The Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2015 (the “2015 Rules”) came into force on 1 October 2015. They amended the 1986 Insolvency Rules to introduce a new approach to the approval and payment of insolvency office holders (“IOH”s)’ fees and disbursements.

From 1 October 2015 the minimum debt in respect of which a bankruptcy petition can be presented is increased to £5,000.

It was far from a secret that a veritable smorgasbord of phased changes to insolvency law were coming in on 1 October. The legal and insolvency press has been riddled with it, and frankly the flavours were all a bit predictable. The commentators falling over themselves to ask mundane questions such as “are you ready for…?” and “what will happen now…?” are really just asking “we are really up to date on the new law, aren’t we brilliant?”; of course you are, but you’re not getting any marks for originality.

Key Point

An English Court holds that a rate saving scheme involving liquidations of tenant companies is an abuse of the English insolvency legislation.

The Facts

Key point

The Court is prepared to look at the overall nature of a directors conduct and dissect a complex series of transactions before concluding what (if any) insolvency failings have been committed by a director.

The Facts

The  following  changes  which  came  into  effect  on  1  October  2015  will  be  of  interest  to  insolvency practitioners and other professionals who deal with insolvency law:

Key Point

Judgement provides detailed guidance on administrators making distributions in relation to EU incorporated companies.

The Facts

In John David Hedger (the Liquidator of Pro4Sport Ltd) v David Adams [2015], the Liquidator of Pro4Sport Ltd (Pro4Sport) made an application to the Court under section 212 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The claim arose out of one transaction which took place shortly before the liquidation of Pro4Sport on 20 July 2012. On 25 June 2012 Mr Adams, on behalf of Pro4Sport, transferred all, or practically all, of the assets of Pro4Sport to an associated company, Pro4Sport.co.uk Ltd (Pro4Sport.co.uk) for a deferred consideration of £47,000 plus VAT.

With the first PPF levy invoices based on the new Experian insolvency-risk assessment model starting to land on trustees’ door-mats, many schemes have made the unwelcome discovery that their PPF levy for 2015-16 has suffered a substantial hike. Around 200 schemes are reported to have seen levy rises in excess of £200,000.

Following Parliamentary approval in March 2015, this Implementation Timetable sets out the key dates and changes which have been published to date on the insolvency provisions of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act. This timetable was updated in October 2015.

We will, of course, provide confirmation and updates as and when further guidance is published.

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act

When will the insolvency-related provisions come into force?