{"id":10256,"date":"2011-01-24T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/?p=10256"},"modified":"2019-07-04T09:07:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T08:07:55","slug":"an-iva-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/an-iva-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"An IVA explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you think that you may be insolvent but are unsure what to do  about it here is a simple five step process that describes what you will  need to do if you are to enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement  (IVA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Like any good process, planning features heavily in the early  stages and execution features heavily in the final stages. Before you  make any precipitate decision, it makes sense to get a feel for the  total process and you may find, after conducting this exercise, that an  IVA is not for you and that another financial solution may be best for  your circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1 &#8211; Decisions I will have to make<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you determine that you are insolvent and want to do something  about it, here are some of the key questions you have to ask yourself  and when you have the answers you will have to make some crucial  decisions. <em>Questions; who shall I go to for help and debt advice;  how much will it cost me; what options will be explained to me; will I  opt for bankruptcy or an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or is there an  alternative solution that better suits my circumstances such as Debt  Consolidation or even the possibility of getting financial help from my  family. Answers: I should shop around for help \u2013 talk to at least one  reputable commercial provider of insolvency services and to CAB and  maybe CCCS; find out early on what getting advice will cost me \u2013they say  it should cost nothing, but we\u2019ll see; hopefully all options will be  fully explained to me so that I can make the right choice. Let\u2019s assume  that my best option and the one I prefer, is to offer proposals for an  IVA to my creditors. \u00a0I now have to choose an insolvency firm to assist  me. What is the next stage and what do I have to do?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2 &#8211; Preparation of my IVA proposal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"424\" height=\"283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Fotolia_74124903_XS.jpg\" alt=\"IVA Proposal\" class=\"wp-image-10265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Fotolia_74124903_XS.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Fotolia_74124903_XS-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>An insolvency firm will be able to verify quite quickly whether you  are in fact insolvent. If you are you will need to furnish documentation  in regard to your debts and assets, your income and expenditure and  full details of your personal and financial circumstances, particularly  as to how debts were incurred. <em>It should not be too difficult for me  to achieve this if I co-operate fully with my Insolvency Practitioner  (IP) and the case manager assigned to me. I will need to supply current  pay-slips, creditor statements and other creditor correspondence,  mortgage and HP statements, valuations of my house and car and full  details of my living circumstances and that of my family and dependants.  I expect to have several phone conversations with my IP or case manager  whom I will authorize to communicate with my creditors on my behalf. If  necessary I will meet with my IP face to face. My IP will then prepare a  proposal for an IVA and send it to me to verify and sign off. I will  return the signed proposal and my IP will choose a suitable date and  venue for a meeting of my creditors and notify my creditors accordingly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3 &#8211; Meeting of Creditors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your IP whom you have nominated to help you \u2013 hence the term  \u2018nominee\u2019 \u2013 will have arranged a venue, date and time for the Meeting of Creditors. In  practice, creditors rarely attend such meetings personally. They usually  communicate in writing with the IP \u2013 providing proofs of debt and  voting instructions by letter, fax and e-mail. The voting instructions  will be to accept or reject your IVA proposal in what is called \u2018proxy  voting\u2019. This simply means that they will not be personally present to  cast their vote. They authorize (by proxy) another person \u2013 usually the  chairman of the meeting &#8211; to vote in accordance with their instructions.  They may also vote to amend the terms of the proposal in what are  called \u2018modifications\u2019.\u00a0 You will be kept informed of the progress of  the meeting and it is your decision as to whether to agree to any  modifications suggested by your creditors. The nominee communicates with  the creditors on your behalf and can adjourn the meeting for up to two  weeks while you consider if you are prepared to agree to any  modification the creditors have proposed.\u00a0 <em>I understand that I can  decide not to proceed and to withdraw my IVA proposal at any point up to  and including the meeting of my creditors. If I should do this, I am no  worse off than before and I understand that I should not incur any  costs for work done up until now by the nominee and other staff.  Assuming I agree to proceed, what happens next?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 4 &#8211; The beginning of my IVA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At least 75% by value of those of your creditors who chose to vote  must accept your proposal and you must of course agree to accept the  creditor modifications (if any) for your IVA to be approved. Once these  two conditions are met the IVA is officially approved and becomes  binding on you and on all of your unsecured creditors, including those  creditors who chose not to vote at all. The chairman of the MOC now  prepares the \u2018Chairman\u2019s Report\u2019 and circulates it to all creditors, to  the court and of course to you. In it is summarized the outcome of the  MOC and what you must do to successfully complete your IVA. It also  identifies the name of the IP who is going to supervise your IVA. This  is often the same IP who acted for you as nominee up until the MOC.\u00a0 <em>I  understand that at this stage all of my unsecured debts will be dealt  with under my IVA and my creditors must stop chasing me for repayment. I  will immediately commence making monthly payments to my IVA and also  contribute any other monies required under the terms of my approved IVA.  My supervisor has the responsibility of distributing these funds to my  creditors.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 5 &#8211; The life of my IVA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\nFor many insolvent debtors who choose to enter into an IVA, this moment \nis one of the highlights. The utter joy of seeing the light at the end \nof the debt tunnel and the cessation of creditor harassment is almost \nuniversal. Provided they stick to the terms of the IVA they can expect \nto be debt free in (usually) five years. The supervisor must of course \nreview their changing financial circumstances and report regularly to \ncreditors. If a debtor gains an increase in income over and above any \nincrease in the cost of living, then part of the additional net income \nwill have to be contributed to the IVA. Provided payments are maintained\n there is no reason why the IVA should not be maintained and \nsuccessfully concluded. Even if there is a serious adverse change in the\n debtor\u2019s financial circumstances the supervisor may be able to offer \ncreditors proposals for a variation to the IVA, to enable the debtor to \ncomplete the IVA and to become debt free. <em>I understand that if I \nkeep up my part of the deal that I can look forward to being debt-free, \nworry-free and creditor-free. Looking back, I think that this is a plan \nthat I could adhere to and I understand that there is quite a high \nsuccess rate, particularly among the more reputable insolvency firms, of\n people successfully navigating the IVA journey to completion.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you think that you may be insolvent but are unsure what to do about it here is a simple five step process that describes what you will need to do if you are to enter into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iva-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10270,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10256\/revisions\/10270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldebtrelief.co.uk\/debt-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}