Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) experts, NancollasGreer, say that although the general perception is that IVAs last for five years this is not always the case. IVAs were designed to be flexible. Where an IVA is based on voluntary contributions from income, the main lenders have come to expect that it will last for five years. Although NancollasGreer advise that they have many clients who are approaching retirement and therefore could not consider a five year IVA. In these cases they have been able to get creditors to agree to shorter IVAs.
There can be other good reasons for a short-term IVA say NancollasGreer. They often set up IVAs that are based on the introduction of third party funds and offer creditors a full and final settlement scenario. In one recent case NancollasGreer had a client who owed £41,000 following the break up of a relationship. He had no assets and no surplus income after paying for his living expenses but he wanted to avoid bankruptcy. An IVA was approved on the basis that his parents agreed to pay £15,000 into the approved IVA. Faced with the alternative of a nil return in bankruptcy, his creditors voted in favour of the IVA. In this case the IVA was concluded within 13 weeks of the client’s initial telephone call to NancollasGreer.
Creditors are always happy to consider a full and final settlement IVA if it gives them better and/or quicker return than bankruptcy. NancollasGreer say that the risk of a 5 year IVA, from the creditors’ point of view, is that, for whatever reason, the IVA is not concluded and creditors end up receiving just a fraction of the amount they are owed after having kept the file open for years. Whilst a full and final settlement IVA may not always offer them as much as they could expect over five years it does provide a greater level of certainty that the majority of creditors prefer.
Full and final settlement IVA solutions do not always have to rely on third party funds. NancollasGreer often undertake them for clients who have re-mortgaged their share of equity in a property and the surplus income that they did have is used to meet the additional mortgage payments.
From a clients’ point of view a full and final settlement IVA solutions mean that they are free of their debt within a few months of contacting NancollasGreer about their debt problems.
NancollasGreer are not just an IVA company. They advise on ALL options for dealing with unsecured debt and urge anyone with debt problems to seek urgent professional advice from a Licenced Insolvency Practitioner before entering into any form of debt solutions. “It is vital that you understand all of the debt solutions open to you and the implications of each one. There are just too many unqualified debt advisers out there today who will only advise you on the option that suits them” says Sarah Nancollas. http://www.nancollasgreer.com
