Winding Up Petition

Are creditors relentlessly chasing you to pay your business debts?

Have you missed payments to HMRC?

Are you struggling to pay your PAYE, NIC or VAT bill?

Are you struggling to manage your cashflow and meet your financial obligations?

Our experienced team have extensive experience of supporting business owners who have either received or been threatened with a Winding up Petition.

What is a Winding up Petition?

A Winding up Petition is the most serious step a creditor, often HMRC, can take against your business and often occurs as a last resort if they have been unable to reclaim their debt, even through the use of statutory demands or bailiff action.

The petitioning creditor must be owed at least £5,000 to apply for a Winding up Petition which is submitted to the court in order to have your business enter into a Compulsory Liquidation procedure.

Once the petitioning creditor has applied to the court, a date will be set for the hearing and the creditor will serve the petition on you with at least 14 days notice. At this point it will be advertised in the London Gazette which not only means that your company bank accounts will be frozen (even if they are in credit), it is also likely to encourage any additional creditors to submit a claim against you.

If you fail to take any action at this point, the hearing will proceed and a Winding up Order will be made by the court and your business will be placed into Compulsory Liquidation.

The Compulsory Liquidation will result in the sale of the company assets, the closure of the company itself and will also trigger an investigation into the conduct of the Directors along with a review of the general business management.

What should I do if I receive or am threatened with a Winding up Petition?

Timing is absolutely critical – the sooner you contact us for professional, independent advice, the more options we have available to help you. We offer a range of solutions that can help you to get your business back on track including a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) or Company Administration but are also able to help you dispute the debt, take out an injunction to prohibit the petition being advertised or negotiate with the creditor on your behalf.

All of our solutions are tailored to your unique circumstances so get in touch today to find out what our experts can do to help your business.