ALL ABOUT IVA
An IVA is a legal agreement between you and your creditors to whom you owe money.
Money Advice Service provides access to free financial help and information.
HOW DOES AN IVA WORK?
You agree to pay off a percentage of your debt over a given period of time, by means of affordable repayments (normally over 60 months). In order to do an IVA, you will need the help of us (an Insolvency Practitioner) to set up and negotiate the IVA with your creditors. An IVA is a completely legally binding process governed by The Insolvency Act 1986.
THE CRITERIA REQUIRED TO DO AN IVA
- In order for an IVA to be likely to be approved it would be ideal if your debts are over £6,000
- You cannot afford to pay your debts
- You must owe money to 2 or more creditors
- You will need a surplus income each month (after living expenses, but excluding debt payments)
IVA ADVANTAGES
- 1 easy monthly payment based on affordability.
- We do not charge any upfront fees.
- An IVA offers you protection from creditors.
- Creditor pressure stopped as creditors must deal with us.
- An IVA can be complete in as little as 1 year if you can offer a lump sum payment.
- All interest frozen immediately.
- Suitable for tenants or homeowners, individuals or couples, and even business owners.
IVA DISADVANTAGES
- If you are a homeowner with equity in your property you may be required to introduce part of your share of this equity in the final year of the arrangement by obtaining a remortgage or secured loan. If you can’t get a remortgage or loan on reasonable terms your arrangement can be extended for up to another year.
- If your circumstances change, and your insolvency practitioner can’t get creditors to accept amended terms, the IVA is likely to fail. You will still owe your creditors the full amount of what you owed at the start, less whatever has been paid to them under your IVA after costs of the IVA.
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
This notice sets out details of the complaints procedure which we operate to try to resolve complaints which you, the client, may have in relation to the services that we provide. This complaints procedure is aimed at resolving complaints quickly and satisfactorily and further improving the quality of the service we provide.
Our complaints procedure covers complaints which you may wish to make with regard to the services that we have provided to you, in particular, the manner in which we have dealt with your creditors and the information we have provided to you about our dealings on your behalf.
If you are unhappy with the service we have provided to you, you should in the first instance discuss the situation with your initial advisor or a member of our Client Support Team. Should you be dissatisfied with the explanation he or she has given to you then your complaint will be referred to a senior member of the Client Support Team and / or a manager within that department. Written complaints should be addressed to “Client Support Manager”.
A senior member and / or manager of the Client Support Team shall be appointed and will consider the contents of your complaint. In certain circumstances we may need to contact you for further information in order to better understand your position.
We will conduct a full investigation into the points raised and discuss the details of your complaint with your initial advisor and / or Client Support Team personnel where appropriate. Once all information has been considered you will be contacted further to confirm whether the company accepts either completely or to some degree your complaint. Where applicable, you will be advised of what steps the company will take to put right the complaint and ensure the same problem does not re-occur.
It is the company’s aim to resolve any complaint satisfactorily within 10 working days, although where more detailed investigation is required the process may take longer. You will be kept informed of the time scale that will be required for us to investigate your complaint.
We will conduct a full investigation into the points raised and discuss the details of your complaint with your initial advisor and / or Client Support Team personnel where appropriate. Once all information has been considered you will be contacted further to confirm whether the company accepts either completely or to some degree your complaint. Where applicable, you will be advised of what steps the company will take to put right the complaint and ensure the same problem does not re-occur.
It is the company’s aim to resolve any complaint satisfactorily within 10 working days, although where more detailed investigation is required the process may take longer. You will be kept informed of the time scale that will be required for us to investigate your complaint.
Our licensed insolvency practitioners are regulated by their respective professional bodies. If we have not been able to provide a satisfactory response to your complaint you should contact the Insolvency Complaints Gateway at IP Complaints, Insolvency Service, 3rd Floor, 1 City Walk, Leeds, LS11 9DA, alternatively you can contact them online via https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-insolvency-practitioner or by Phone on 0300 6780015 (Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm). The Insolvency Practitioners Gateway is the central hub for complaints about insolvency practitioners in Great Britain and is run by the Insolvency Service.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
An IVA is a legally binding agreement between you and the creditors who lent you money. IVAs generally lasts for 60 months. In standard IVAs you will agree to pay a monthly amount which will be divided between your creditors after payment of the costs of the IVA. You will agree to pay only what is affordable for you even though this is almost certain to mean your creditors will not be paid in full.
