Insolvency Proceedings
Winding Up Petition
We can offer both insured winding up petitions bankruptcy petitions using ATE insurance. All you will pay, once you have been paid, using the insurance policy is the premium of £280.
If a limited company owes you more than £750 and the debt is not in dispute we can issue your debtor with a two day letter before action that is delivered to their registered office using the precedent established in the Court of Appeal in 1990 regarding Taylors Industrial Flooring Limited and M & H Plant Hire (Manchester) Limited.
Your debtor is put on notice that unless they settle your debt plus late payment interest, compensation and reasonable debt recovery costs (if applicable) within 48 clear business working hours, then a winding up petition will be filed in the Property and Business Court of the Chancery Division in the local High Court District Registry.
If the debtor ignores the letter or fails to provide evidence of a substantial dispute within that timescale, and the insurers pass your case on risk assessment, then a winding up petition is sent to the court for sealing and then returned for service.
Typically the final hearing date is set six weeks from the date of filing and this gives the debtor one final chance to pay the petitioned debt and all associated legal costs, which by this time are quite substantial , and covered under your insurance policy.
At least seven days before the final hearing, the petition must be advertised in the London Gazette. At this stage, the petition will come into the public domain and the debtor’s bankers will freeze their accounts and all trading partners will cease to business with them.
All told, the insured winding up petition is an extremely effective and risk free debt collection tool.
The implications of bankruptcy/winding up are very serious and unless the debtor was already contemplating that course of action themselves, then in most cases debtors will find the means to settle your debt in order to stop you petitioning for either their bankruptcy or the winding up of their company.
Bankruptcy Petition
The court, upon the filing of your petition, can make a bankruptcy order against an individual who fails to pay his/her debts. A bankruptcy order makes sure that the assets of the bankrupt are shared out fairly among the creditors and imposes certain restrictions on the bankrupt, such as:-
- If an undischarged bankrupt trades under a new name, he or she must disclose the old name (under which the bankruptcy order was made) to anyone with whom he or she does business.
- An undischarged bankrupt is not allowed to act as a director of a company or be concerned with its management, without leave (permission) of the court.
- An undischarged bankrupt can only get credit up to £500 without informing those with whom he or she is dealing about the bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy does not necessarily mean that the debts of the bankrupt will be paid.
Before you can present a Bankruptcy Petition against an individual or a partner in a business, you must have either:-
- served a Statutory Demand and the debtor failed to comply with it, or
- have an “unsatisfied” execution of a Judgment debt, whereby either a County Court Bailiff or High Court Enforcement Officer has been unable to seize enough assets to discharge the debt.
- The out of pocket expenses and disbursements required to present a bankruptcy petition are considerable and we would not recommend taking this course of action lightly.
Winding Up Petition
If a company owes you money and has refused or neglected to pay the debt, you may apply to wind it up by presenting a petition to court for that purpose. A winding-up petition is usually presented by a creditor on the grounds that the company cannot pay its debts and this has to be proved to the court.
This proof can either be:-
- the failure on the part of the debtor to comply with a Statutory Demand that you have served or;
- an “unsatisfied” execution of a Judgment debt, whereby either a County Court Bailiff or High Court Enforcement Officer has been unable to seize enough assets to discharge the debt.
The out of pocket expenses and disbursements required to present a Winding Up petition are considerable, and exceed those of a bankruptcy petition, and we would not recommend taking this course of action lightly.
ZERO cost, stress free, professional, ethical and efficient. Veritas Legal Services
Veritas Legal UK debt recovery is much more than a debt collection agency.
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1998
The debtor pays our fees under The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998
