The UK Government has announced that the temporary prohibition on forfeiture will be extended when the current prohibition comes to an end at the end of the year. The restriction, that prevents commercial landlords from forfeiting a lease for non-payment, will now be in place until 31 March 2021.
In a widely criticised move, the UK tax authority, HMRC, has become a second ranking preferential creditor regarding certain taxes in insolvency proceedings commenced on or after 1 December 2020.
This means that in the new insolvency waterfall, HMRC ranks behind the claims of holders of fixed charges and first ranking preferential creditors (most notably employees) but ahead of floating charge holders' claims and unsecured creditors.
Businesses and individuals increasingly own assets in multiple jurisdictions. As an insolvency practitioner (or office holder), the chances of being appointed over an estate with assets located outside the UK are greater now than they ever have been.
As noted in our previous Perspectives Article, in March 2020, the UK Government announced the suspension of the wrongful trading provisions contained in s.214 of the Insolvency Act 1986.
As widely blogged about, on 26 June 2020 the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) came into force, introducing both far-reaching wholescale reforms to the UK’s restructuring toolbox as well as temporary measures dealing with COVID-19 impacts on companies. The two most significant temporary measures for companies facing financial difficulties as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic were:
Irish landlords to former Monsoon stores in Dublin and Cork have won their High Court claim that their leases with the fashion retailer remained in full force despite the existence of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in the UK.
Background
On 3 July 2019, a CVA was approved in the UK by 84 % of Monsoon’s creditors. None of the Dublin or Cork landlords attended the meeting either in person or by proxy.
Has COVID-19 encouraged you to reconsider your outsourcing needs? If so, it might be time to quarantine your outsourcing agreements and give them a health check. Below we have tracked-and-traced a list of considerations to help you to isolate any potential areas in those agreements that may need sanitising.
Practical Effects Of Significant Reforms To Guernsey’s Insolvency Law With reference to practical examples from England & Wales, this briefing note seeks to highlight three areas of change that will be of particular interest to Insolvency Practitioners, directors involved with Guernsey companies and their professional advisors once the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (Insolvency) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (the “Ordinance”) comes into force. Enhanced Investigatory Powers The Ordinance extends insolvency professionals’ powers in four important respects.
High Street Rooftop Holdings Limited (the Company) was part of a group of companies known as the High Street Group, which carried on real estate activities such as the development of residential apartments and construction, and the ownership of hotels, bars and restaurants.
On 13 June 2018, the Company entered into a secured term loan facility agreement with Strategic Advantage SPC as lender (the Lender) (the Facility Agreement). Under the Facility Agreement, the Applicant made funding of approximately £100 million available to the Company in tranches.
Significant changes will come into force after 31 December if no agreement is reached (or is not finalised and ratified) before the end of the transition period for cross-border insolvency proceedings. Importantly, the changes will alter the grounds for jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings in the UK and impact the recognition of those UK insolvency proceedings in the EU.