What is the IVA register?
An IVA is a formal debt solution that acts as an alternative to bankruptcy and is a private arrangement between the IVA applicant and their creditors.
Introduced into statute as part of the Insolvency Act 1986, an IVA is a formal insolvency process and one which, whilst active, must be logged as a matter of public record.
The name given to the public record is the Insolvency Register.
The Insolvency Register
The Government department for Insolvency is called the Insolvency Service and one of their responsibilities to record and log all active insolvencies within England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
They are responsible for maintaining this public record and making it available for scrutiny.
The Individual Insolvency Register gives, among other things, the following details:
- All current bankruptcies.
- All bankruptcies still within 3 mths of their completion.
- All Bankruptcy Restrictions Orders, (BROs).
- All Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertakings, (BRUs).
- All currently active IVAs.
- All IVAs still within 3 mths of their completion.
- All Fast Track Voluntary Arrangements, (FTVAs).
- All Debt Relief Orders, (DROs).
Details relating to IVAs listed on the register include:
- The debtor's name
- Details of an alias or alternative names.
- The debtor's last known address.
- Details of the IVA arrangement.
- Details of the Insolvency Practitioner.
- Details of the debtor's Date of Birth
- Details of the debtor's occupation.
IVAs stay on the IVA register until they are revoked, completed or terminated and it can take 3 months to update.
Any inaccuracies held on any particular record can be challenged. At the bottom of each record there is a link inviting you to 'Report An Error'.
Anyone has a right to access the IVA register as it's a public record and this can be done by visiting the Insolvency Services website at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service and clicking on the link labelled 'Search the Individual Insolvency Register'.
Making a search is easy and t's possible to filter the search specific to any area covered by a particular Official Receiver's office. Alternatively, if you do not have access to the internet you could perform a search by visiting your local office anytime during normal office hours.
For further information on how to contact your nearest office telephone 0845 602 9848
Limited internet exposure
A regular concern for our clients relates to the visibility of their personal details, with particular reference to their IVA, and the Insolvency register.
Whilst the Insolvency register is a public record, the details held on it are not indexed by the internet search engines. This means that, fortunately, the search engines will not serve up details of your IVA if someone had a reason to search for your name.
To be able to see the details of your IVA, they would need to access the register directly, and specifically search for your name.
Professional IVA Help
If you would like to have a chat with one of the team here at IVA.info please call 0800 088 7502.
We are a small team of IVA specialists and we're waiting to help you now.
All our consultations are free, you're not obliged to take our advice and our conversation will be held in the strictest confidence.
If you'd like us to call you, simply complete this form and we'll call you back at your preferred time.
