The answer is seven days. New insolvency rules came in on the 6th April 2017 which has changed the way companies go into liquidation. There is no longer a need for a physical creditors meeting unless 10% of creditors request it.
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From the 6th April 2017 the procedure to liquidate a company will be:
Day 1
Directors sign a board resolution to liquidate using a creditor’s voluntary liquidation and sign a short notice to shareholders.
The Insolvency Practitioner writes or emails all creditors and shareholders of the intention to liquidate on day 7. The creditors are invited to join a virtual meeting or not (if not it is by deemed consent).
Day 4
The Insolvency Practitioner will send out a report to creditors (or make it available online) showing the statement of affairs as prepared by the directors and a report (called a SIP 6 report). The SIP report summarises the company details, a brief history of the business and a list of all known creditors and shareholders.
Day 7
The shareholders meet (if they have given consent to short notice) and pass the resolution to liquidate.
Shortly after that creditors meet by a virtual meeting – meaning they telephone into a meeting or join by video conference facilities.
Sometimes the meeting may not be a virtual meeting – it can be by deemed consent. This means the directors have decided no virtual meeting is needed. If no one owed above 10% objects then it is just deemed to go into liquidation at 23.59 hours that day.
If creditors want a physical meeting, where they can attend and ask questions to the directors and insolvency practitioner then 10% of them by value need to request it. This meeting would then be called in another seven days time.
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