New Case Petition              

New Case –  Petition              

March 2024

Introduction     

1. What is a petition?

A petition must be presented to the court before a winding-up order or bankruptcy order is made. It is a formal written request for a company or partnership to be wound up compulsorily, or for an individual to be made bankrupt.

2. Deceased Insolvents

Where a person dies after a bankruptcy petition is presented against him/her the matter continues as a normal bankruptcy but with some amendments.

Where a person dies before a bankruptcy petition is presented, a petition for an insolvency administration order can be presented under the Administration of Insolvent Estates of Deceased Persons Order 1986.

For further information see Case Help Manual (CHM) Part : Deceased Insolvents. 

3. Who may present a petition?

In most cases a petition will be presented by one of the following :

a.  any creditor who has an unsecured liability of at least £750

b.  the directors or shareholders of a company

c.  one or more members of a partnership

d.  the debtor him/herself

e.  the supervisor of a voluntary arrangement or an administrative receiver                             

 f.  the Secretary of State in a public interest case. 

4. Why is a petition presented?

The most common reason for presenting a petition is that the company, partnership or debtor cannot pay their debts. This is proved to the satisfaction of the court by failure to pay a statutory demand or judgment debt.

Another reason which is sometimes used in company cases is where the court thinks that it is ‘just and equitable’ to wind up the company. This procedure is appropriate for situations in which it is no longer practical for a small company to exist, i.e. where the directors can no longer agree on the management of a company, or where a company was formed for a specific purpose which it has now fulfilled, or where it is no longer able to do so.

Shareholders may terminate the existence of their company on the grounds that it is ‘just and equitable’ for the company to be wound up.

5. What information is required in the petition?

Company and bankruptcy petitions are prepared on statutory forms, a full list of which is contained in Schedule 4 of The Insolvency Rules 1986.

Petitions to be presented in partnership cases and for their members are contained in Schedule 9 of The Insolvent Partnerships Order 1994.

All of these forms can be obtained by accessing The Service website at www.insolvency.gov.uk.

In a winding up, the petition must show the full and correct name of the company, its registered number, the registered office address and the grounds for the winding up.

Each petition in a partnership will also contain particulars of other petitions being presented which are connected to the partnership, e.g. petitions against its members. For more information see CHM part : Partnerships.

With a bankruptcy petition, as much detail as possible is included to enable the debtor to be identified, e.g. the debtor’s full name, address and occupation, together with any trading details or aliases if appropriate.

6. How are the proceedings identified ?

Each petition is headed by a number given to it by the court which is a unique reference, e.g. Birmingham County Court No. 132 of 2024. The only time that this number will change is if the proceedings are later transferred to a different court.

7. What is a deposit?

On presenting a petition the petitioner must pay a deposit to cover the initial costs and the court will then fix the date for hearing the petition. The amount of the deposit is set by The Insolvency Proceedings (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2007and can be increased or decreased by Parliament. 

All deposits on petitions are forwarded directly from the courts to Estate Accounts Services (EAS) Petitions and Deposits team (P&D) in Birmingham and do not involve local official receivers’ offices.

8. What are the possible results at the hearing ?

There are several decisions the court may make upon hearing the petition. It may order that the petition be dismissed if, e.g. the debt has been paid, or the petition may be withdrawn by the petitioner after having sought and been given leave of the court to do so. Further, the hearing may be adjourned if, for example, there has been a problem over service.

Before making a winding-up order or bankruptcy order the court must be satisfied that the debt is still owed and there is no reasonable prospect of the debt being paid by the company, partnership or debtor.

9. What happens in High Court and District Registry petition cases ?

Petitions and Transfers Section (P&T) receive notification of orders made in the District Registries of the High Court, and all company and bankruptcy orders made in the High Court. They are responsible for the transfer and allocation of all High Court and District Registry orders to the appropriate local court and Official Receiver’s office.

In addition they carry out associated work including:

• monitoring all petitions and deposits for company and bankruptcy cases presented in the High Court and all company cases presented in District Registries
• carrying out the administration for the making and transfer of the orders, made on the above petitions
• distributing sealed orders to relevant Official Receiver’s offices

10. What happens in a county court creditor’s petition case ?

Once a deposit for a creditor’s petition is received, the court send a copy of the petition with the deposit to P&D, following which some courts also contact the local official receiver’s office and provide brief details of the petition. P&D are responsible for recording the new case petition details on LOIS and forwarding the petition paperwork to the local official receiver’s office, where it should be filed, according to local office practices.

After the hearing, the court notifies the local official receiver’s office of the result of the hearing, either that the petition has been dismissed, withdrawn, adjourned or an insolvency order made.

11. What happens in a debtor’s petition case ?

Debtor’s petitions are usually heard immediately. When this is not possible a date will be fixed for a hearing as soon as possible. The only ground for presenting a debtor’s petition is inability to pay debts and a statement to this effect is included with the petition, together with a statement of affairs.

At the hearing of a debtor’s petition the court will usually make a bankruptcy order. The court will then notify the local official receiver’s office of the making of the order, which should include the faxing of a sealed copy of the order.

Where the county court is in close proximity to the local official receiver’s office, the bankrupt may be directed by court staff to that office. There may also be arrangements with courts for bankrupts to speak by telephone to the official receiver’s staff soon after the bankruptcy order has been made.

For further information see CHM part : Initial Contact in debtor’s petition cases.

Notes:

a. The petition details must be recorded on LOIS before the deposit can be dealt with on LOLA.

b. The deposit must be returned to the petitioning creditor’s solicitor upon receipt of an order from the court dismissing or confirming withdrawal of the petition.        

