If you had an Individual Voluntary Arrangement with a firm that has since closed, these are the things worth knowing, in the order most people need them.
How to check whether your IVA is still active
The free registers, what a blank search means, and the three checks that tell you whether an arrangement completed, failed, or was never an IVA at all.
What happens to your IVA when the firm that set it up closes
Why the arrangement survives the firm, what a block transfer is, what should not change, and the variation to be careful about.
Where your IVA payments actually go: fees explained
Nominee fees, supervisor fees and disbursements in plain English, and the four questions that get you your own figures.
How to complain about an insolvency practitioner
The free Insolvency Service Complaints Gateway: what it covers, what it cannot do, and how to write a complaint that gets looked at.
How these are written
Every guide on this site is written from public sources — legislation, the Companies House register, the insolvency registers, the FCA register and the guidance published by the free debt charities — and links to them so you can check anything yourself. Nothing here is advice about your own circumstances, and none of it is a substitute for speaking to a qualified adviser. More about who writes it and why on the about page.
Free debt advice, whoever you are
Nobody should charge you for debt advice. These services are free, confidential and independent, and none of them will sell you a product.
- StepChange Debt Charity — 0800 138 1111 — stepchange.org
- National Debtline — 0808 808 4000 — nationaldebtline.org
- Citizens Advice — 0800 240 4420 — citizensadvice.org.uk
- MoneyHelper (government-backed) — 0800 011 3797 — moneyhelper.org.uk
- Money Talk Team (Scotland) — 0800 028 1456 — moneytalkteam.org.uk
- Advice NI (Northern Ireland) — 0800 915 4604 — adviceni.net
This page is information, not advice about your own circumstances. If money is tight, ring one of the numbers above before you act on anything you read online, here or anywhere else.