The term business
winding up is one which encompasses both a creditors voluntary liquidation
and also a compulsory winding up.
The creditors voluntary
liquidation is by far the most used corporate insolvency procedure in
a business winding up. It is initiated by the directors, who advise
the shareholders (in a small company usually the same people) that the
company is insolvent, that there is no chance of saving the company
and that it needs to be closed down.
The creditors at
a meeting are advised of the financial state of the company and asked
to vote to place it into liquidation. The creditors are allowed to question
the directors at the meeting as to the reasons for the business winding
up. Sometimes this can be distressing for a director especially when
the creditors are persistent in their questioning but, more often than
not, creditors do not even attend in person at the meeting and instead
vote by proxy to liquidate the company.
We always advise
directors who seek our advice to take steps to wind up their own businesses,
rather than sit and wait for a creditor to do it, as it shows the liquidator
that one is complying with the obligations of a director.
A compulsory liquidation
is begun by petition of a creditor who is owed more than £750
and follows the service of a statutory demand. A petition is issued
out of the local county court in which the registered office is situated,
if it has bankruptcy jurisdiction. There are not many of these issued
every year and, of those that are, these are usually started by the
Inland Revenue. Creditors do not like to use them as they are expensive
and would very rarely result in even the costs of the petition being
recovered.
In very exceptional
cases, taking this step may lead to payment of the debt due to the creditor
being made, but if this is after advertisement of the petition it can
cause major problems.

If you have been served with a statutory demand as a
company and need advice on how to oppose it, or you have tax and NI
issues, and are worried about action to be taken by the Inland Revenue,
you need to make a call to one of our advisors, who will be able to
assist.
However,
if you need help with personal debt (rather than business related debt)
go to our free debt
management plan application form.
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move or sell your house because of negative equity? We
may have the solution at Sell
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