The Supreme Court's judgment in BTI v Sequana is long-awaited, and welcome. The court has confirmed that directors do have a common law creditors' duty, and that it works on a sliding scale basis.
The High Court has held that where companies have adopted the model articles without amendment, any sole director acting has the power to pass resolutions acting alone.
The full strength of the economic headwinds facing the UK economy is not yet clear, but a helpful recent report by insolvency and restructuring adviser Begbies Traynor provided some useful numbers around the attitudes of businesses.
The Supreme Court has refused permission for the case of Lock v Stanley to be appealed, meaning that the Court of Appeal’s approach to questions around the assignment by a liquidator of claims in the insolvent estate stands.
Most notably the Court of Appeal confirmed that a liquidator is under no duty to offer defendants the right to acquire the claims against them unless the failure to do so would be perverse.
Having acted for employers on four projects in the past year where the main contractors have become insolvent, here are my 15 top actions for employers to consider when faced with main contractor insolvency.
Part I: Introduction and Background Cryptoassets & Insolvency 2 Introduction Cryptoassets have emerged from relative obscurity to become an increasingly significant and mainstream presence: in just five years the global market cap for cryptocurrencies rose from around $15bn to over $3tn at its peak in November of last year.
Background
Houst Ltd (“the Company”) is a property management company which specialises in short-term holiday rentals through an online platform. It is an SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) with total liabilities of approximately £10 million at stake. The Company became both cashflow and balance sheet insolvent having experienced financial difficulty during the Covid pandemic and this resulted in creditors having threatened winding-up petitions.
The Insolvency Service recently published a consultation with respect to the proposed implementation of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") Model Law on Recognition and Enforcement of Insolvency-Related Judgments, which concerns cross-border recognition of judgments associated with insolvency proceedings, an
The Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Act 2022 provided tenants in the retail and leisure sectors who had subsisting rent arrears incurred between March 2020 and August 2021 with immunity against enforcement action from landlords. However, that immunity was only for a period of 6 months from March 2022. During that window, either landlord or tenant were able to refer the matter to arbitration if they did not come to a commercial settlement.
The final date for arbitration referrals was 23 September 2022.
What is a Bankruptcy Petition?
A bankruptcy petition, put simply, is a petition to the Court to ask for a bankruptcy order against an individual and is usually presented on the grounds that the debtor cannot pay his/her debts. A bankruptcy order can result in the debtor’s assets being sold in order to repay outstanding creditors.
It often follows a statutory demand if you have not complied with that or otherwise sought to set it aside.
Can anyone petition for a debt?