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This leaflet covers the questions you are most likely to ask about the process and timescale of a bankruptcy or compulsory liquidation. 

How does a bankruptcy or compulsory liquidation happen?

Who is the official receiver?

What are my duties?

How does the official receiver obtain information from me?

What should I do before the interview?

What happens at the first interview at the office?

What happens at the first telephone interview?

Will I need to be interviewed again?

What happens next?

How long will the process take?

How does a bankruptcy or compulsory liquidation happen?

A court makes an insolvency order (a bankruptcy order against an individual or a winding-up order against a company) after a petition has been presented at the court and served on you or the company. The petition is usually presented by either: 
you yourself (in a bankruptcy); or 
one or more creditors who are owed at least £750. 

Who is the Official Receiver

Official receivers are civil servants in The Insolvency Service and are officers of the court. They are notified by the court about a bankruptcy or winding-up order. 

Your local official receiver is responsible through his or her staff for administering the initial stage, at least, of your insolvency case. This stage includes collecting and protecting any assets and investigating the causes of the bankruptcy or winding up.

What are my duties

As a bankrupt or a director of a company in compulsory liquidation, you have a duty to comply with the official receiver’s request to provide information about the financial affairs of you or the company, including attending for interview as and when asked. More information about your duties is available in our leaflets ‘Guide to Bankruptcy’ and ‘Guide for Directors’, which are available from your local official receiver’s office or The Insolvency Service website (www.insolvency.gov.uk).

How does the official receiver obtain information from me?

The official receiver’s staff will contact you immediately if they know that action is urgently needed in relation to your or the company’s assets. Otherwise, they will contact you within 2 working days of receiving the insolvency order. Usually they will arrange an appointment for you to attend the official receiver’s office for interview, normally within 10 working days of receiving the order. Alternatively, and in relation to bankruptcy only, the official receiver may suggest a telephone interview, normally within 10 working days of receiving the order. Telephone interviews are usually carried out where:

• you have presented your own petition
• you have not recently traded 
• you have not previously been made bankrupt
• a telephone number for you is available. 

If you are offered a telephone interview but would prefer to be interviewed in person, please tell the official receiver. Whether you are interviewed in person or by telephone, you will receive a letter setting out what is required of you and you may be required to complete a 
questionnaire. The more organised you are, the more straightforward the process will be. 

If you have presented your own bankruptcy petition you may be interviewed by the official receiver, at court or at the official receiver’s office, directly following the making of the bankruptcy order.

What should I do before the interview

Before the interview you should do 3 things:

• Telephone the official receiver immediately to confirm the appointment if you have not already done so or if:
  • you have any infirmity, disability or other difficulty which you consider may require special facilities when attending his/her office or during the telephone interview 
  • any matters need to be sorted out urgently
  • you need to rearrange the appointment 
  • the official receiver has requested a lot of paperwork or accounting records and you need more time to collect them. 
• Fill in the questionnaire (if you have been asked to complete one) and make a note of any points you do not understand. 
• Collect all the financial records, paperwork, and any other information you will need for the interview. This means all accounting records; financial papers (for example letters, statements, bank records, hire-purchase agreements, credit card statements); the last set of your or the company’s accounts; any other relevant paperwork about you (and your business) or the company. 

If you are having a telephone interview, you must return the completed questionnaire to the official receiver by a fixed date. If you fail to do so or do not fully complete the questionnaire, you may be asked to attend for interview in person. You should have the financial records, paperwork and any other information available when the telephone interview takes place.

If you are being interviewed in person, you should take the completed questionnaire and the financial records, paperwork and any other information with you to the interview.

Do not ignore the official receiver’s staff in the hope that they will go away. They will not. If you do not co-operate, you may have to attend court to be questioned and could even be arrested if you still fail to co-operate. In a bankruptcy, you could also have your discharge from bankruptcy proceedings suspended, which would mean that your bankruptcy could last much longer than the normal 12 months. In a company, non-cooperation could also be a reason for disqualifying you from future involvement in company 
management.

What happens at the first interview at the office

You should go to the reception desk when you arrive. You can expect to be seen at the time of the appointment, or certainly no later than 5 minutes after the fixed appointment time. Then, in a private interview room:

• your questionnaire (if you have been asked to complete one) will be checked by a member of the official receiver’s staff if you have not completed the questionnaire, you will be asked to do so there and then
• you will be interviewed by an examiner (a member of staff who is a specialist in insolvency matters) who will go into the details of your or the company’s assets and debts, and the facts and circumstances that led to the 
  insolvency
• you should hand over all your or the company’s financial records and papers. They will be examined and recorded then or at a later interview. The records will be kept by the Official Receiver. 

