Money Advice Direct
FREEPHONE 0800 074 6918
We receive a lot of calls and emails from the public asking; "Can an individual creditor refuse to accept an IVA?".
Yes, but only if he has more than 25% of the debt voting at the creditors meeting. Once the IVA has been accepted by vote at the creditors meeting, all creditors are bound by law to accept the arrangement.
An individual IVA creditor has complete freedom to refuse to accept an IVA. This is only material if the individual creditor has more than 25% in value of the total creditors that decide to vote at the IVA creditors meeting.
For the creditors to approve the IVA then 75% of them must agree. The 75% figure is in value in £pounds not the number of creditors you have.
This is quite confusing so please understand that “in value" means in money terms not the actual amount of creditors. E.g. if you have 20 separate creditors adding up to £25,000, you do not need 15 of them to accept for the IVA to work. In theory you need £18,750 in value of them to accept.
What make this more confusing is not all creditors actually vote so the 75% in value is only of the amount in value that vote on the day of the IVA meeting.
A creditor has complete freedom to reject an IVA offer. This is only material if the individual creditor has more than 25% in value of the total creditors that decide to vote at the IVA creditors meeting.
Please note that if the creditor that rejects the IVA has less than 25% of the vote then the IVA will be accepted. In this instance they will be bound by the decision of the majority IVA creditors.
If you would to know if an individual creditor can refuse to accept an IVA or just discuss an IVA in general please complete the following form or telephone freephone 0800 074 6918.