Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs)
OVERVIEW:
An IVA is a piece of government legislation and a confident arrangement between you and your creditors.
It is a legally binding agreement that will protect you from your creditors while you pay them at a rate you can afford, for a period of normally just 60 months.
The amazing thing about doing an IVA is that any debt left outstanding after the 60 month period is legally written off by your creditors.
Your IVA proposals are put forward to creditors in a document called proposals. The proposals are lodged into Court and your creditors also receive a copy. If your assets are at risk because of action taken by creditors, your arrangement provider can apply to court for an Interim Order, which means that creditors cannot commence or continue with any action against you and your assets unless the Court permits them to do so.
A meeting of your creditors is held and creditors are able to vote on whether to accept, alter or reject your proposals. As long as your proposals demonstrate a genuine desire to repay as much of your debt as you can afford, it is likely that creditors will accept your IVA. It is your arrangements providers' role to guide you on what creditors will find acceptable.
Once your IVA is approved all interest and charges on your unsecured debt is frozen. If creditors accept that you can only repay a proportion of your debt, the balance of your debt will be written off as long as you keep to the terms of your agreement.