You should feel free to ask any questions about the proceedings or your case when you are at the official receiver’s office.

Depending on the nature of your case, the interview may take 2-3 hours to complete. 

What happens at the first telephone interview

You will be telephoned by an examiner at the agreed date and time. The examiner will:

• check the information in the questionnaire (if you have been asked to complete one)
• ask for any necessary additional information about your assets and debts, and the facts and circumstances that led to the insolvency
• deal with any queries you may have about the proceedings or your case. 

The examiner will also tell you if you need to supply further information relating to your affairs. Telephone interviews usually take at least half an hour, and may take longer.

Will I need to be interviewed again?

You may be asked to attend another appointment, particularly if:

• we need more time to complete enquiries into your or the company’s affairs
• you cannot, or do not, provide all the financial records requested by the official receiver
• we need more details of your or the company’s assets, debts and financial affairs
• you cannot provide all the information we need
• you do not arrive for any appointment

What happens next

After the interview, the official receiver will check the information you have given. He/she will issue a report to creditors (and shareholders in a winding-up), setting out your or the company’s assets and debts. This report will usually be issued within 8 (but in any event within 12) weeks of the insolvency order. 
If there are material assets, he/she may seek the appointment of a private sector insolvency practitioner to act as trustee or liquidator to deal with the realisation and distribution of the assets. To do this, the official receiver will either call a meeting of creditors to enable them to appoint a practitioner or ask the Secretary of State to make an appointment. 
If a meeting of creditors is appropriate, it will usually be held within 12 weeks (but in any event within 4 months) of the 
insolvency order. You may be asked to attend the meeting of creditors. You will be notified if an insolvency practitioner is appointed as trustee or liquidator. You will need to help the trustee or liquidator to deal with your or the company’s affairs by giving your full co-operation. If there are no material assets, the official receiver will continue to deal with everything.

How long will the process take?

What happens next, and how long it takes, depends on the complexity of the case. If you have provided all the necessary information and no problems are expected in dealing with the assets, you may not hear from the official receiver again. Any remaining matters (such as telling the official receiver of any change of address) may be dealt with by letter or telephone. In a winding-up, that may be the end of the matter. When your trustee makes a payment to your creditors, he may place an advertisement about your bankruptcy in a newspaper asking creditors to submit their claims. If it takes your trustee a long time to deal with an asset, this advertisement may appear several years after the bankruptcy order.

Length of bankruptcy. In a bankruptcy, you will normally remain bankrupt for a maximum of 12 months. This period will be shorter if the official receiver concludes his enquiries into your affairs sooner and files a notice in court. After this time you will be automatically discharged from the restrictions of bankruptcy. But a bankruptcy restrictions order may be made against you if your conduct has been dishonest or you have been in some way to blame for your bankruptcy, and this will mean you will continue to be subject to the restrictions of bankruptcy for a further 2-15 years. If you fail to co-operate with the official receiver or trustee, the court can be asked to suspend the discharge period. If the court agrees, your bankruptcy will only end when the suspension has been lifted. Discharge from bankruptcy does not end your trustee’s administration of any assets that became part of your bankruptcy estate. 

Co-operation. The more difficulty the official receiver has in finding out what caused the insolvency or administering the assets, the longer the whole process will take. As part of the process, he or she may require you to: 

• submit a sworn statement of affairs (a summary of your or the company’s assets and debts)
• provide accounts for you or the company
• provide an account of all dealings in cash and goods

If you do not co-operate with the official receiver, he or she may also apply to the court for your public examination. This means you will be questioned in open court about your or the company’s affairs, dealings and property.  Your or the company’s creditors may also be there and can ask you questions as well.

Under the insolvency and other legislation there are provisions about criminal offences and unfit conduct by directors and bankrupts. The official receiver will report to The Insolvency Service’s headquarters if there seems to be evidence of criminality or unfitness. But the official receiver does not start out by thinking that every bankrupt and director has committed offences or is unfit – his or her job is to establish the facts. In the vast majority of cases, those facts do not suggest that it would be in the public interest to begin criminal, disqualification or bankruptcy restrictions proceedings.

You can obtain further copies of this publication from the following website: http://www.dti.gov.uk/publications

You may also order copies of our publications by telephone by calling the Publications Orderline on 0845 015 0010. You may also fax orders to the Orderline on 0845 015 0020. Minicom users should telephone 0845 015 0030.

Publications are also available on our website www.insolvency.gov.uk