A company may be wound up voluntarily if it cannot pay its creditors. It may also be wound up by order of the court on the petition of a creditor. In either case, relevant documents need to be sent to Companies House.
Introduction
This is a simple guide to liquidation and other insolvency procedures. It summarises some of the rules that apply to corporate voluntary arrangements, moratoria, administrations, receivers, voluntary liquidations, compulsory liquidations and EC regulations. Please also refer to the relevant legislation, which you will find in the Companies Act 1985 (as amended in 1989 and later), the Insolvency Act 1986, the Insolvency Rules 1986, the Insolvency Act 2000, the Insolvency (Amendment) (No 2) Rules 2002, Council Regulation (EC) No 1346/2000, the Insolvency (Amendment) (No2) Regulations 2002, the Enterprise Act 2002, and the Insolvency (Amendment) Rules 2003 (SI 1730/2003).
The winding up, liquidation, insolvency, cessation of payments and similar procedures that apply to a PLC also apply to a European company, ‘Societas Europaea’ (SE) registered in GB. For general information on SEs, please see our booklet, ‘The European Company: Societas Europaea (SE)’