ICB Report Post-Bankruptcy

M

Matthew Moore

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Just received an ICB report I ordered in the post. For my mortgage on my family home which is subject to a possession order with a stay till 01/06/17, it is marked as pending litigation and showing full amount owed.

Is this an oversight or do I need to wait till house is in banks possession for it to come to an end?

Anyone else order their ICB report since discharge?

You can get it and it will be out in a few days.
 
Hi Matthew

I'm in the same boat. Over 2 years later and its still showing up on my ICB report. They just refuse point blank to remove it !

The FSO are dealing with it so it's not moving very quickly. I'm sure they're completely overstretched at the moment. Theyre not impressed with the bank at all. Will keep you updated on how I get on with it.

NM
 
"
"the data shall be accurate and complete and, where necessary, kept up-to-date"
- section 2(1)(b) of the Act

You must ensure that the personal information you keep is accurate and up-to-date. Apart from ensuring compliance with the Acts, this requirement has an additional importance in that you may be liable to an individual for damages if you fail to observe the duty of care provision in the Act applying to the handling of personal data."

The above was taken from [broken link removed]

It might be worth complaining to the Data Protection Commissioner.
 
From the ICB website

the ICB holds information about borrowers and their loans for 5 years after the loan is closed.
Click to expand...

[broken link removed]


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
 
The link [broken link removed] also contains the following:

""However, if you experience problems or delays, or if your lender fails to put things right for you, you can consider making a formal complaint and referring the matter to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner."

The problem that Matthew Moore and no_moolah have is that the information being provided by the financial institutions to the ICB is not accurate. Once the High Court makes a bankruptcy order the debt no longer exists. So the financial institution needs to mark the loan with a "W" (written off) or an "L" (settled for less than full amount), in the month that the bankruptcy order was made.
 
I did get them involved TLO but they said there was no breach. They didn't seem to know how to deal with it.
 
Hi no_moolah

It's not surprising that they don't know how to deal with it. Situations like yours would be quite new to them. It is a more serious issue than it appears at first. Reporting out of date financial information is prohibited by the Data Protection Acts, but it also impedes former bankrupts from obtaining credit. For example, in your case, out of date information has been maintained for over two years. Even if the file was updated today, it would be another 5-6 years before the bad credit history would drop off. A future mortgage application could easily be negatively impacted by the existence of out of date/incorrect information. It looks like the Data Protection Commission needs to be educated on these scenarios, possibly starting with the Commissioner herself.
 
You are correct TLO. Even the FSO office aren't quite sure how to deal with it. They're kind of acting as a mediator really at the moment. They are being as helpful as they can be but the DPC just didn't want to know.

I really didn't want to go down the legal route because it won't be cheap and I doubt I will get any of those fees back. But if it isn't resolved this side of Christmas then that is something I will have to consider.

My bank continued to send information over after the order was made and their excuse was that the house was not sold (even though they had a receiver appointed so had full control over when it would be sold!). Then when it sold, not only did they not correct the previous records but they actually opened up a new entry on my ICB report for the outstanding balance ! Their argument all along was that the property wasn't sold and therefore they didn't have any confirmation that there were no dividends payable (I'm an individual with no assets except for my house and this was outlined in my BR papers which they received a copy of !). Now that the property is sold, they are saying that they still don't know if any dividends are payable - they haven't even bothered to ask my OR for confirmation of this ! It's so bizarre !
 
no_moolah, this is even more serious. The financial institution has proactively provided false information to the ICB. There is no outstanding balance. The bankruptcy order had the effect of writing the balance down to zero, unless it was a joint mortgage and the other party wasn't made bankrupt. The Data Protection Commissioner should be serving the financial institution with an enforcement order. My tuppenceworth would be to approach it in this order.

1) Start with a letter to Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner, outlining the situation. This is a new area and she is probably unfamiliar with the scenarios that are developing.
2) If no response, engage with your local TDs. Attend their clinics, and ask them to intervene with Helen Dixon on your behalf.
3) If still no movement, consider civil legal action against the financial institution.
4) And to put a bit of pressure on, formally advise the financial institution's auditors that incorrect information about your account balances appears to be maintained on their ledgers.

This is also a problem in the UK. The below post on Money Saving Expert in the UK outlines how the problem is resolved there. Some of the template letters referred to may be of use, but they would need to be edited to refer to the Irish equivalent. Also, Helen Dixon might be interested in the process her UK counterpart, the Information Commissioner's Office, uses to resolve these issues.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=7834457#post7834457
 
Thank you TLO, that is very helpful !

I will let you know if I make any progress on it.

Just out of interest - if I were to hire a representative to help resolve the issue, should I be looking at getting a solicitor or an insolvency / accountant professional?
 
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A solicitor, this is a legal issue. Maybe try Gerard Rudden. He is the solicitor who represented Max Schrems in the Facebook privacy case so he has form in taking on the Data Protection Commissioner.
 
no_moolah said:
Hi Matthew

I'm in the same boat. Over 2 years later and its still showing up on my ICB report. They just refuse point blank to remove it !

