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?
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.
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.
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.
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.