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A petition is filed.
Then the clock starts.

A winding-up petition is the most serious step a creditor can take over an unpaid debt of £750 or more. Here is what happens next, in order, and what each stage means for the company and everyone it owes.

01

The petition is served and filed

A creditor with a debt of £750 or more serves the petition on the company and files it at court. From this moment the company is formally on notice. The petition can be filed even where a CCJ already exists: the petition is the enforcement stage beyond the judgment.

02

Advertisement in The Gazette

The petition must be advertised in The Gazette at least seven days before the hearing. This is the moment the wider world learns of it: banks typically freeze the company's accounts on seeing the advertisement, which in practice makes trading on almost impossible.

03

The company's options

Pay the debt in full, negotiate a payment arrangement, apply to court for a validation order to keep banking, seek an injunction, or enter administration for protection. Companies that act in this window sometimes survive; the ones that do nothing usually do not.

04

The hearing

At the hearing the court can dismiss the petition, adjourn it, or make a winding-up order. If the order is made, the Official Receiver takes control, an insolvency practitioner is appointed as liquidator, and the company's affairs move into compulsory liquidation.

05

The aftermath

The liquidator realises the company's assets, investigates the directors' conduct, and pays creditors in the statutory order. Most unsecured creditors receive little. The company is eventually dissolved. See who gets paid first.

Why this matters to you as a creditor

When one of your customers has a petition advertised against it, your position changes from waiting for payment to competing for what remains. The single most useful thing you can do is spot the petition early, register your interest with the liquidator the moment one is appointed, and respond to every proof-of-debt request.

Black Flag Alert tracks winding-up petitions from The Gazette as they appear. An active petition forces the risk rating to 10 (Distressed), whatever the filed accounts say, because no set of accounts outranks a live court process.

If you hold the debt
If you are the petitioning creditor, the petition is pressure, not a promise: forcing liquidation usually means sharing whatever is left with every other creditor. Professional advice before petitioning is money well spent.

Watchlists notify you the moment a petition, judgment or insolvency notice appears against a company you are tracking.

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