Company Voluntary Arrangements

Business: Selling Closing

    If your limited company is insolvent, it can use a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to pay creditors over a fixed period. If creditors agree, your limited company can continue trading.

    If you’’re a sole trader or self-employed, apply for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA).

    How to apply

    A company or limited liability partnership (LLP) can apply if all the directors or members agree.

    You can only get a CVA through an insolvency practitioner. They will charge you to apply for the CVA and also to administer it.

    What happens next

    1. The insolvency practitioner will work out an ‘arrangement’ covering the amount of debt you can pay and a payment schedule. They must do this within a month of being appointed.
    2. They’’ll write to creditors about the arrangement and invite them to a meeting to vote on it.
    3. To get a CVA, it must be approved by creditors who are owed at least 75% of the debt.

    The business will now be solvent and can start trading again. You make the scheduled payments to creditors through the insolvency practitioner until these are paid off.

    If you don’t get the 75% vote from the creditors, your company could face voluntary liquidation.

    If you don’’t meet the agreed payment schedule, any of your creditors can apply to wind up your business.

    An alternative to liquidation – reschedule payment to creditors to recover from insolvency