The documents to gather before filing

Gathering these documents takes time, and it is often what determines the filing date. Better to start before you are forced to.

The papers required for the petition itself

• The last two sets of annual accounts filed with the National Bank if you trade through a company, or the last two tax returns if you are an individual.
• Interim accounts less than three months old, comprising a profit and loss account and a balance sheet, certified and signed by a statutory auditor, an accountant, a tax accountant or an approved external chartered accountant.
• A complete list of creditors, with full name, address and amount owed, together with their status: ordinary creditors subject to the stay for most of them, or secured creditors subject to the stay where they hold security — a mortgage, a charge over the business, retention of title, as well as landlords and leasing companies.
• A cash budget for the period of the stay, based on expected receipts, with an estimate of income and expenditure for the duration applied for, likewise certified and signed by an approved accounting professional. An order book may be attached.
• An explanation of the reasons for the application, setting out why the company is in difficulty and how those difficulties threaten the continuity of the business. It may rely on bailiff seizures, summonses, or on equity having fallen below half the share capital.
• An explanation of what the reorganisation is meant to achieve: obtaining time to negotiate, to find financing, to carry out a restructuring.
• A first outline of the measures and recovery plan intended to bring the company back to break-even and generate enough to meet its debts.
• Evidence that staff information obligations have been met, both statutory and contractual, where they apply.
• And any other document allowing the judge to form a better view of the situation.

What is worth preparing on top

These are not required by the registry, but they serve the file and will spare you searching under pressure.

• A budget for the period after the stay, based on the assumptions in the plan. It serves to show that the reorganisation is justified.
• Copies of all specific contracts: mortgage and other credit agreements, leases, seizure documents.
• Copies of any customer or commercial contracts whose continuation could be called into question by the proceedings.
• A full list of staff, with annual pay and each person’s situation: fixed-term or permanent contract, approaching retirement.
• A list of the significant changes over the last financial year liable to affect the accounts: new contracts, a change in the product range, price changes, hirings, redundancies.
• A list and copies of the approvals, permits and professional licences required, with their status.
• A list of fixed assets.

Nady Bilani