Individual Voluntary Arrangements

Fresh Start Debt Advice is part of a group of Licensed Insolvency Practitioners who are authorised to provide Individual Voluntary Arrangements.

To set up an IVA you must use an Insolvency Practitioner such as ourselves. If you think that an IVA could be a solution to your debt problems then speak to one of our advisors by calling freephone 0800 043 50 43 or by completing our enquiry form.

To qualify for an IVA it is usually expected that you will have debts in excess of £15000 that you are unable to repay through the release of any material assets you may have. These debts should be divided between at least three separate creditors. Additionally you must be in regular employment and be able to make repayments high enough to satisfy your creditors. For the IVA to progress you must have the agreement of at least 75% of your creditors.

There is no standard amount of debt that will be written off by entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. In general however creditors are unlikely to accept an IVA in which more than two thirds of the debts are written off.

The amount of your IVA repayments will be negotiated between yourself and your creditors. You will be expected to pay as much as you can reasonably afford based on your current income and outgoings. You will retain a proportion of you income sufficient to meet essential domestic needs such as the cost of food, clothing and bills.

The maximum length of time of an IVA is seven years, although generally they will last for five years. The exact period of the IVA will vary from case to case.

Every person has a personal credit rating based on their previous credit history and other factors such as age and employment status. Anyone entering into an IVA, or indeed bankruptcy, will have this included in their credit file for six years before it is removed.

Individual Voluntary Arrangements offer a number of advantages over bankruptcy. Entering into an IVA gives you a greater amount of flexibility and control over your debt repayments. The IVA is a private agreement and unlike bankruptcy will not be publicised in your local newspaper. A downside of IVA's however is that the qualifying criteria are quite narrow and so they aren't suitable for everyone.

As individual circumstances differ it is recommended that you consult a professional advisor such as ourselves before committing to any one solution. Our experienced debt advisors are available on freephone 0800 043 50 43 or alternatively via our enquiry form.