Inclusive and excluded debts
Advice
Not every debt can be addressed in an IVA.
An IVA typically covers multiple creditors. We, therefore, suggest considerable research and consideration before you contact any insolvency practitioners.
Mortgages, rent and secured loans.
Secured loans are debts that are taken against your home. This means that if you cannot pay the debt, creditors who hold secured loans can start court proceedings to repossess your home to recover their money, as such these lenders are highly unlikely to approve an application for an IVA because they already have the repossession option.
Debts you can include
- Credit cards, Store cards;
- Personal loans, Payday loans, Overdrafts;
- Income tax, national insurance arrears, Tax credit or benefit overpayments;
- Arrears for Gas, Electricity, Water, Council tax; and
- Other bills such as solicitor's costs, vet’s fees invoices for building work, etc.
Typical debts you cannot include
- Maintenance or child support arrears:
- Student loans;
- Magistrates' court fines; and
- Social Fund loans.
Joint debts
You might have some 'joint debts' owned by you and another person, such as a partner. All IVAs are individual, but if multiple individuals such as a couple have an IVA, (known as 'interlocking' IVAs). Again, your insolvency practitioner will be able to advise you about this.
How we can help
Lestons are not registered as financial advisors and can therefore not give specific advice, we can however provide you with access to our recommended professional financial advisor who can give you great advice. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a financial brief for them.
To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by simply clicking on the link at the top of the page, you will then need to deposit a sum equal to one hour’s usage, upon receipt of these funds you will be assigned your personal caseworker who will telephone you to discuss the matter and make suggestions on how to proceed.
Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed financial advisor and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.