Meeting of creditors

A meeting of creditors - or MOC - is a formal meeting where your creditors - the people or companies you owe money to - decide if they’re willing to accept your IVA proposal.

It’ll be arranged by your insolvency practitioner (IP), who serves as the point of contact between you and your creditors.

In the meeting, creditors will: 

• review your financial situation
• look at your ability to repay
• vote on whether to accept the IVA

If approved, your IVA becomes a legally binding agreement between you and your creditors.

Before the meeting of creditors takes place, your IP will work with you to draft your IVA proposal.

This will outline how much you can afford to repay.

The proposal will then be sent to your creditors, and they’ll be given time to look at what it says, consider the details, and get back with any concerns or questions they may have.

For example, they might want more information about your income, expenses and assets before making a decision.

At this point, a meeting date and time will be set.

Creditors typically get up to 28 days’ notice of the set date - this is effectively a deadline to respond to the IVA proposal.

They can either join a virtual meeting on the day or submit their response via email/post etc any time beforehand.

A meeting of creditors is carried out virtually, with votes usually submitted in advance.

It’s rare these days that creditors will actually join a meeting or conference call.

Instead, the meeting is a deadline for the creditors to accept, reject or ask for modifications to your IVA proposal.

For example, some may want extended repayment periods or higher payments.

Your IP will be contacted at the end of the meeting, and they’ll get in touch with you to tell you the outcome, and if anyone has asked for any changes.

You then have to decide if you accept the IVA or not.

The IVA won’t start until the IVA provider has spoken to you to confirm the above.

And if creditors have specific questions about you and your finances, your IP will address them for you.

The individual voluntary arrangement will be accepted, accepted with modifications, or rejected if creditors holding over 75% of the total debt value agree to it.

This threshold is based on 75% of voting creditors, so if one of the creditors doesn’t vote, they won’t be counted in this sum.

No, you don’t have to physically go to a meeting of creditors.

Your IP will look after everything on your behalf.

A meeting of creditors is usually held remotely, either over the phone or online, so if you do decide to attend, you don’t have to travel to a specified location.

But it’s important that you’re available throughout the day, so you can be contacted and made aware of the final decision.

You can’t accept an IVA until you’ve been told about the terms or modifications that have been agreed.

If your IVA is approved, it becomes legally binding.

That means creditors have to stick to the agreed terms and they won’t be allowed to chase you for unpaid debts.

You’ll receive a finalised IVA agreement, and you’ll be required to follow the repayment schedule as outlined.

If your IVA is approved with modifications, you’ll need to review and agree to any changes before it becomes final.

If not enough creditors approve and your IVA is rejected, it won’t go ahead and you’ll need to get further debt advice, as other options might be open to you.

For example, your IP can negotiate with creditors to revise the proposal further and try again.

You could also contact us for debt advice, as we can talk through other ways to help you manage your debt.