UK Business Minister, Jo Swinson has announced a new process in relation to processing complaints about Insolvency Practitioners. The new route will make any issues much easier to deal with if a person has a valid issue or grievance in relation to an IP.
Previously it was much harder to complain if a person felt that an issue was not being dealt with correctly or efficiently. Prior to the new gateway for complaints, an individual would have to work out which governing body the IP belonged to-a process that in many cases was not made easy by the IP or Company involved. Bearing in mind there could be eight different authorising bodies the process was not clear or user friendly to the average person who may have been experiencing difficulty with their IP.
The new process is also expected to result in massive savings which can be passed onto the creditors; a figure of £30 million pounds could be quite possible.
In general the new process will cut out needless procedures and this has been brought about by the Insolvency Service’s commitment to the “Red Tape Challenge”, an ambitious project launched by the Government to scrap and reform ineffective regulation. This does not apply purely to Insolvency but across the range of regulations that we see and have to use on a day to day basis in the UK.
We are hoping that this new process will make situations far easier to deal with, especially when a person moves from an IVA into bankruptcy. As a Company we have handled many cases where a person can no longer handle their IVA payments and decides to file for bankruptcy.
In such cases it is very commonplace for the IVA Company to become unresponsive to their previous client, and as a bankruptcy Company you are in many cases almost ignored when trying to deal with the closure of the IVA and the issue of the “certificate of failure” that is required by the Court when filing the bankruptcy. In a recent case that we handled, it took the IVA Company over a year to finally reach the point where the certificate is now being issued.
Complaints to the single gateway cover the majority of regulated Insolvency Practitioners and will be hosted by the Insolvency Service in Leeds. Most IP’s belong to one of the following regulatory bodies;
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
- The Insolvency Practitioners Association
- The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland
- The complaints gateway also covers IP’s regulated by the Secretary of State
To lodge a complaint a person has the following options;
You can call the Insolvency Service on 0845 602 9848
You can email the Insolvency Service via their main website
You can complete the online complaints form and print and post this to IP Complaints, Insolvency Service, 3rd Floor, 1 City Walk, Leeds, LS11 9DA
For further details on the new complaints gateway you can also visit the following webpage http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/contact-us/IP-Complaints-Gateway
