50% increase to bankruptcy and liquidation fees

Just months after lifting the temporary restrictions on winding-up petitions, the Government has revealed plans that will make it harder for thousands of SMEs and microbusinesses to collect debts and force debtors into insolvency procedures. The Insolvency Service plans to hike in the cost of two key payments later this year. Firstly, the deposit a…

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End of temporary insolvency measures

Last week, the Government withdrew the temporary insolvency measures introduced two years earlier to support businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Creditors could obtain winding-up petitions under the temporary legislation (enacted as part of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020). However, the debt threshold for winding-up petitions increased to £10,000 and creditors were compelled to:…

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Statutory Demand vs Pre-action letter

Pre-action letters and Statutory Demands (also known as Stat Ds) are useful tools for chasing longstanding and undisputed debts. But how do they differ? Firstly, the names of the participants involved. Whoever issues the Statutory Demand is an ‘applicant,’ but the sender of pre-action letter is a ‘claimant’. Likewise, the recipient of Stat D is…

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Young and middle-aged women leading on insolvencies

The number of women entering insolvency procedures jumped from 30% to 54.3% between 2000 and 2018, according to new figures released by the Insolvency Service. Last year, women in England and Wales were involved in 65% of Debt Relief Orders (DROs); 54% of Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs); and 38% of Bankruptcies. The figures reveal that…

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Insolvency & Law Shortlisted for “Insolvency and Restructuring Firm of the Year 2016″ award

London-based magazine Finance Monthly, which is distributed to more than 100,000 readers across the globe, recently shortlisted Insolvency & Law (I&L) in the category of British ‘Insolvency and Restructuring firm of the year, as part of the  eighth annual Finance Monthly Global Awards. To celebrate the nomination, below, I&L director Peter Murray shares his thoughts…

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£200,000 Chantrey Vellacott Thief Should Have Gone to Prison

Garry Hacker, an insolvency practitioner who stole over £200,000 from clients and insolvency estates and put the money into his accounts, has been sacked from veteran accountancy firm Chantrey Vellacott and had his licence removed. At a disciplinary tribunal hearing led by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Hacker admitted transferring…

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Insolvency Lawyer Issues UK Court Summons via Facebook

A lawyer has used Facebook to serve a court summons, in what experts claim is the first case of its kind in the UK. Solicitor Hilary Thorpe claims she had exhausted all conventional methods of trying to contact a debtor on behalf of a client, before recalling a case in which the Supreme Court in…

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Corporate Insolvencies to Drop Following Appeal Court Ruling

A ruling by the Supreme Court in London could lead to a reduction in corporate insolvencies and stop creditors from chasing struggling businesses. Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal rejected a lawsuit by shareholders from British finance company Eurosail who claim the firm should be liquidated after buying £650m of UK mortgage-backed bonds from…

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