Section 109 of the Insolvency Act 1986 requires a liquidator, within 14 days of appointment, to notify the Registrar of Companies, and to publish a notice of appointment in the Gazette using forms 600 and 600a, as specified by the Companies (Forms) (Amendments) Regulations 1987. It should be noted that because the form of gazetting is prescribed by the Act, practitioners are required to use form 600a for this purpose. The merging of this information with other notices appearing in the Gazette does not comply with section 109, and practitioners should not adopt that practice.

Section 46 of the Act requires an administrative receiver, within 28 days of appointment, to publish a notice of appointment in the Gazette. That notice is required to include the various matters set out in rule 3.2 of the Rules 1986.

Section 21 of the Act requires an administrator to publish a notice of appointment in the Gazette forthwith after the making of the administration order, and within 14 days of the order send an office copy of it to the Registrar of Companies.

Failure to comply with these requirements renders the office holder liable to a fine, and for continued contravention, a daily default fine. In addition, failure to gazette will result in details of the liquidation, administrative receivership, or administration not being entered on the Central Index, the Service’s database of insolvencies. In a liquidation this will in turn lead to delays in setting up an account with the ISA. If CAU cannot obtain basic details from the Central Index it will need to contact you directly, causing additional work. CAU will also not be able to action a requisition made at the same time as the first payment into the ISA.

Practitioners should be alert to any order staying advertisement, say, pending an appeal.

Following appointment as a liquidator or trustee by the Secretary of State under these sections, an office holder can only advertise his appointment, with the court’s permission.

The Service considers that the advertisement route can only be adopted as an alternative to individual notification if the court so permits, and the office holder advertises his appointment in accordance with the court’s directions. The statutory requirement on the office holder to advertise does not mean that he is precluded from advertising in other circumstances.

In our view, it is open to the office holder to advertise his appointment without the agreement of the court when he has given individual notice of his appointment to creditors.

Practitioners should ensure that before advertising over and above the requirements of the legislation, there is a good reason to do so, and the costs of the insolvency are not increased unnecessarily.

3. Notification and advertisement of administrator’s appointment  

Rule 2.27 of the Insolvency Rules 1986 requires an administrator to advertise his or her appointment in the London Gazette and an appropriate newspaper using Form 2.11B – Notification of appointment of administrator (for newspaper and London Gazette). 

It has become apparent that some insolvency practitioners are still using the pre-Enterprise Act 2002 Form 2.5 for this purpose and insolvency practitioners are therefore reminded that Form 2.11B should be used in all cases where they are appointed administrator regardless of the method of their appointment.   

4. Moving from Administration to CVL – Gazette Notices 

The Insolvency Service has been receiving a number of queries regarding the application of section 109 (notice by liquidator of his appointment) in cases where a CVL follows an administration. 

We would like to clarify that in such cases a liquidator is still subject to the requirements of section 109 and that the requirement to Gazette their appointment remains. 

The position with regard to the forms required by the Registrar is set out in a previous article – Issue 21 December 2004 Chapter 6, Article 5 (Filing requirements at Companies House under the Enterprise Act).  

We are considering whether the provisions of section 109 should be disapplied when companies move from administration to liquidation. Any change will be made by way of a Regulatory Reform Order and would be brought in at the same time as the new Insolvency Rules in October 2007. 

Any enquiries regarding the above should be directed towards IPPolicy.Section@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7291 6740