What is an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) is a legally-binding arrangement to pay an agreed amount off your debts over a set period. Any unpaid parts of the debts that were included in the IVA are written off when the arrangement is completed. An IVA can be set up in a number of different ways. It can either be a monthly instalment plan over a fixed term (normally five years), or a short term arrangement if you have a lump sum to put forward. Some IVAs are a mixture of both instalments and a lump sum.

Is an Individual Voluntary Arrangement suitable for me?

An IVA may be a suitable option for you if you have:

• money available every month to pay towards your debts;

• a lump sum or assets that could be included; or

• a combination of spare money each month and assets or a lump sum.

For an IVA to be a realistic option, you would normally need to have:

• at least 3 debts totalling £15,000 or more;

• two or more different creditors; and

• be able to pay back at least 20p for every £1 of the debt that you owe to them.

These criteria are a guide only. You may still be able to consider an IVA even if your circumstances fall outside of these guidelines

What debts can be included within an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

You can include most types of debt in your IVA proposal, but bear in mind that your creditors may object. You can include priority debts such as council tax arrears, tax debts, fuel debts and so on. However, you cannot include:

• maintenance, or arrears of maintenance, ordered by a court;

• Child Support Agency arrears;

• magistrates' court fines;

• mortgage, secured loan or rent arrears unless your lender or landlord agrees (which is unlikely); and

• student loans.

How do I set up an Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

An IVA has to be set up by an Insolvency Practitioner (IP). An IP is usually an accountant or solicitor who is authorised to set up IVAs. The IP sends the IVA proposal to your creditors and arranges a formal meeting called a ‘creditors meeting’. At the meeting creditors have to vote on whether to accept the IVA. The proposal has to be accepted by more than 75% of the creditors who vote ‘by value’ for it to become legally binding on all your creditors. ‘By value’ means voting creditors who hold more than 75% of your total debt, not the number of creditors you have. This means that if the creditors to whom you owe the highest amount vote against the proposal, the IVA may not go through. Sometimes creditors will ‘haggle’ about the terms of the IVA and ask you to agree to pay more every month, or include assets you do not want to lose. They may ask you to make payments over a longer period. However, you have to agree to these changes being made to the proposal. If the IVA is agreed, your IP will supervise the arrangements and make sure you make the payments. Most IVAs follow a set of rules known as the IVA protocol. The guidelines cover how a straightforward consumer IVA should be put together and how the Insolvency Practitioner should behave. The protocol has been set up to make the IVA process quicker and simpler for Insolvency Practitioners, creditors and for you as the applicant.

What about my home?

If you are a home owner, your IP will normally want to include a special section within your IVA proposal called an ‘equity clause’. This means that during the IVA (normally in year four) you would be expected to apply for a secured loan or re-mortgage to pay back some of the debt. If you cannot do this, your IP may want you to sell your home instead. However if your IVA follows the IVA protocol, there is some protection. If you are able to re-mortgage or get a secured loan, then the repayments should be affordable. You should also be left with equity of at least 15% of the value of your share of the property. For example, if you are the sole owner of your property and it is worth £100,000, you should be left with at least £15,000 equity after remortgaging. The protocol says that, if you are unable to get a re-mortgage or secured loan, you can keep paying instalments under the IVA for an extra 12 months rather than selling your home. Alternatively, a third party such as a family member or friend could pay a lump sum to the IP. This lump sum would need to be 85% of the value of your share of the property (after the value of your share of any existing mortgages and secured loans has been taken away). If you are unable to maintain the payments on your IVA there is a risk that you may be made bankrupt, which could result in you losing your home.

Will I be charged for my Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

Fees vary between different firms, but typical fees can be £4,000 or more. These fees are usually taken from the monthly payment you have agreed you can afford to make to your creditors.

What if my circumstances change during the term of my Individual Voluntary Arrangement?

If your circumstances change, you must tell your Insolvency Practitioner. If you are unable to keep up with your payments, your IP can ask the creditors to accept lower payments and agree a ‘modified’ IVA. The Insolvency Practitioner may charge you a fee for doing this. If you cannot make any payments or your creditors refuse to accept lower payments, your IVA may fail. If this happens, the IP may allow you to consider other options. The IP is able to petition for your bankruptcy, but this will not happen in all cases.

Key advantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement

• Repayments stop at an agreed date and you will usually pay less than the full amount you owe.

• You may be running a small business which would be difficult to keep going if you were bankrupt.

• You may be in a profession where you could lose your job if you go bankrupt such as accountancy, the police or armed forces. But be careful, in some professions your employment may be affected by an IVA. Check with your professional body and check your contract of employment.

• You may have access to a large lump sum and want a formal arrangement with your creditors to accept the lump sum and write off the rest of the debts.

• You will not automatically lose your house or other assets.

• You will not have the same restrictions on you as you would have if you went bankrupt. For example, you can usually still use your bank account without saying you have an IVA.

Key disadvantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement

• If you do not keep to the terms of the IVA then the insolvency practitioner (IP) or your creditors can take further action against you, for example by making you bankrupt.

• If creditors do not accept the IVA proposal, you are back to square one and your creditors can carry on trying to pursue you for your debts.

• If you paid an up-front fee for your IVA and it is not accepted, then you will have lost the fee and may be in a worse position than when you started.

• If you own your house, the IP and creditors may make you agree to re-mortgage your home as part of the IVA.

• There is a risk that the IVA is agreed on the basis of monthly payments that you cannot afford over a long time. You must be very careful that the payments are set at a realistic amount in the first place.

• If your circumstances change and you can no longer afford the payments, your IVA may end if the IP cannot persuade the creditors to accept a new agreement.

• The IVA will be recorded on your credit reference file for six years and can affect your ability to get further credit.

• The IVA is also recorded on the register of insolvencies. This is a public database which can be searched via the internet.

This guide is a shortened version of the Individual Voluntary Arrangement fact sheet. You can view the full version by clicking this link.

Click here for more general information on insolvency from the Insolvency Service.

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/information/individual_voluntary_arrangements/Pages/iva_advice.aspx

This information only provides a brief overview, it should not be considered as full Individual Voluntary Arrangement advice. If you believe that an Individual Voluntary Arrangement is likely to be the best option to help you with your debts it would be vital to seek impartial advice from one of the debt advice charities such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Stepchange, Christians Against Poverty or ourselves.