Partnership Liquidation

Liquidating a business partnership in financial difficulty

In many ways it is a virtually identical process to company liquidation. You can petition the Court to place the partnership into liquidation in the same way that you would a limited company.

However, there must be an outstanding debt of at least £750 owed to you, against which a Statutory Demand has been issued and not complied with. The demand can be served either at the partnership’s principal place of business, on any of the partners or on anyone else who has control of the partnership at the time of the service.

At the same time, you can petition for the Bankruptcy of the partners – or, if the partnership has Corporate Members, wind them up. Alternatively, you can simply do this in isolation. Before instigating proceedings, it’s vital to assess where the assets and liabilities lie - because when a partnership is wound up, its assets must be firstly used against its liabilities, with any shortfall transferring to the personal estates.

Here, it ranks alongside the claims of any other personal creditors. Partners can be disqualified from acting as Directors of a Company. We can carry out a rapid review of the business to identify whether liquidation is the most appropriate way of accessing the money you’re owed, though we will also consider alternative forms of rescue procedure if they are of greater benefit to you.