Guide for insolvency practitioners and business recovery, lenders and credit teams, compliance, KYB and AML teams

Winding-up petitions: how to find them and what they mean

Last updated 4 October 20269 minute read

A winding-up petition is an application to the court to put a company into compulsory liquidation. Most are presented by unpaid creditors on the ground that the company cannot pay its debts (Insolvency Act 1986, sections 122(1)(f) and 123), but the company itself, its directors, contributories and some public bodies can also petition (section 124). The petition is a court document, not a Companies House filing. The register usually keeps showing the company as active until a winding-up order is made and a copy reaches the registrar (section 130), so The Gazette is where a petition first becomes public.

For scale, CompanyStack's analysis of the Companies House register on 3 October 2026 shows 108,087 companies in liquidation and 3,708 in administration. Those statuses appear only once a procedure has begun. A petition shows up earlier, and only in The Gazette.

How do I check whether a company has a winding-up petition?

1. Confirm the legal entity. Take the registered number from the company's record on the Companies House service. Gazette notices use the name at the date of the notice, so note any previous names too.
2. Search The Gazette. Search the insolvency notices on The Gazette by company name or number, or open the company's own page on The Gazette (thegazette.co.uk/company/ followed by the registered number), which lists notices linked to that number. You are looking for notice code 2450.
3. Read the notice. Under rule 7.10(2) of the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 it must state that a petition has been presented, the petitioner's name and address, the date of presentation, the venue fixed for the hearing, the petitioner's solicitor (if any), and that anyone intending to appear must give notice under rule 7.14.
4. Look for later notices. A dismissal, a winding-up order or the appointment of a liquidator tells you how it ended. The codes are in the table below.
5. Check Companies House again after the hearing date. If an order was made, the status changes to liquidation and the order appears in the filing history.
6. Allow for the blind spot. A petition can be presented and served days or weeks before it is advertised, because the notice cannot appear until at least seven business days after service, and the court can restrain advertisement altogether (rule 7.24). A creditor must search for pending petitions before presenting its own (Insolvency Practice Direction, paragraph 9.2), so if you are about to take action, ask your solicitor to search the court records as well.

GOV.UK's page on checking whether a company is being liquidated points to the same two places: the Companies House service and The Gazette.

Which Gazette notices should I look for?

The codes below come from The Gazette's own notice code list.

What is the timetable from demand to hearing?

A creditor does not need a statutory demand: it can instead prove that the company cannot pay its debts as they fall due, or that its liabilities exceed its assets (section 123(1)(e) and (2)). Petitions are heard in the High Court or, where paid-up share capital is £120,000 or less, the County Court, except that a company whose registered office has been in the London insolvency district for the longest part of the previous six months must be petitioned against in the High Court (section 117).

One date matters more than the others. If an order is made, the winding up is treated as having started when the petition was presented, not when the order was made (section 129(2)).

What does a petition mean for payments and contracts?

Payments after the petition date

Section 127 makes any disposition of the company's property after the winding up commences void unless the court orders otherwise, and section 129(2) dates commencement back to presentation. The Insolvency Practice Direction confirms that this includes payments out of the company's bank account, whether the account is in credit or overdrawn (paragraph 9.11.1). In plain terms: if a company pays you after a petition has been presented against it and a winding-up order follows, the liquidator can ask for the money back unless the payment was validated.

Validation orders

A company facing a petition can apply for a validation order, asking the court to allow specified payments so that they are not void if an order is made (Insolvency Practice Direction, paragraph 9.11). Notice of the application should normally go to the petitioner and to creditors who have given notice of intention to appear. Petitions and frozen bank accounts tend to arrive together: the Insolvency and Companies List names "applications to unfreeze bank accounts or challenge a winding up petition" among the cases it handles.

Provisional liquidation

The court can appoint a provisional liquidator at any time after presentation (section 135). GOV.UK describes provisional liquidation as the court freezing a company's assets before the hearing that decides whether it should be liquidated.

What should a supplier or lender do?

1. Confirm the facts. Match the registered number, note the presentation date and diary the hearing.
2. Measure your exposure. List what is owed, what is on order and any of your goods on the customer's premises, and ask your solicitor what your terms allow (retention of title, suspension, termination).
3. Do not assume prepayment is safe. Money the company pays you in advance is still a disposition of its property after the petition date. If trading has to continue, ask whether the company has, or will apply for, a validation order that covers your payments.
4. Decide whether to appear. Any creditor can support or oppose the petition by delivering a notice of intention to appear, stating the amount and nature of the debt, so that it reaches the petitioner by 4pm on the business day before the hearing (rule 7.14). Creditors who gave notice but were not at the hearing are told about any adjournment (rule 7.19).
5. Be ready to take over. If the petitioner is paid, withdraws or fails to attend, the court can substitute another creditor who wants to continue (rule 7.17). Payment of the petitioning creditor does not necessarily end the case.
6. Lenders: watch the account. Because payments out of an overdrawn account are caught as well as payments out of an account in credit, take advice before allowing further drawings or taking repayments.
7. After an order. The official receiver becomes liquidator in England and Wales, and other creditors can register their claims (GOV.UK, Wind up a company that owes you money).

This is general information. On a live case, speak to a licensed insolvency practitioner or a solicitor. For wider credit control, see how to check a customer's creditworthiness and warning signs a company is in financial trouble.

How is the process different in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Scotland. Petitions go to the Court of Session or, where paid-up share capital is £120,000 or less, the sheriff court of the sheriffdom where the registered office is (section 120). In the Court of Session, when the petition is lodged the court makes a first order for intimation, service and advertisement, and the petition is advertised "forthwith" once in the Edinburgh Gazette and in any newspapers the court directs. Anyone who wants to oppose lodges answers within eight days (Rules of the Court of Session, rule 74.22). There is no seven-business-day wait after service. Scotland has no official receiver: the court appoints an interim liquidator when it makes the order (section 138).

Northern Ireland. Winding up is governed by the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 and its own rules, and Northern Ireland insolvency notices appear in The Belfast Gazette.

Can a petition be withdrawn, dismissed or reversed?

• Withdrawal. The court can give permission to withdraw if, at least five business days before the first hearing, the petitioner shows that the petition has not been advertised, no notices of support or opposition have been received and the company consents (rule 7.13).
• Dismissal. Unless the court directs otherwise, the petitioner must gazette a notice of dismissal. If it has not done so within 21 days of the hearing, the company may gazette the dismissal itself (rule 7.23).
• Restraining a petition. A company that disputes the debt can apply for an injunction to restrain presentation or advertisement (rule 7.24). GOV.UK says that a company wanting to stop a petition after receiving a statutory demand must apply within 21 days of getting the demand.
• Cancelling an order. GOV.UK says a company can apply to cancel a winding-up order within five working days of getting the order.

How CompanyStack helps

CompanyStack company pages show each company's status, filing deadlines, overdue accounts and confirmation statements, charges and officers, which are often the first public signs of strain. CompanyStack also loads corporate insolvency notices from The Gazette twice a day and matches them to companies by registered number. Save customers or borrowers to a list and CompanyStack alerts you, in the app and, on paid plans, by email, when a new Gazette notice such as a winding-up petition appears for one of them, and when its status, filings, officers or owners change, including the move to liquidation after a winding-up order. A petition becomes public only when it is advertised, and a notice that does not give the company number may not be matched, so on any company where you have significant exposure keep searching The Gazette for code 2450 as well. See CompanyStack for insolvency teams, for lenders and pricing.

This guide is general information about UK rules and practice, not legal, tax or financial advice. Last checked 4 October 2026. How we write our guides.

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