If you’re interested in using an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to deal with your financial difficulties, you’ll need to use the services of an Insolvency Practitioner (IP). An IVA can only be carried out through a set series of legal processes, and only certain individuals are licensed to carry these processes out within the law.
Good Debt Advice
As well as handling the legal/ administrative aspects of your IVA, an IP can also give you sound advice in terms of your overall financial situation. This may include establishing whether or not an IVA is in fact the best option for your particular situation.
Although you may want to get things moving as quickly as possible, particularly if the stress of not managing to keep up with your debts is getting to you, it’s worth taking the time to hear the advice that a good IP can give you. You may find that you have more choices than you think.
Overview
The first thing an IP will do is take a thorough look at your finances, including your income, any assets you currently have, and of course a rundown of all of your current debts.
Information
It is imperative that you give the IP all of the information they need, particularly with regard to the debts you have. This gives them the ability to not only give you sound advice, but also to make sure the terms of any measures such as an IVA are actually going to help you in the long run.
Agreement
If you do in fact, with the help of an IP, establish that an IVA is the way to go, you then need to work out what you can afford to agree to. The payments that you’ll make as part of the IVA need to be realistically affordable, and to leave you with enough income to maintain a good standard of living as well.
Your IP will help you to work out a proposal that will work for you, but that will hopefully also appeal to your creditors and make them likely to agree to the arrangement. The proposal will then be presented to your creditors via the court, and they will then decide whether to accept it at a meeting in which they all have a vote.
Payments
If they do accept the agreement, you don’t actually make payments to the creditors directly, but into a single pot of funds, which are then distributed accordingly between the creditors. Your IP will help you to make the necessary arrangements to make your payments.
Mediation
As well as handling the administering of an IVA, an IP also acts as a mediator between you and your creditors, which can be invaluable if you’re struggling to keep up with their demands.
All practising Insolvency Practitioners in the UK are licensed to perform these specific duties, and the practise as a whole is regulated by the Insolvency Practitioners Association. This means that when you use a licensed IP, you have the security of knowing that they have demonstrated professional competence in matters relating to insolvency.
National Debt Relief belongs to a firm of leading chartered accountants who are one of the largest insolvency practices in the UK. We offer a complete portfolio of personal insolvency services in relation to IVA, Debt Management Plan and Bankruptcy. All our debt advice is confidential and with no obligation.