Latest Cases

Kings Speech and land reform

Posted: 19th November 2023

The new Leasehold and Freehold bill is due to be placed before  the UK Parliament later in November 2023, and the annoucement of the same in the Kings Speech shows that the bill is planned to abolish the creation of new leasehold houses and that all new houses will be sold with freehold title except in exceptional circumstances. There are also plans to extend the term of lease extensions from 90 years to 990 years, and remove the requirement for leaseholders to have been registered for 2 years as the registered proprietor at the Land Registry. There are also other leasehold reforms in the bill too. It remains to be seen how many of these reforms survive their passage through Parliament.

Wright and Rowley (liquidators of BHS Group Ltd) and others -v- Dominic Chappell and others

Posted: 19th November 2023

The latest judgement is out in the case against the former directors of BHS Group Limited (In Liquidation). The trial of the claims against Mr Chappell have been adjourned for further directions until after the Court has handed down judgment following the present trial. The court directed that those claims should be dealt with as separate proceedings pursuant to CPR Part 3.1(2)(e) and that the claims against Mr Henningson and Mr Chandler should continue to be heard at the present trial. A link to the judgement can be found here .

Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) Guidance for creditors

Posted: 19th November 2023

This guidance has been recently updated by the Insolvency Service, and can be found here. There are two types of breathing space namely a standard breathing space and a mental health crises breathing space. There are differences between them both.  A mental health crises breathing space is only available where the person is receiving mental health crisis treatment, and it has some stronger protections. It lasts as long as the person’s mental health crisis treatment, plus 30 days (no matter how long the crisis treatment lasts). So this means for a creditor that they may not be able to take enforcement action to collect their debt for a considerable period of time if mental health crises treatment is continued for a long period of time and a breathing space has been granted. The courts are still working out the meaning of various parts of the new regulations in case law. Reported cases include Kaye v Lees [2023] EWHC 758 which can be found here

Ratings (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill

Posted: 5th June 2021

Ratings (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill – The UK government has announced that it is to legislate, in this new bill introduced to Parliament,for new powers to tackle unfit directors who have dissolved their companies leaving staff or taxpayers out of pocket. The legislation will be retrospective and enable the directors of dissolved companies to be investigated where the dissolution process has been used by company directors to avoid repaying company bounce back loans and the dissolution process has been misused. The new powers of investigation include relevant sanctions such as disqualification from acting as a company director for a period of up to 15 years. Such powers to be exercised by the Insolvency Service on behalf of the Business Secretary. The measure will also prevent directors of dissolved companies setting up nearly identical businesses after the dissolution leaving company creditors unpaid. Please click here to see the UK government press release on this topic. Also look at our pages on company insolvency by clicking here.

Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing space) – Guidance for creditors

Posted: 1st June 2021

The UK government has published guidance to creditors for the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space) which can be found here. The guidance came into force on 4th May 2021 and the breathing space is intended to assist debtors by giving legal protections from their creditors under The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020.

There are two types of breathing space: a standard breathing space (available to anyone with a problem debt giving legal protection from creditor proceedings for up to 60 days) and a mental health crisis breathing space (only available to a person receiving mental health crises treatment and lasts as long as the treatment plus 30 days ( no matter how long the srises treatement last).

Company insolvency and statutory demands

Posted: 1st June 2021

The restriction on statutory demands and winding-up petitions to protect companies from creditor enforcement action due to debts related to coronavirus expires on 30th June 2021 and it remains to be seen whether the UK government will extend those restrictions beyond that date. A link to the UK government support page can be found here.

Statutory declarations and members voluntary liquidations.

Posted: 1st May 2020

Under the current temporary practice direction supporting the insolvency practice direction a statutory declaration in support of a solvent winding up may be sworn using a video link i.e. virtually and the fact that it is sworn using a video link shall not by itself be regarded as causing substantial injustice to invalidate the relevant insolvency proceedings (see paragraph 9 of the temporary practice direction which is in force until 1st October 2020).