What happens after a company goes into compulsory liquidation?
Usually, the Official Receiver (who is both a civil servant in The Insolvency Service and an officer of the High Court) will be appointed liquidator of the company on the making of a winding-up order.
The Official Receiver has a duty:
- as Official Receiver
- to ensure that notice of the winding-up order is advertised in the Belfast Gazette and in a local newspaper; and
- to investigate the affairs of the company and to establish the cause of its failure (by obtaining information from the directors of the company and from third parties, such as the company's bankers, accountants and solicitors);
- as liquidator - to collect and realise all assets and pay all creditors.
The Official Receiver may call a meeting of creditors to appoint an insolvency practitioner as liquidator in his place, but if this happens he still has a duty to investigate the company's affairs.
So, 2 people may be involved in the liquidation:
- the liquidator, who is responsible for collecting and realising the assets and paying the creditors; and
- the Official Receiver, who investigates the company's affairs.
The Official Receiver also has a duty to make a report to the Department, under the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002, regarding the conduct of the company's directors.
