Hi Greggy.

Once your discharge has been recorded on the Register of Insolvencies that's it for you. You're discharged. If you inherit after that time the trustee will have no interest in the matter.

There's not really any such thing as being "not fully discharged". I know that you're referring to the trustee not having yet discharged themselves (because they still have matters to deal with) but this doesn't change the fact that their former client is discharged.

It might be worth looking back to how things were not very long ago. The trustee could not discharge you until they'd finished all of their work even if you'd completed your obligations. People could remain undischarged for months or years in some circumstances. Things have certainly moved in a positive direction since then.

Hi TDA,
Thanks as per usual in your quick response, and thanks for clearing up this small matter, it seems we have moved on which is a blessing.

How long after discharge should it take before default notices on credit reports start to revert back to around when the TD was signed? Will this still happen if the debtor has been discharged but the trustee hasn't?

Hi upstream.

This will not happen without an intervention.

Basically, you'll need to contact any companies concerned to request the change to the date.

The information we got from the Information Commissioner is that it's the client's discharge date which is relevant, not the trustee's discharge date.

Thanks for the reply. I was under the impression that some creditors would do this as a matter of course and it was only the ones that didn't that I would have to chase in order to get the date changed. I guess I'll start hunting for customer service addresses for the companies listed as having me in default up to the present date and writing to them. Is there a template you're aware of how I should word such letters along with copies of my form 5?

We may be mixing up two different things here upstream.

There are formal "default notices". This is a single event driven by a creditor on a single date. You should be able to get the date backdated to around the time the trust deed began if it was issued after that. This means it will drop off your credit report sooner.

This is unlikely to happen without an intervention from you.

There is also marking an account as currently being in default on a month-to-month basis. This should obviously stop continuing once you have been discharged as money is no longer due to be paid. The balance owed should also be changed to zero following your discharge.

Some creditors seem to do this without prompting.

Yes, I have just been searching through other posts on the subject and am starting to realise my mix up. I have been checking my credit report on Noddle.

2 of the creditors in my TD have their accounts marked as settled and satisfied. They have default notices listed within their entries as Jan '12 and March '13. Am I able to write to them to request these dates are changed to Nov 2010 when I signed my TD?

RBS, Halifax and Link Financial all have open accounts on my credit report with default notices up to June '14. Do I write to them to request they update their files as satisfied/settled and backdate the default notices to 2010 if they don't within a month or so?

Hi upstream.

Yes, formal default notices shouldn't be dated much after the trust deed was signed. You can request that default notices are backdated.

Open accounts should now be marked as closed with a zero balance. The status on the account, if it is marked default, should not appear after the time that you were discharged.

The status of previously open accounts will probably continue to show as having been "default" for the months prior to your discharge but with different reporting afterwards.

Thanks TDA. I'll start searching for data controllers at the relevant creditors and send off some letters.

Am I right in thinking that it is the original creditor you have to write to, or is it the debt recovery company that currently has the debt? I had an unsecured loan with GE Money but this is appearing as Link Financial on my credit file.

I think you need to contact the issuer of a formal default notice.

Regarding monthly reporting, I think your starting point is the firm that is currently submitting the reports (eg Link).