Alan Bennett, South West chair of insolvency trade body R3 and Partner at Ashfords LLP, advises people on how to identify, assess and tackle money issues which may have arisen over the Christmas period, so they can avoid a debt hangover in 2016.
Recent research by R3 found that 31% of people in the South West are worried about their current level of debt. Credit card repayments are the main cause of concern for those with debt worries, followed by an overdraft and mortgage repayments.
Control to Serbian Creditors- the amendments to the Serbian Insolvency Act
The recent amendments to the Serbian Insolvency Act enacted 9 December 2018 have placed more control into creditors’ hands allowing them to suggest the insolvency administrator to be appointed, as well as providing less restrictive provisions on the proposers of reorganisation proposals.
The Facts
Following a statutory demand for unpaid council tax in the sum of £8,067, a bankruptcy petition was presented against Ms Harriet Lock. The council provided Ms Lock with evidence of the council tax liability orders confirming the debt. Ms Lock provided evidence in response, which explained that she was living in social housing and was financially dependent on her daughter. At a first hearing, the court adjourned and ordered that Ms Lock provide a skeleton argument to explain why a bankruptcy order should not be made.
The New York movie studio co-founded by film producer Harvey Weinstein has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was intended to facilitate a buy-out offer from Lantern Capital, a private equity firm, to purchase the assets of the company, including the rights to the show "Project Runway", as well as "Django Unchained" and approximately 275 other films. Lantern Capital had offered $225 million which it believed was the studio's debts. However the sale collapsed when Lantern Capital discovered the studio had an additional $55 million - $65 million in debt.
In our recent article on restructuring options for retail businesses, we outlined how a number of companies in that sector had implemented or were considering Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs).
The Facts
Stevensdrake Limited, a law firm, made a claim against a Liquidator for fees owing under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) made between the two on 10 April 2008. The parties had worked together on various insolvency matters for many years.
The Facts
A case of two companies, one incorporated in Dubai and the other in England, involved in a network of businesses producing contrived fancy colour diamond valuations were eventually wound up by English courts in the interest of the public.
[Note: deemed consent cannot be used to decide on remuneration, or where the Act/Rules requires a decision by a decision procedure.]
The Deemed Consent procedure is set out in sections 246ZF (corporate insolvency) and 379ZB (personal insolvency) of the Insolvency Act 1986, as inserted by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and rule 15.7 of the Insolvency Rules 2016.
The deemed consent procedure is that relevant creditors/contributories are given notice:
The language of the rules has been amended and there is now more reference to delivery of documents rather than service. Rules 1.40 - 1.53 set out rules relating to delivery wherever documents are required to be delivered by the new rules.
These rules include the following headings: