Frequently Asked Questions

IVA stands for ‘Individual Voluntary Arrangement’; it is a legally binding contract between you and your creditors. Once your IVA is successfully completed, any outstanding amounts due to the creditors of your IVA are written off. Secured debts are not usually included in your IVA and will need to be paid as normal.

An IVA is not suitable for everyone who is struggling to pay their debts. A number of elements have to be considered, including the amount you can afford to repay, how many creditors you owe money to and how long it would take you to pay your debts by other means.

An IVA is a legally binding agreement meaning that both you and your creditors must adhere to the terms of the agreement. Interest and charges are frozen on approval of the IVA. A Debt Management plan is an informal agreement where you will have to pay your creditors in full over a longer time frame. Potentially you may also have to pay interest and charges on the debts. Suitability for solutions is dependent on individual circumstances.

Your payment will depend on your personal circumstances. The amount is designed to be affordable for you whilst being acceptable to creditors. The amount will be agreed with you before contact is made with the creditors.

All the costs associated with your IVA are included in the payments you make in to it. Our fee is agreed by the creditors and taken from the payments to them as part of your IVA. Your IVA proposal will contain full details of our fees.

During your IVA, you will normally agree not to obtain further credit. Once your IVA has been successfully completed your Insolvency Practitioner will give you a certificate of completion. You will be able to send copies of the certificate to the credit agencies and request them to update your file. Any defaults and CCJs remain on your credit file for 6 years, therefore you will have 1 year left to go. After the IVA is finished, you can apply for credit but you may find this difficult.

Because an IVA is a legally binding agreement you are expected to comply with your obligations that are set out in the IVA proposal. If you are prevented by circumstances outside your control from complying with the IVA, we will work with you and your creditors to reach an acceptable conclusion to the IVA. If you simply fail to comply with the IVA and do not let us know the reasons why, the IVA will be terminated and your creditors will be free to take action against you for the debts which are still owed to them.