Check a company now
Enter a company name or number. Administration risk indicators, director history, gazette notices, and payment behaviour included.
What administration means for creditors
Administration is a formal insolvency procedure. An insolvency practitioner (the administrator) is appointed to take control of the company. The aim is to rescue the business, achieve a better result for creditors than immediate liquidation, or realise assets to pay secured and preferential creditors.
Moratorium on legal action
No creditor can sue, enforce a judgment, or issue a winding-up petition while the company is in administration. You cannot chase the debt through the courts.
Administrator takes control
Directors lose their powers. The administrator runs the company and decides how assets are distributed. Creditors must submit claims to the administrator.
Payment hierarchy
Fixed charge holders are paid first, then the administrator's fees, then preferential creditors (employees owed wages), then floating charge holders, then unsecured trade creditors. In most cases, unsecured creditors recover 5p or less per pound owed.
Types of administration
There are three routes into administration. The route matters because it affects how much notice creditors receive.
1. Court order (Section 8, Insolvency Act 1986)
A creditor, the company, or its directors petition the court for an administration order. Other creditors receive notice and can object. The most transparent route.
2. Out-of-court appointment by a qualifying floating charge holder
A bank or secured lender holding a qualifying floating charge can appoint an administrator directly, without going to court. Trade creditors often learn about this after the fact.
3. Pre-pack administration
The company's advisors negotiate a sale of assets before the administrator is formally appointed. The sale completes on day one. Often, the buyer is a connected party (the existing directors or their associates). Creditors typically have no input into the sale price or terms.
What to do if your debtor enters administration
- File your claim with the administrator. Submit a proof of debt form with copies of unpaid invoices, contracts, and correspondence. Do this as early as possible. The administrator will set a bar date after which late claims may be excluded from distributions.
- Check if you have Retention of Title (ROT). If your supply contract contains an ROT clause and your goods have not been resold or incorporated into another product, you may be able to reclaim them. Write to the administrator immediately citing the clause.
- Check for personal guarantees. If a director personally guaranteed the debt, the guarantee survives the administration. You can pursue the director individually even while the moratorium prevents action against the company.
- Attend the creditors' meeting. The administrator must hold a meeting (or seek a decision by correspondence) within 10 weeks. You can vote on the administrator's proposals and, if enough creditors agree, appoint a creditors' committee to scrutinise the process.
- Report suspected wrongdoing. If you believe the directors traded while insolvent, made preferential payments, or engineered a pre-pack to defraud creditors, you can report this to the Insolvency Service.
Pre-pack administration: why it feels unfair
Pre-packs account for roughly 30% of all administrations. The typical pattern: a company accumulates debts it cannot pay, the directors instruct an insolvency practitioner, and the IP negotiates a sale of the business and assets to a new company controlled by the same directors. The new company starts fresh with no debts. The old company's creditors share whatever cash consideration was paid (often a fraction of book value).
Since April 2021, connected-party pre-packs must be approved by an independent evaluator or by creditors. This was introduced by The Administration (Restrictions on Disposal etc. to Connected Persons) Regulations 2021. The evaluator must confirm the consideration is reasonable.
Section 216 restrictions on re-use of company name
If the old company goes into insolvent liquidation, Section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986 restricts directors from using the same or similar name for the new company for 5 years, unless they follow specified exception routes (court order, successive trading, or the “known as” exception). Breach is a criminal offence and makes the director personally liable for the new company's debts.
How to spot administration coming
Most administrations do not come as a surprise if you know where to look. These signals typically appear weeks or months before the formal appointment:
- Late payments becoming the norm. Stretching payment terms from 30 to 60, then 90 days is the earliest practical sign.
- Gazette notices. Winding-up petitions, strike-off notices (and subsequent withdrawals), or notices of an intention to appoint an administrator (the 5-day notice under Schedule B1, Paragraph 26).
- New charges being filed. Fresh debentures or fixed charges registered at Companies House may indicate emergency borrowing or refinancing under pressure.
- Director resignations. Non-executive directors and company secretaries leaving is common in the weeks before appointment.
- Auditor qualified opinion or resignation. An auditor flagging "material uncertainty regarding going concern" or resigning mid-term is a serious indicator.
- Multiple CCJs in a short period. If county court judgments are being registered against the company, other creditors have already tried and failed to get paid.
Check whether a company is heading for administration
RecoupIQ analyses 72 risk signals across gazette notices, accounts filings, CCJ records, charge registers, and director behaviour. One search tells you whether a company you trade with is stable, stressed, or heading for formal insolvency. Quick Check from £29, no subscription required.
Check a company nowRelated guides
- Check company winding-up petition (UK) , the step beyond administration.
- Section 216 Insolvency Act, phoenix company rules
- Check company CCJs UK
- A company owes me money, UK action guide
Get alerted before administration, not after
Administration does not happen overnight. There are signals: late filings, director changes, new charges, winding-up petitions. RecoupIQ monitoring (from £19.99/mo) alerts you within 24 hours of any change to companies you watch, so you can reduce exposure before the administrator arrives. Available via the web dashboard or the Microsoft 365 Trust Check app (per-seat for teams). RecoupIQ is a Microsoft partner.
See monitoring plansLast reviewed: July 2026. General information for UK creditors. Not legal advice. RecoupIQ Ltd, Company No. 16947526, ICO ZC077511. Microsoft Partner.