Andrew Tate FCCA ACIS
- Partner and Head of Restructuring and Transformation
- +44 (0)330 124 1399
- Email Andrew
Suggested:Result oneResult 2Result 3
Sorry, there are no results for this search.
Sorry, there are no results for this search.
View all peoplePublished by Andrew Tate on 28 September 2021
Share this article
Since March 2020, there has been a ban on asking the Court to wind up a company on grounds that it hasn’t paid an outstanding debt due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. That ban comes to an end on 30 September 2021.
So what is next? A tsunami of winding up petitions hitting the courts? It seems the government is still keen to avoid the cliff edge and has set out a couple of temporary measures which it sees as helping avoid this. These new rules last until 31 March 2022.
The key measures are:
This is an interesting departure from the normal process where a creditor presents a statutory demand which requires payment in full within 21 days. Proposals to pay may be deemed unacceptable by the creditor and the new rules indicate that a winding up petition can still be lodged if the proposals are unacceptable. It will be interesting to see how judges react – and whether they start getting involved with the question of whether a proposed payment plan is acceptable or not.
The current threshold for presenting a winding up petition is £750. This will leave many SMEs in no man’s land where their nuclear option of threatening to wind up a customer who hasn’t paid is off the table for another 6 months.
Business owners have become familiar with the statutory demand in the unfortunate situation where they cannot pay a debt on time. It serves as an alarm bell to resolve issues before a winding up petition is received (which can be very difficult to deal with). In the current, stressed, climate business owners and finance teams need to look out for what might seem like rather less “heavy” requests for proposals to pay – beware they have the same clout as the statutory demand! Look out for sentences within any such communications which mention winding up petitions and seek advice quickly.
To learn more about the topic explored in this article, contact us here.
Share this article
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Our complimentary newsletters and event invitations are designed to provide you with regular updates, insight and guidance.
You can unsubscribe from our email communications at any time by emailing [email protected] or by clicking the 'unsubscribe' link found on all our email newsletters and event invitations.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.