Winding Up Petitions

It will probably not surprise you that the most common petitioner is HMRC, however any creditor may serve your company with a petition in respect of an unpaid debt of £750 or more.

If a petition is received, you must act quickly because the consequences can be extremely damaging both in the short and medium term. Once a petition has been served, the creditor must advertise the petition (no earlier than seven days after service) in the London Gazette, at which point the petition becomes public knowledge. Once advertised there is a significant risk that the company’s bank accounts will be frozen, leaving the company unable to access whatever funds are held in the accounts, and consequently starved of cash. This then leads to obvious operational issues as the company is unable to pay staff wages, suppliers and other costs.

The receipt of a petition is not terminal but as outlined above can cause severe problems and the options available start to reduce. It is therefore important that you seek professional advice from an Insolvency Practitioner at an early stage.