A Guide on How to Wind-Up a Company

How to Wind-Up a Company

You can apply to the court to wind-up a company if you can prove that the company owes you at least £750 and that it cannot pay you back.

Statutory Demand

There are multiple ways to prove that a company owes you a debt. However, the most common way is to complete and send a Statutory Demand to the company which sets out the details of a debt. The Statutory Demand is not a court document but it puts you in a strong position to apply to wind-up the company if the company fails to respond to the Statutory Demand within 21 days.

Winding-Up Petition

The Winding-Up Petition application involves completing 2 court forms summarising your details, the company’s details, the amount of debt owed, the grounds to apply for a Winding-Up Petition and other relevant information.

The Winding-Up Petition application will then need to be sent to the court. The appropriate court to send this to will be determined by the value of the paid-up share capital and the location of the company. The application is then considered by the court and listed for a court hearing.

You can also find out more about Winding-Up petitions via our website winding-up petitions and bankruptcy petitions

Court Hearing

A notice of the Winding-Up Petition must be places in the Gazette before the hearing. This notice shows details of the company and information relation to the Winding-Up Petition and the hearing.

The hearing may take place virtually or in-person and usually requires the attendance of an advocate. If you are successful at the hearing, the court will issue a Winding-Up Order which will start the process of selling the company’s assets so that the money can be used for debt recovery.

Contact our insolvency lawyers in West Kent (Hadlow), Ashford, Brighton & Hove, and Uckfield

If you are a director of a company that you would like to wind-up, if you are facing issues with debts, or if you have questions regarding dissolving a company, then please get in touch and we can discuss the various options you have available. Our Dispute Resolution team is experienced in drafting, submitting and managing the entire winding-up process. Please contact Richard Ludlow, partner in our Restructuring & Insolvency team in the first instance so that we are able to appropriately guide you through this process, or call 01732 441695 for an initial conversation on your individual options.