If you’ve had a County Court Judgement (CCJ) issued against you, it can seem like you have very few options as time passes. However, this is not necessarily the case, and there are measures that may indeed help your situation. There is no barrier to gaining an Individual Voluntary Arrangement if you have had CCJs in the past.
Advice
Naturally, the best way to establish what options you have and to choose between them is to speak to a professional. If you’re facing bankruptcy, you may want to secure the services of an Insolvency Practitioner. They will get an overview of your finances and offer guidance as to what move to make next.
Interim Orders
If you are being threatened with CCJs, an IVA may be well worth considering. Once you and your IP have decided to go for an IVA, your IP will apply to the court for an Interim Order. This will prevent any legal action from being taken against you for the time being for the debts concerned. Starting the IVA process therefore puts the situation on hold legally and gives you a little breathing space to work out what you should do.
Protection
If you do end up proposing an IVA that is accepted by your creditors, the IVA itself also prevents them from pursuing you through the courts. The IVA is a legally binding contract, and as long as you keep to your side of the arrangement, you should not need to worry about any further legal action from your creditors.
Once the IVA term has elapsed, and you have met the requirements of it, your debts will effectively be settled, even though in most cases you will only have paid a portion of them back. This means that your creditors are not going to be able to take any action against you again, providing you do manage to keep to the IVA payments.
Mediation
Spiralling debt is an extremely stressful thing to experience, and threats of legal action just make life even harder at an already difficult time. The level of legal protection that an IVA offers you is therefore seriously valuable. Also, you won’t need to worry about the stress of dealing with your creditors personally, as your IP will handle all of the negotiations with them on your behalf.
Having debts that have gotten out of control can make your situation very insecure, but using measures such as an IVA can genuinely help to get things in hand.