SIP 9 was revised last year to take account of changes brought in by the revised rules and regulations that came into force in April 2005. Unfortunately, many IPs appear to have assumed the changes were cosmetic and missed the significance of one of them.
The revised SIP, which became effective on 1 August 2005, included new guidance notes. There is a new final paragraph dealing with creditors’ ability to request information about time costs.
In most of our recent visits, IPs have still been using the old version. It is not clear how seriously the regulators will take this omission, but it is now almost 9 months since the revised notes became a requirement and any practice that is still using the old records is going to project a less than flattering image to the monitors.
We suggest that you adopt the revised guidance notes from now on (and contact us to arrange a visit in case there is anything else you’ve missed!).