 

Where can I find out more?

Insolvency Act 1986

Part IV Chapter V1 Sections 117, 122 to 130

Part IX Chapter 1 Sections 264 to  274, 276 to 277              

Insolvency Rules 1986

Rule 4.2 to 4.24

Rule 6.7 to 6.46

Technical Manual

Chapter 4 – Initial Procedure When Bankruptcy Order Made

Chapter 12 – Statement of Affairs

Chapter 45 – Proceedings up to Order

Chapter 53 – Partnerships

Chapter 54 – Deceased Insolvents

Case Help Manual

Consolidations

Deceased Insolvents

Initial Contact in debtor’s petition cases

Partnerships

Notices                                                     

Finance: F18/07 Changes to Insolvency Fees

LOIS Workbook

Entering New Cases on to LOIS

The Insolvency Service website at www.insolvency.gov.uk

‘Do It Online’  –  Forms –  Forms for England and Wales

Forms

4.2        Winding-Up Petition  

5           Creditor’s Petition to Wind Up Partnership (Presented in Conjunction With Petitions against Members

6.25      Bankruptcy Order on Creditors Petition

6.7        Creditor’s Bankruptcy Petition on Failure to Comply with a Statutory Demand for a Liquidated sum Payable Immediately

6.9        Creditor’s Bankruptcy Petition Where Execution or Other process on a  Judgment has been Returned in Whole or Part

6.27      Debtors Bankruptcy Petition

6.28      Statement of Affairs (Debtor’s petition)  

6.28      Statement of Affairs (Debtor’s Petition) (Guidance Notes)  

7         Creditor’s Bankruptcy Petition against Individual Member (Presented in conjunction with Petition against Partnership)  

Insolvent Partnerships Order 1994 – Forms

14       Joint bankruptcy petition against individual members

15       Affidavit of individual member(s) as to concurrence of all members in presentation of joint bankruptcy petition against individual members 

16       Bankruptcy orders on joint bankruptcy petition presented by individual Members

17       Statement of affairs of member of partnership

18       Statement of affairs of partnership

 

Click HERE to view the flowchart for New Case Petitions   

 

Procedure

Petitions and deposits

All petition deposits are dealt with by EAS Petitions and Deposits (P&D) team in Birmingham directly and no longer involve local official receivers’ offices.

High Court and District Registry Deposits

The following procedure (steps 1-4) is applicable to both bankruptcy petitions and  winding up petitions presented in the High Court and to winding up petitions presented in its District Registries. High Court and District Registry cases are dealt with initially by an exchange of information between the Petitions & Transfers (P&T) team and the EAS Petitions & Deposits (P&D) team in Birmingham.

1 P&T will enter case details onto LOIS (CA01, 02, & 10). They will then inform EAS that appropriate cases are entered onto LOIS ready for a deposit to be posted to them.

2 In dismissed or withdrawn cases P&T will process the refund of deposits to petitioning creditors’ solicitors.

3 Where orders are made, the local official receiver’s office is notified by e-mail and a copy of each petition is forwarded to them by post.

4 When notified of the order(s) the local office will pass the notification to the person responsible for allocating cases to an examiner and a case officer.

County Court Deposits

Creditor’s Petitions

5 The court is required to send a copy of the petition with the deposit to  the Service’s  Estate Accounts Services (EAS). Some county courts send a copy of the petition to the local official receiver’s office but there is no requirement for them to do so.

6  P&D will  record the petition details on LOIS (CA01) entering the following information :    

a   court and number

b   type of insolvency (bankruptcy or company)

c   full name of bankrupt or company

d   date petition was presented to court

e   type of petition (whether creditors or debtor’s)

f   name of petitioning creditor

g   petitioner type

h  date petition is to be heard

i   the name, address, telephone number and reference of the petitioning creditor’s solicitors. It is important to enter the name of the firm of solicitors acting for the petitioner and not a solicitor’s personal name when recording these details

j   state whether a partnership or not, if so, the number of partners should also be input at this stage

7 When all of the petition paperwork has been forwarded by P&D to the local official receiver’s office it should be filed according to local office practice, e.g. date, court, or alphabetic order.

After the hearing

8 The court will notify the official receiver of the result of the hearing, e.g. adjourned, dismissed, withdrawn or order made.

9 Where the petition is dismissed or withdrawn the local office will enter the result on LOIS (CA10) and check that the petitioning creditor’s solicitors address is correct on LOIS (CA01). The official receiver requests the cashier to return the deposit to the petitioning creditor’s solicitors in the normal manner.

10  Where the petition is adjourned, enter the adjourned date on LOIS (CA10) and re-file the petition accordingly.

11  Where a winding-up or bankruptcy order is made enter the result on LOIS (CA10), retrieve the petition and attach it to the order. Pass notification of the order together with the petition, to the person responsible for allocating cases to an examiner and a case officer.

Debtor’s Petition

12  Receive notification from Court by phone and/or fax, that a bankruptcy order has been made.

13 Obtain the following information :

a  court and number

b  name of debtor

c  check description for accuracy

14  Record petition details on LOIS (CA01) as detailed in step 6 for County Court Deposits – Creditor’s Petitions. To assist P&D in posting the deposit on to LOLA it is important that wherever possible this information is entered on to LOIS the day that the order is made.

15 If previously bankrupt enter known details on LOIS (CA02).

16  Record that the bankruptcy order was made on LOIS (CA10).

17  Pass all papers to the person responsible for allocating cases to an examiner and a case officer.

18  If the debtor is at court initial contact may be established with him/her. For further information see CHM part: Initial Contact in debtor’s petition cases.