There are many enforcement options available to commercial landlords in England & Wales, to recover rent arrears due under a lease from a business tenant. Some of those options are based in contract and governed by the terms of the individual lease itself, such as a power to forfeit or damages for breach, whilst some of those options are based in statute such as the Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery regime.

Given the current financial climate you may wonder what options are open to you or your organisation when you are owed money by a third party. There can often be an assumption that lengthy court processes are required to recover sums due. That is not the case and in this article we consider some of the options available to help recover debts in Scotland.

Pre-Court Action

Statutory Demand

There are several costs associated with presenting a creditor's petition for sequestration (bankruptcy) in Scotland. As you would expect there are court dues for presenting the petition, currently at £122, as well as sheriff officer and legal fees.

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom released its judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA¹. This marks the first occasion on which the nature, scope and content of directors' duties to creditors when a company is nearing insolvency (the "Creditor Duty") has been considered by the Supreme Court.

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom released its judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA. This marks the first occasion on which the nature, scope and content of directors' duties to creditors when a company is nearing insolvency (the "Creditor Duty") has been considered by the Supreme Court.

While the timing of competing English and German insolvency applications in Re Galapagos allowed for clear determination of jurisdiction under the UK Insolvency Regulation, there remains potential uncertainty as to how similar competing applications made following 31 December 2020 will be resolved in the post-Brexit environment.

Background

The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) Scotland Act was passed by the Scottish Government on 28 June 2022 and enacted on 10 August 2022 (the "Act"). It makes two key changes to insolvency and diligence in Scotland.

Bankruptcy floor limit

Do landlords do get a good deal in CVAs? It would seem they do (if you don't read the small print…)

A few weeks ago we blogged that we were expecting RSM's research report, which was commissioned by the Insolvency Service, into the impact of CVAs on the landlords. The specific question in the research paper was: "are landlords equitably treated, compared to other creditors in large business CVAs?".

If you have fraudulently obtained Covid-19 financial support, such as a Bounce Back Loan, you must be pretty worried by recent headlines that show company directors being disqualified, fined and jailed.

There is a sense of "judgment fatigue" when it comes to decisions about the validity of an administrator's appointment or the extension of the administrator's time in office. However, the decision of Deputy ICC Judge Curl QC, in the case of Re E Realisations 2020 Limited, is worth paying attention to.