Have you taken out an IVA which is failing, about to fail or has already failed?
We have always said that an IVA is one of the most severe forms of pay back, leaving you with living a somewhat penniless existence for years.
If your IVA has any of the above status it is quite likely it was not the right solution for you in the first place. The internet companies and forum websites who sell and refer these schemes rely on giving you what you might think is a life saving solution at the time however we have lost count of the amount of clients who tell us they agree one figure to be then told only a higher figure is acceptable to creditors for the agreement to go forward, and being so far down the line reluctantly agree to higher payments.
Recently we heard of a client who was in her third year of an IVA where a property was left in her will by a distant relative. The property in its entirety was taken by the supervisor, where had she gone bankrupt she would have been discharged in one year and still had control of the asset to use as she wished. Remember an IVA is 5 to 6 years where bankruptcy is 1 year.
What can you do now?
We receive many calls for people who have taken out IVAs desperate for help when the supervisor has abandoned them due to payments no longer being affordable.
There are options you can consider whether or not your IVA is current or has indeed failed. Your supervisor will send you a certificate of failure and will close down the arrangement once you normally missed three payments and depending on when the IVA failed all the money you have paid is gone in fees leaving you back where you were when you contacted the IVA company for help.
It is often very difficult for companies like us to gain trust when clients have been miss sold an IVA and we understand this which is the reason we can be contacted upto 9pm each evening, ask for Daniel or Alan.
Why do IVAs Fail?
Mostly because it was not the best plan from day one, an IVA is a very easy way for companies to make money from your misery, even Creditors don't like them mainly because the majority have already failed by the time the fees are taken by the IVA company leaving Creditors with nothing anyway.
Question
Can I go bankrupt while in an IVA?
Answer
The simple answer is yes you can, and that is whether the IVA is current or recently failed. If your IVA is still current there is nothing stopping you petitioning for voluntary bankruptcy. Some judges will grant the order straight away and some wont, the correct procedure is that the court upon receiving the application for bankruptcy and seeing that a current IVA is in force will accept the fee for bankruptcy and swear in the statement of affairs. They will then list the petition for a hearing in about 21 days time. This allows the court to meet its obligation to rule 6.42 (2A) of the Insolvency rules where the supervisor in a current IVA is notified of the date of the hearing, before the granting of the order. This means going to court twice but the time spent there is almost the same as going once, this method is adopted when the supervisor in the IVA having lost interest in the arrangement takes forever to close it down.
Click here to see what Peter Tutton National Debt Policy advisor of the Citizens Advice Bureau says about IVAs
What to do now?
Call Daniel Griffiths or Alan Challinor now on 01782 825245 from 8am to 9pm 7 days a week, or email us mail@acsbankruptcy.co.uk requesting a call back for free advice.
Call us free on 0800 1696072
or for mobiles 01782 825245