The FSO are dealing with it so it's not moving very quickly. I'm sure they're completely overstretched at the moment. Theyre not impressed with the bank at all. Will keep you updated on how I get on with it.

NM
Click to expand...

Thanks no_moolah, I'll have to get on their case too. I was hoping to see a line drawn through it after going through the bankruptcy.
 
TLO said:
The problem that Matthew Moore and no_moolah have is that the information being provided by the financial institutions to the ICB is not accurate. Once the High Court makes a bankruptcy order the debt no longer exists. So the financial institution needs to mark the loan with a "W" (written off) or an "L" (settled for less than full amount), in the month that the bankruptcy order was made.
Click to expand...

That was my understanding of it too. They can only rely on their security now, outstanding balance is irrelevant. Perhaps it's an oversight, I'll get onto the bank and give them a chance to correct it.
 
I was declared bankrupt in England in April 2014 and subsequently discharged 1 year later. I recently ordered my ICB and the only thing showing is my mortgage arrears. It has a last update date of May 2014 and a scheduled removal date of May 2019. What is shown is the number of arrears at this time and then a repossession as the last entry.
Is this correct as I'm not sure what it should show?

Also is there any way of having this repaired from my ICB. I'm in good standing now with a solid job, credit union savings etc. but I can't get simple credit because of this. I've tried to contact the Bank responsible to talk with someone about it but they don't seem to have any idea who that would be.
 
UK_Bound said:
I was declared bankrupt in England in April 2014 and subsequently discharged 1 year later. I recently ordered my ICB and the only thing showing is my mortgage arrears. It has a last update date of May 2014 and a scheduled removal date of May 2019. What is shown is the number of arrears at this time and then a repossession as the last entry.
Is this correct as I'm not sure what it should show?

Also is there any way of having this repaired from my ICB. I'm in good standing now with a solid job, credit union savings etc. but I can't get simple credit because of this. I've tried to contact the Bank responsible to talk with someone about it but they don't seem to have any idea who that would be.
Click to expand...

If it was last updated in May 2014 then it sounds correct to me UK_Bound.

It stays on your record for 5 years so you cannot get it removed before then - unless of course the bank decides to be very generous one day and remove it for you :)
 
Hi UK_Bound, in your case the information is accurate so there is little to be gained by trying to have it removed. It will just sit there until May 2019 and will then drop off. A little over 2.5 years to go. In the mean-time, it might be worth trying to borrow small amounts from your credit union. Amounts smaller than what is in your credit union share account. Might be worth asking to meet a committee member in advance to explain the situation. The idea would be to have a modest track record of borrowing/repaying, without risk to the CU, so that come May 2019 you will have a clean credit record rather than no credit record.
 
Hi folks,

On a similar theme, I received my ICB report which is showing a single debt which is marked as 'written off' due to our bankruptcy adjudication in Feb 2014.

However we've just applied for a loan and the lender has come back to say that some of our debt is 'pending litigation'! How is it possible for me to request and receive a version of my ICB report and the lender to then request the same and come back with a different version of the picture.

It's hard enough to get back on the straight and narrow without having to deal with this nonsense.

I now face what I fear will be a long battle with the ICB to understand WTF is going on

NT
 
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Matthew Moore said:
That was my understanding of it too. They can only rely on their security now, outstanding balance is irrelevant. Perhaps it's an oversight, I'll get onto the bank and give them a chance to correct it.
Click to expand...

Hi Matthew

I spoke to the ICB about my file the other day and they said that the entry automatically gets removed from my credit report 5 years from the date the bank mark it as Pending Litigation.

In my case, I'm actually better off as mine will be removed now in 2018 instead of 2019.

Check the Scheduled Removal Date on your entry to see when yours is up. You might not have to chase the bank to correct your file after all.

NM
 
Folks,

I've been fighting a similar battle with the ISI, the ICB and one of our creditors.

I got this from the ISI:

"It is only unsecured debt that is written off in bankruptcy. However if the debt is a secured debt (ie a mortgage ) the secured creditors rights are unaffected - s136(2) bankruptcy act.


(2) This section shall not affect the power of a secured creditor to realise or otherwise deal with his security in the same manner as he would have been entitled to realise or deal with it if this section had not been enacted."

This means they do not have to write off the secured debt when adjudicated.

Crazy situation to find ourselves after going through all the pain of the bankruptcy process.

Mikel
 
Mikel

My interpretation of that section of the act would be that in the event of the bankruptcy of the borrower, it will not affect the rights of the creditor to sell the asset to realise it's value. I can't see how that then means that they don't have to stop sending the information on to the ICB following the bankruptcy order?

I think you're better off consulting a solicitor who knows the area well as the biggest hurdle for me was that there was nothing in the act that specifically dealt with the sending on of information to the ICB. I did a lot of research on it at the time and I couldn't find anything. It was so frustrating because nobody knew how to deal with it ! And as a result, they just took whatever answer the bank threw at them without question. This is not me making assumptions by the way - the DPC and the FSO actually told me they didn't know how to deal with it.

Best of luck with it and keep us updated on how it goes.

NM
 
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