There are changes to the Act mainly designed to bring in the required changes following the abolition of physical meetings in the first instance.
Approval is now by a creditors decision making procedure namely -
- Correspondence;
- Electronic Voting; or
- Virtual Meeting.
Contents of the Proposal
Any proposal must comply with the general principles set out in rule 8.2I IR2016 -
The wait is almost over!
As reported in our recent blog Rules of Engagement for Creditors, the Insolvency Rules (England and Wales) 2016 (“IR2016”) are about to arrive heralding procedural reforms effective (subject to transitional provisions) on 6th April 2017.
The Insolvency Rules 2016 (the 2016 Rules) have effect from 6 April 2016. A key change introduced by the 2016 Rules is a new approach to decision making, including a deemed consent procedure. The new approach is designed to ease the administrative and cost burden in insolvency proceedings, and is summarised below.
Deemed consent
Applications
Rule 12 sets out rules relating to applications, (excluding administration applications, winding up petitions and creditors' bankruptcy petitions) including:
A set of new insolvency rules are coming into force, as of April 6 2017, as Stephen Young explains in the following bulletin. In short, the previous insolvency rules that have been in force since 1986 no longer apply and instead a whole new set of rules now must be used.
The new Insolvency (England & Wales) 2016 rules will apply to all cases, both existing and new.
In short, the main changes are as follows:
1. All of the Parts and Numbering of the old rules have been completely changed so each type of insolvency has its own new Part.
In the recent case of South Coast Construction v Iverson Road Limited [2017] EWHC 61 (TCC), South Coast Construction ("South Coast") had obtained an adjudicator’s decision against the employer, Iverson Road Limited (“Iverson Road”), in a sum approaching £900,000. Iverson Road refused to pay the award so South Coast commenced enforcement proceedings in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC).
Summary
Clarification on when the court should lift the administration moratorium in respect of litigation.
The Facts
Introduction
Amit has recently acted for an IP whose office is one of the largest appointment takers in the country. He appeared for the respondent at several hearings on an application to review a BTO.
Background
The out-going officeholder had his licence revoked by the IPA for misappropriation of monies, running to six figures, from numerous estates. This resulted in a BTO, which was granted by the Court on paper.
The Facts
The applicants, who had successfully appealed the rejection of their proof of debt by the liquidator of Burnden Group Limited, sought an order that the liquidator pay their costs of the appeal personally in circumstances where the relevant company had no assets and their costs exceeded £290,000 (including VAT).
The Decision
After a number of years of consultation the long awaited Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 will finally come into effect today.
The new regulations aim to provide a modern and concise guide for Insolvency Practitioners and other relevant stakeholders and will consolidate various amendments made to the original rules introduced in 1986.
If these intended reforms work, they will streamline the operation of Administrations and Liquidations.