Liquidations

• Key contacts
• FWJ takeaway

There are three main types of liquidation. Our expert team can provide advice on each of these:

1. Compulsory liquidation and winding up

You may have been served a winding up petition by a creditor and worried about compulsory liquidation and winding up.  Whatever the situation, it is vital to act fast.  There are options available that can rescue your company and you, but these options reduce the longer you leave it.

If you are served with a winding up petition and ignore it, the implications for the business can be disastrous:

• once the petition hearing is advertised, your bank is likely to freeze your account, making paying staff, landlords and suppliers impossible
• once advertised, the adverse publicity can have a serious effect on your ability to raise credit, whether the petition is valid or not
• even if the debt can be disputed, another creditor may ‘take over’ the petition if they are owed money

If a winding up petition is granted, this will effectively bring an immediate end to the company. A liquidator will be appointed to collect in and distribute assets, and the directors and shareholders will no longer have control.  Your actions as a director will be reviewed by the liquidator. Anything considered misconduct by the liquidator will be reported for the purposes of a directors disqualification review, and the liquidator may sue you personally for money if he thinks it is necessary.

However, if you take the right action early on, the above can be greatly mitigated or avoided altogether.

2. Creditors voluntary liquidation

It is an unfortunate fact that many companies are currently facing a difficult financial future. If this is you, then it may be time to consider whether placing your company into creditors voluntary liquidation is now the right action to take. 

• our team of liquidation experts have many years’ experience acting for all types of companies, helping them go into liquidation as smoothly as possible
• whilst this is never an easy decision, finally making the decision that your company must be wound up, preventing further debts being incurred that the company realistically won’t be able to pay, can in many ways be a welcome relief to struggling directors and shareholders

We work with the best insolvency practitioners in the country, and can guide you through the process to make it as pain free and fast as possible, protecting directors and shareholders along the way, and opening up the future to you to start afresh. 

3. Members voluntary liquidation

If you are in the fortunate situation of having a solvent company but you want to end it and move on to something new, then members voluntary liquidation might be the best option for you. Our voluntary liquidation experts at Francis Wilks & Jones can help you to do this swiftly and efficiently.

Unless the company has no assets or debts, then simply taking it off the Companies Register is not a viable option. 

The team at Francis Wilks & Jones works alongside expert professional liquidators to guide you through the process to ensure your company is wound down efficiently, with no future comeback. Contact our expert team today if you would like to discuss this further.

Whatever your liquidation enquiry, our friendly team of experts can help. Whatever your situation, let us give you the assistance you need.

The insolvency team at FWJ has helped me on a number of complex and protracted matters over the last few years. FWJ are quick to respond and have given me practical and comprehensive solutions to the situations I have had to deal with. I have always been impressed by the depth of insolvency knowledge and commercial awareness displayed by the team and I would not hesitate to instruct FWJ again.

Ian Robert, partner at Kingston Smith