Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)

Are you being constantly harassed by your creditors for payment, with threats of CCJs, bailiff action or even bankruptcy?  After your basic living costs, do you have an amount of money that you are desperately trying to stretch across all your creditors?

If this sounds familiar, then an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) could be the ideal solution to remove that creditor pressure once and for all.

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) is a legal agreement between you and your creditors. IVAs were introduced under the Insolvency Act 1986. An IVA, provided you stick to it, protects you against any further action from your creditors. Once you've committed to an IVA, you could become free of debt after 60 months.

Advantages of an IVA:-

• Prevents any further action being taken by your creditors
• Interest and charges are stopped
• You only make one reduced monthly payment
• Unlike bankruptcy, an IVA is not made known to your employer or landlord
• Unlike bankruptcy, IVAs carry no restrictions on your professional status.
• If you operate a business, the IVA does not have to impact on it.

Most individuals offer to make monthly payments from their income for the duration of the IVA however for some it is more appropriate to offer one lump sum payment at the commencement of the IVA (this could take the form of an equity release or a third party offer). If this was the case the duration of the IVA could be much shorter than 60 months.

Once you have contacted Bridgestones you will be put through to a case administrator who will arrange to review your financial situation in detail. This will be at a time convenient for you and will enable a complete accurate assessment of your circumstances to be made. The best advice can then be given so that you can decide which route you wish to take in resolving your financial problems.

The experienced case administrators at Bridgestones are fully trained to assess your personal situation and will explain the different options that are available to you to resolve the difficulties that you are experiencing. It is often the case that an IVA is chosen as the preferred solution by individuals once they have fully considered their options.

Once an IVA is in place, you are protected from your creditors attempting to recover their debt from you and your outstanding indebtedness to your creditors will be settled in full via the terms of the IVA. Most creditors will tend to agree to an IVA that offers a better return than bankruptcy that looks capable of being sustained.

The Individual Voluntary Arrangement Process

It is not possible for you to act for yourself in putting forward an IVA Proposal to your creditors. You need to engage the services of an Insolvency Practitioner at Bridgestones who will act as your Nominee and upon approval of the IVA as your Supervisor.

• With the assistance of the Nominee and your case administrator your Proposal is put together. The Proposal will contain details of your financial situation including a financial statement showing your household income and expenditure. The income that you have left over after deducting your day to' day living expenses will be the monthly contribution payment offered to your creditors in the Proposal. The Proposal will also detail your assets and liabilities, the reasons for your financial difficulty and a comparison between what creditors will be likely to receive back through the IVA and through Bankruptcy.
• Once you have agreed the Proposal, the Nominee has to write a report to Court to state that the IVA has a reasonable prospect of being approved and implemented. The report also states a meeting of creditors should be convened to consider the Proposal being offered and that the Proposal's content had been verified.
• When the Nominee's Report is filed in Court a date is set for the Meeting of Creditors. Every creditor of whose claim the Nominee is aware must be sent notice of the meeting. The creditors receive a copy of the Proposal and the Nominee's Report to Court and are given a minimum of 14 days notice of the meeting to allow them to consider the offer being made and allow them time to submit their vote if they wish to do so.
• Provided that overall more than 75% of creditors voting accept the IVA, the IVA is then implemented. Some creditors may modify the Proposal and if this happens your case administrator will make sure that you fully understand every modification before you accept them.
• Once the IVA has been approved the Nominee becomes the Supervisor and along with your case administrator carries out regular reviews of your conduct to ensure that all terms of the Proposal are being adhered to. There is a duty imposed on the Supervisor to keep all creditors informed as to its progress. Upon each anniversary of the IVA, a Report is sent to you, all your creditors and Court.

The case administrators at Bridgestones understand that this is a difficult time for you and will remain professional and non-judgemental at all times when asking you to inform them of your personal situation. If you are having difficulty in gathering documentation requested from you, your case administrator will do all they can to assist you.

What would you need to do if you wish to propose an IVA?

You will need to show that you are committed to repaying creditors through the IVA and work with your case administrator at Bridgestones to ensure that your IVA Proposal is put to creditors with the minimum of delay.

You will need to show that you have a regular form of income. As most IVA's are based on income contributions over a fixed period of time, you need to show that you are able to commit to the agreed amount for that entire duration. If you are self employed you will need to show that your business is capable of supporting the level of income that you are drawing and that all personal tax due is accounted for.

You will need to provide details of any other household income such as your partner's income, benefits or pension payments received.

You will need to provide details of all your household expenses. Creditors have guidelines that are used for certain categories of expenditure. Your case administrator at Bridgestones will assist you in compiling these however if you require a higher allowance than is usually accepted, this can be explained in the IVA Proposal.

You will need to provide details of all your creditors including amounts owed and reference numbers.

You will need to provide details of any assets plus any amounts secured against them.

You will need to provide a financial statement, which will explain the reasons for your current financial difficulty.

Client Testimonials

We both can't thank you enough for all the help you have given to us. We both feel now we can get our lives back on track and look forward to a better life. You have all been brilliant. Thank you.

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