lenders who will consider it, depending on your other circumstances, as long as your application is prepared and presented properly to the right one for you.

Hopefully Shaun's reassurance will help