HM Treasury has provided the Public Bill Committee with a draft copy of The Insolvency Act 1986 (HMRC Debts: Priority on Insolvency) Regulations 2020, to be made pursuant to the current clause 96 of the Finance Bill 2020. The draft regulations have not yet been formally laid before Parliament but are d
The Corporate Insolvency & Governance Bill became law today - having had its first reading just over a month ago.
In summary, the provisions in the Act allow for:
The government has introduced the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill in Parliament, which will put in place a series of measures. This includes temporarily removing the threat of personal The liability for wrongful trading from directors trying to keep their companies afloat through the emergency.
Two of the classic self-help remedies open to landlords for recovering commercial rent arrears have traditionally been forfeiture and Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery (CRAR), but both of these have been restricted as a result of Government measures to support tenants during the coronavirus crisis. There is also a proposed ban on winding-up petitions for coronavirus-related debts, which is already being applied by the courts.
Amended CRAR Regulations
In a case that is sure to keep lawyers talking for months, the Supreme Court has decided the important case of Bresco Electrical Services Ltd (In Liquidation) v Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd.
The case concerns the relationship between the statutory adjudication and insolvency set-off regimes.
The webinar looked at the widely debated issue of whether a company in liquidation can commence an adjudication by examining three recent cases on this topic.
Bresco v Michael J Lonsdale
The first being the Court of Appeal decision in Bresco Electrical Services Ltd (in liquidation) v Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 27, which has recently been heard in the Supreme Court but whose judgment is awaited.
Background
The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill is currently being fast-tracked through Parliament, but is the Government making a mistake in seeking to combine a short-term breathing space for businesses during the current Covid-19 crisis with introducing the greatest changes we have seen to UK insolvency laws for decades?
Whilst the government has taken significant steps to help protect businesses from collapsing as a result of the current pandemic, it is evident that companies across the board are acutely aware that such protection cannot last forever.
We now have further evidence of the court's willingness to act within the spirit of the Corporate Insolvency & Governance Bill ("CIG Bill").
Under English law, there is no common law right to terminate a contract on a counterparty’s insolvency. As a result, in all well-drafted commercial contracts it common to see a contractual right to terminate on the event of a party’s insolvency.