Documents required for an IVA
For people who find themselves in debt, an individual voluntary arrangement can represent a viable solution to become debt free in quite a short period of time. An IVA can be a great solution to people who have unsecured debts and the total amount of debt exceeds a total of £ 15.000. These are the basic conditions one must fulfill in order to be eligible for an individual voluntary arrangement. Since an IVA is a legally binding document, the debtor will have to contact a specialized person, an insolvency practitioner who will help him with all the important matters the process requires.
At first, the debtor will have a meeting with the insolvency practitioner, and here they will discuss the debtor’s financial situation, and more importantly the reasons which led to debt.
During this meeting, the debtor will have to provide every detail the insolvency practitioner needs to know, only this way he will be able to come up with a repayment plan, which later will be presented to the creditors. Since the IVA is a legal document, the insolvency practitioner needs several documents with the help of which he can prove the debtor’s detailed financial situation. There is a list of documents which are most often required by the insolvency practitioner. One of the very first documents is a form which has to be filled in; this is called an application form. In most of the cases you will have to complete the form with general information about yourself, but of course some details will be expected too.
Besides the application form, the debtor will have to provide a number of documents to the insolvency practitioner. In order to find how much you owe exactly, the insolvency practitioner needs statement or letters from your creditors. You should pay attention and in case you have several statements at home, you should always take the most recent one, since the insolvency practitioner is not necessarily curious to see how you have evolved, but he needs to know the exact amount you owe to each creditor. In case you have a mortgage, you will have to bring your mortgage statement too. The insolvency practitioner wants to see the annual statement for your mortgage, because this document helps to identify information on your property payments. In case you have bought a car, you will have to present you car finance or hire purchase agreement. Note that you should take with you the original agreement! As it works with every single document types (where it is the case), you should take any recent letter you have gotten.
In order to take all the required documents, you will have to contact your insurance provider and ask for a confirmation of current surrender value. This might be one of the last legal documents which are required in case of an IVA. There are two more legal documents which are required: one of them is your salary payment statement, or in other words you should bring a few payslips. Insolvency practitioners may require payslips for three or six months; some of them require your spouse’s payslips too. The very last legal document you might be asked for is a property valuation, but in case of this document, you do not have to provide a legal copy. You can ask around real estate agencies to find out how much is your property worth, you can read the ads in the newspaper, you might even ask a neighbor who recently moved in into your neighborhood. Of course, the best situation is the one where you have the legal document, but all these other options are accepted too. As a last document, you will be asked to write about the reasons which led to your current financial situation. This is normal, since even creditors are people, and most probably they will easily accept the proposal in case of a person who had suffered health issues or had family problems, than a person who accumulated debt due to reckless credit card usage for example. This does not mean that people who had used their credit cards too often will not get an IVA, but it is highly possible that creditors react emotionally to one’s problems, and accept the initial proposal without making any changes to it.
Generally these are the documents which are required by an insolvency practitioner, but do not forget that every single case is special, and so there might be other documents which are not listed here, but might be useful in your case. The exact list of the required documents depends on the insolvency practitioner, but be sure that you have prepared at least the ones which are listed here, because most of them are very important and they will be required by every insolvency practitioner. Once you have talked to your personal insolvency practitioner, he will help you with all the documents you need.