As the prevalence of COVID-19 continues to grow worldwide, together with the resulting social and business restrictions, the inevitable fallout will be a failure to achieve business plans and an increase in business insolvencies.

The UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, stated whilst unveiling recent plans for a £330bn economic boost in light of the pandemic, “this is an economic emergency. Never in peacetime have we faced an economic fight like this one".

With the impact of COVID-19 rapidly being felt by businesses, 2020 is likely to see a number of Australian insureds face insolvency. While this presents a number of challenges for (re)insurers in the Australian market, there are steps that (re)insurers can take to manage the situation and their exposures.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Alok Sharma, has announced that the government will be introducing a number of changes to the insolvency regime in England & Wales as part of its response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

While in previous weeks the winding up petition list has been adjourned for a minimum of three months, this week’s list was successfully conducted by Skype. This article discusses how the hearings worked.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed immense strain across the whole of the economy and raises the issue of how company directors should balance their obligations to shareholders and creditors while ensuring that they protect themselves from any personal liability.

Companies and their directors in the following sectors of the economy face difficult decisions:

The Ministry of Law in Singapore has announced that it will introduce a bill to the Parliament next week to offer temporary relief to businesses and individuals who are unable to fulfil their contractual obligations because of the COVID- 19 pandemic.

The proposed bill includes:

The Law to mitigate the consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic in civil, insolvency and criminal procedure law ("Gesetz zur Abmilderung der Folgen der COVID-19-Pandemie im Zivil-, Insolvenz- und Strafverfahrensrecht") was adopted by the German Bundestag on 25 March and approved by the Bundesrat representing the federal states on 27 March 2020. With its draft published by the German Federal government on 23 March 2020, the implementation was probably the fastest legislative procedure of such scope in the history of the Federal Republic.

As most businesses, landlords and property solicitors will now know, s.82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 (“CA 2020”) means there can be no forfeiture for non-payment of rent until July 2020, possibly later (“the relevant period”). But forfeiture has never been the only option open to a landlord whose tenant isn’t paying rent. The government lockdown was announced just two days before the March quarter day, with the inevitable consequence that many businesses did not pay the March quarter day rent.

In these unusual times, Hardwicke is open for business as usual and here to help you and your clients with the multiple issues that may arise out of the current economic conditions. This information update is to help keep you up to date with developments and to share our insight in response to the developments our country is going through at this unprecedented time.

We will be providing regular information to keep you up to date. This update covers:

Recent court service suspensions announced in the UAE – albeit temporary – as part of the government's response to COVID-19 will undoubtedly have an impact on efficacy of debt recovery options available to creditors, at least in the near short term. These measures come at a time when payment default rates are only expected to increase rapidly and creditors will be looking at what actions they can and should take to protect their position, including short and medium term strategies.