Insolvency is defined as the inability to pay off debts. A company will be seen as being unable to pay off their debts if the company’s creditors can prove to the court that the company is unable to pay their debts when they become due which is known as cash flow insolvency or if the company is unable to pay its debts and that total value of the company including all its assets is worth less than the debts that they owe and will own in the future. This is known as balance sheet insolvency.
If you own a company which becomes insolvent, it may be put into liquidation. The process of liquidation involves all the assets tied up in the company being sold off to pay off all the outstanding debts. The process can be started by the company’s shareholders or directors but the process will only be legally effective if all the creditors to the company agree and put in place a liquidator of their choice. This is known as creditor’s voluntary liquidation.
Another option for the creditors is to apply to the courts for a winding up order which means that the company has to go into liquidation.
Creditors will be paid off in order of importance; this list usually goes as follows:
• To begin with the costs of the liquidation process should be paid off
• Next, preferential creditors will be paid off under applicable law
• After this it will be the claims of creditors with floating charges that will be paid
• If there is anything left after this, unsecured creditors will be paid according to a percentage of the amount of money that they are owed
• It is rare at this point for there to be any money left, but if there is, surplus assets will be distributed between member according to how much they are entitled to
There are two more options for companies that go insolvent. These are administration and voluntary company arrangements.