The proposed Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill and updated Code of Practice represents a commercial and pragmatic response by the legislator to resolving the apparent billions of pounds of commercial rent arrears arising out of the pandemic.

What does the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill propose?

The wait is over. After 18 months of “temporary” restrictions on issuing winding-up petitions imposed by Schedule 10 of the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Act 2020 (“CIGA”), from 1 October 2021 creditors will once again be able to issue a winding-up petition against a corporate debtor.

Kireeva v Bedzhamov [2022] EWCA Civ 35 

Matthew Czyzyk, Natalie Blanc and Natalie Raine, Ropes & Gray

This is an extract from the 2022 edition of GRR's Europe, Middle East and Africa Restructuring Review. The whole publication is available here.

In summary

Hotel Portfolio II UK Limited (In Liquidation) & Anor v Andrew Ruhan & Anthony Stevens [2022] EWHC 383 (Comm).

R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court [2021] EWHC 3013

The case of Palmer has confirmed that an insolvency practitioner in the role of an administrator can be prosecuted (and therefore personally liable) for a failure to follow correct redundancy procedures prescribed by s194 TULRCA.

Where an individual is found to have acted in breach of s194, they may be personally liable to an unlimited fine (or a fine of up to £5,000 if the offence is committed before 12 March 2015).

The facts

Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, part owners of the company that owns the famous Wolseley restaurant had their company pushed into administration by its co-owner and major lender, having been in default since 2020, and now owes £38m. Administration might not have come as a surprise to anyone in that case.

However, directors and shareholders will not usually get anything like as much notice of a lender’s intention to appoint administrators and will frequently get none at all, as  Insolvency and Asset Recovery Partner Tim Symes explains here.

The pandemic has brought much uncertainty to the hotel sector — Intermittent national and regional lockdowns, work from home mandates and restrictions around domestic and international travel have left hoteliers in the unenviable position of keeping the lights on but without the occupancy or footfall of pre-2020. Government measures have no doubt helped, especially the ability to furlough large sections of the workforce, but as these measures are tapered down, some hotels – particularly city centre and airport hotels which rely on business travel — will struggle.

Introduction

Earlier this month, the English Insolvency and Companies Court (the “ICC”) made a limited civil restraint order against a shareholder who had repeatedly sought, unmeritoriously, to challenge the 2017 restructuring of Paragon Offshore plc (in liquidation) (“Paragon”) (Hammersley v Soden & Ors [2022] EWHC 223 (Ch)).

Court fees are rising again thanks to the Court Fees (Miscellaneous Amendment) Order 2021

CFO21 will mostly be amending and updating the fees listed in Schedule 1 of The Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008. The justification for the increase is to account for historic inflation since the last significant round of fee increases in 2016.