Choose the right Insolvency Practitioner

If it is decided that an IVA is the right solution for you, Beat My Debt will be able to recommend an Insolvency Practitioner who is either local or experienced in dealing with the special circumstances of your situation.

For example, if you are self employed, you will normally need to use an Insolvency Practitioner who has experience of working with self employed people.

If you want to find your own insolvency practitioner, you can do so. The easiest way to do this would be to search for local insolvency practitioners in your area on the internet. However, taking the recomendation of Beat My Debt will mean that you will be working with an IP who is approved by Beat My Debt and experienced in dealing with people with your kind of debt problems.

The next steps

There are a number of steps that you will have to carry out to get your IVA in place. Generally speaking these will take between 6-8 weeks.

1. Complete your Statement of Affairs

We record your entire financial situation in a Statement of Affairs document. The information you provide will have to be supported with documentation in due course. 

2. Statement of affairs reviewed by Insolvency Practitioner

Once completed, your Statement of Affairs is passed to the insolvency practitioner for their review. The Insolvency Practitioner must be convinced that your proposal is in the best interests of your creditors, that there is a clear advantage for your creditors over bankruptcy and that you are doing the very best you can to address your financial difficulties.

3. IVA Proposal Drafted

Once you have provided all the necessary documentation to support the information you have given in your Statement of Affairs, the insolvency practitioner will draft your IVA proposal document. This document will then be sent to you for you to review. If you have any questions at this stage, you should ask them and make sure you completely understand your proposal. You will be asked to sign this proposal and return it to the insolvency practitioner.

4. Creditors Meeting Held

Each of your creditors is sent a copy of your proposal and a creditors meeting is called. Creditors will normally be given up to three weeks to consider it. At the end of this time a meeting is held where the proposal may be accepted or accepted with modifications or rejected. No modification of your proposal will be accepted without your express agreement, and you will need to make yourself contactable by telephone during the day of the creditors meeting.

5. IVA Registered and payments begin

The IVA is registered in the Insolvency Register and the insolvency practitioner is appointed as your IVA supervisor.  They will monitor your monthly payments, supervise the disposal of any assets and fulfil any other requirements as agreed in your IVA.

6. IVA Completed

Once you have met all the terms of your IVA including making all necessary monthly payments, you will then have settled your debts in full and be issued with a Certificate of Due Compliance confirming this legally. Any outstanding debt will be written off and you will be left debt free to turn over a new leaf.

More Information: Expert articles

To read articles about individual voluntary arrangements written by our experts please click on the expert articles and news link in the "Useful Links" box below.