An Individual Voluntary Arrangement ( IVA) is an agreement between you and the creditors who lent you money under legal terms and conditions. An IVA generally lasts for 60 months. The contract binds you to pay a monthly amount which will be divided proportionately between your creditors after the costs of the IVA.
Most unsecured debts other than debts such as fines are covered under an IVA. This can include credit cards, store cards, payday loans, overdrafts personal loans and more. Trading debts including debts owed to suppliers and H M Revenue and Customs are also covered under IVAs.
Your payments to the IVA will depend on different factors of which your income will play a major role. Your monthly expenditure and your personal circumstances will also be taken into consideration. We ensure that you pay what is affordable for you and not what your creditors may ask for.
Even if some of your creditors have taken court proceedings against you these debts can still be included in your IVA. Once the IVA is approved all court actions will cease.
Absolutely not, as long as you have a steady income or you receive some state benefits and you are able to afford to pay a monthly contribution after paying your living expenses.
Absolutely not without your written consent. The IVA is a confidential process. We will keep your data safe and we will not let anyone know about the IVA other than you and your creditors. The IVA will be registered with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and it is possible for someone to search this register to find out if you are subject to an IVA.
Under the terms of your IVA you will promise to pay a minimum amount to your creditors, which is much less than what you were bound to pay otherwise. This will certainly affect your credit rating adversely. However, your credit rating may be already quite low if you have missed some payments or made late payment to your creditors. As you will also agree in the IVA that you will not borrow any money while you are subject to the IVA then it may not matter to you that your credit rating has been affected.
When you propose an IVA to your creditors you will state how much you propose to pay from your income. This payment will be used to pay the costs of the IVA and the remainder will be paid to your creditors. This means that you will only pay the proposed contributions which are affordable for you and you will not have to pay anything in addition.
The first thing you need to do is to complete the online IVA form. We will get in touch with you as soon as possible and we will analyse your circumstances and advise you if an IVA is right for you. We need full details of your financial position to be able to advise you. We will always ask you before we process your IVA. If you decide to proceed with an IVA we will prepare the IVA proposal and associated documents so that your creditors can review the proposal. This process may take up to 6 weeks once we have all your information.
The Nominees and Supervisors of IVAs must be licensed insolvency practitioners who are all regulated by their professional bodies. At Anchorage Chambers our licensed insolvency practitioners are in the UK by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
The process for approving IVAs is now long established. Once we have advised you that an IVA is an option available to you we are confident that your creditors are very likely to approve the IVA. We regularly deal with most of the major creditors and because of this we know whether they will be likely to approve your IVA
In simple words, any unsecured debts still outstanding in your IVA will be written off. Even though you are unlikely to repay your debts in full your creditors have agreed that if you complied with the terms of the IVA they cannot pursue you for any debts which remain unpaid. Your credit rating may still be affected after the end of the IVA but it will gradually continue to improve.
If you simply fail to make payments as agreed then the IVA Supervisors will notify you of the breach of the IVA. If you do not take any action the IVA will be ended and your creditors will again be able to take action against you. Your debts may not have reduced and interest and costs can continue to be added to them by your creditors.
If you are struggling to make payments due to circumstances beyond your control e.g. redundancy or ill health your creditors are likely to look sympathetically on any proposals you may wish to make for revised payments even if this means extending the duration of the IVA. It is important that you keep in regular communication with us should anything of this nature occur.
If you are struggling to make payments due to circumstances beyond your control e.g. redundancy or ill health your creditors are likely to look sympathetically on any proposals you may wish to make for revised payments even if this means extending the duration of the IVA. It is important that you keep in regular communication with us should anything of this nature occur.
If we recommend an IVA as an appropriate solution for you and you decide to proceed it is very unusual for creditors to vote against the IVA. If for some reason your creditors do reject your IVA we will advise you of other solutions for dealing with your debts. Remember also that we will not charge you anything if your IVA is not accepted by your creditors.
ABOUT ANCHORAGE CHAMBERS
The team at Anchorage Chambers includes experienced insolvency professionals. Between us we have many years experience of helping people to resolve their debt problems using IVAs. We are based in Salford Manchester but our services cover the whole of England and Wales.
