www.iva.co.uk

I am currently in my 3rd year of an IVA. There is a chance i may being receiving an inheritance in the near future. I have heard that in some circumstances people have been able to make a one off payment, less than what was still owing over their 60 month term to complete their IVA early. Please can you confirm if this can be the case? Or would the full amount of 'windfall' would be expected to be paid as well as continuing with the monthly payments.

Hi Beth. In the case of an inheritance the whole amount would be payable into the IVA so it would not be possible to bargain with it to make a full and final offer. This will not affect the need to make normal monthly payments unless the sum is sufficient to pay the full original debt plus fees and possible statutory interest.

To make a full and final (early settlement) you must have access to monies which the creditors would not otherwise be entitled to.

Surely the simple way around this, if you can, is to ask whoever may be giving you the inheritance to offer it to your IP as a full and final settlement, with that sum only to be offered for that purpose, as opposed to actually giving you an inheritance ?.

Pavel .. nice thought. But, if you are named as the recipient in the donors Will, there is nothing to be done but pay it over. If someone else is named (say parent or sibling) and they are passing the money to Beth as a gift, then that is a different matter.

You must notify your IP once you become aware of any windfall and not just when received. This is captured as a windfall but family can offer future inheritances as full and final if the person has not already passed away.

Yes, I was thinking more of circumstances where say a grandparent passes away and there's no specific inheritance being provided to the person in the IVA, but your parents says "well Grandad would have wanted us to give you some of his estate" and you say "well that's very kind of you but I'd rather you offer a F&F settlement for my IVA than give me any windfall payment".

Absolutely Pavel. That would be a perfectly reasonable offer to creditors because if they turn it down the parents hold the money until the IVA has completed and then pass it over.