Are you working for a company that you believe is struggling financially? Or perhaps you’ve been waiting for an invoice to be paid for a long time. Alternatively, you may be trying to ascertain your own company’s situation and whether or not it’s insolvent.
Thankfully, there are numerous insolvency practitioners out there such as Hudson Weir Insolvency Practitioners who offer advice and help to the directors of struggling companies.
Here aresome steps you can take to determine another company’s circumstances – or your own – as well as gauge the severity.
How to Find Out if a Company is Insolvent
Information on any insolvency can be found by browsing the Individual Insolvency Register online.
On the insolvency register, you’ll find:
- The address, profession and name of the individual who has been declared bankrupt
- What date the bankruptcy order occurred
- Details of the official receiver
How Long Does Your Name Appear on the Insolvency Register?
Your company or individual name will usually remain on the register until three months following your release from bankruptcy.
Your credit file will also show your bankruptcy for six years. In turn, this will have an impact on your credit score making it more difficult for you to obtain credit.
Are Insolvencies on Public Record?
Yes, they are. However, the details of your bankruptcy aren’t always easy to locate.
Granted, the Insolvency Register is available to the public. But it’s doubtful as to whether or not the Insolvency Service will publish information about your bankruptcy in the local press. While numerous people understand this happens regularly, this isn’t always the case. Details are only published in newspapers if you’re withholding assets or failing to liaise with the official receiver.
In Northern Ireland, however, all insolvencies are printed in the Belfast Telegraph in addition to being recorded in the Insolvency Register.
If you’d prefer your address not to be published in the register in case this puts you in danger of violence, you can submit an application to the court to suppress your address.
If you’re anxious about bankruptcy, you can seek online debt advice now through the likes of Hudson Weir Insolvency Practitioners.
Bankruptcy and the Gazette
You’ll also find details of all UK bankruptcies in The Gazette in which there are lists of all official notices. This ‘newspaper of record’ lists all information for free on its website and advertises all bankruptcies in its paper version of the Gazette.
The three editions available are printed every week, in Belfast and London, and all show the same info as the online version.
The Gazette shows the same information as the Insolvency Register. But if disclosing this info means a risk to your safety, you can ask for your address to be hidden.
Don’t let the Gazette listing prevent you from declaring your company is bankrupt, though, especially if this is the most sensible decision for you.
It’s worth noting that you can’t stop your information from being published in the Gazette and it’ll permanently stay in their paperwork. However, it’s not likely that someone you know will accidentally discover this information. What’s more, creditors don’t normally check this data when deciding whether or not to lend to you, going forward.
Use Companies House to Search
If you’d like to find out about the trading status of a company, Companies House provides an online search facility.
Using its search facility, you’ll be shown if a business has:
- Stopped trading
- Is insolvent
- Has dissolved
If the business has dissolved already, it’ll be recorded as ‘struck off’. However, if things haven’t got to this stage, you probably won’t find this information on whether the business is insolvent on Companies House.
There isn’t an official insolvency register on Companies House. Instead, it’s best to use the government’s portal, as mentioned above.
How to Check if a Business is in Provisional Liquidation
You can check if a business is in provisional liquidation on the government’s page. On this page, you’ll be shown an up-to-date list of businesses who’ve received a Winding-up Petition – essentially, this is a final cautionary letter to pay the outstanding debt prior to forced liquidation – or are in provisional liquidation, which is when the government hires a liquidator of its own, temporarily, as a means to protect company assets.
If you’re thinking about going forward with bankruptcy, it’s best to seek impartial debt advice from a professional.
