www.iva.co.uk

My question is this - I made my last payment for my IVA to Grant Thornton in June 2011 and was told that my IVA would be progressed for closure and would take approximately 15 - 18 weeks. I hadn't heard anything by January 2012 and At the start of 2012 I rang Grant Thornton’s to enquire where my IVA was up to as 16 weeks had passed and I had not heard anything. I was informed that a letter would be sent out confirming that my IVA is to be closed, however a specific reason for the delay was not given.
I received the letter on the 18th January 2012,which informed me that an outstanding amount of £20 was required before the IVA could be closed. As far as I was aware all my payments had been made.
I sent an email on the 18th of January 2012 registering my unhappiness regarding this issue and asked why I hadn’t been informed of this outstanding payment. To this day I am still awaiting a response. I contacted Grant Thornton on Monday 30th January, but as it was 5.15 no one was available, I gave my number and asked to be contacted. I then ended up ringing again on the 2nd February and spoke to one of their staff. I explained what had happened.
The response I received confirmed that this in fact had been the reason (Please trace any phone calls to hear the conversation).
My IVA should be complete and I should be on the road to rebuilding my credit rating. However, at present according to your letter, until I pay £20 my IVA will not progress for closure and since 28th June 2011 has been idle. If I had not contacted you then I would still be in limbo and none the wiser. To have it confirmed that I had paid all outstanding monies in June 2011 and to be told the IVA was progressing for closure and then to be told in January 2012 that I owe £20 and my IVA has not progressed is disgraceful.
The best part of this is that my Insolvency case manager is one Karol Wilson who has not bothered to respond to any concerns or letters or emails that I have sent to Grant Thornton.

Hi and welcome.

There has been a problem with closure of IVA's due to a Vat claim with HMRC so this will probably be the reason why you haven't had your completion letter. I have no idea why you should suddenly be told that you owe £20.

Karol does post on here so if you email her via this address:

ivacustomerservices@uk.gt.com and ensure that "IVA Forum" is all that is entered in the subject line of the email.

She usually picks up on these emails and will hopefully get back to you.

Grant Thornton don't seem to be covering themselves with glory at all re IVA closures at the moment. A number of recent posters on this forum have had no contact for what seem to be really quite extraordinary periods of time after making their final payment, and even then they've had to push very hard to get any resolution. Poor.

I think GT are suffering a bit at the moment. The BE takeover seemed to be difficult and then before they can clean up the BE mess they are dealing with the VAT issue too.

Firefighting would be the word!

It's not acceptable but I don't think it is entirely within their control.

Poor customer service is bad but as regards the closures, I don't think there is a lot they can do until HMRC settle the claims although it does seem as though they are starting to do that.

HMRC settling VAT claims may well be outwith their control. How GT choose to communicate with their clients is within their control, and although the evidence is anecdotal, there is enough of it on this forum to suggest that GT are failing clients quite badly. To have no communication from GT 8 months after a final IVA payment is made is pretty poor.

There is no excuse for poor customer service but GT aren't the only ones guilty of that.

I agree, Jan. I think many companies are guilty of lack of communication over these matters, more so the larger concerns.

This is the second time that I have found out that I owe money without being informed.
There had been an error with my standing order and it had finished one month earlier than it should have. I rang Grant Thornton and arranged to make the final pay for £485 on the 25th May2011 (£340 missed payment for April and £145 final payment for May).
Upon receiving my final annual report in 2011 I then found out that I still owed £360!!! Furthermore the final report stated that Grant Thornton had been trying to contact me. However I had received no further communication from Grant Thornton. To this day I have had no explanation from Grant Thornton as to why they didn’t contact me again regarding this.

That's not great. Poor communication is bad but I think it's reflective of GT drowning under their workload...no one checked the case to know they needed to communicate. Here's hoping they'll get back to their former self x

Its very poor practice to be sending letters out 16 weeks after you think your final payment has been made, surely it cant take that long to see there is a shortfall of £20?!?!?

Seems GT's name is being bounded round theses forums at an alarming rate at the mo!!

I myself have been waiting for a reply to an email I sent twice last week regarding closure.

Telephone contact is very poor at the moment, from my experience every time you call GT you are advised that you will be called back which never happens. I would rather be told that they are busy can you call back another time.
It is very frustrating waiting for a phone call which never comes from any company let alone your own IVA company.
I can only assume that they never had the intention to call back in the first place.

Very poor practice indeed.

bluenose4464 - I have received your recent letter and I will be in contact today.

stormsylv - I received and email from you and will be in contact today.
Kind Regards
Karol

Hi Karol

Thanks for your response but I dont seem to have recieved an email yet but maybe a problem with my email account?

bluenose4464 - as discussed you will receive the Notice of Compltion just after 19 April when final funds are distributed to creditors.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries or concerns,
Kind Regards
Karol