Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Distress definition

What does Distress mean? In practice, distress describes the seizure of a debtor’s goods to secure or satisfy sums due-traditionally rent arrears-without first obtaining a court order. It was a common law landlord’s remedy. England and Wales: the common law remedy of distress for rent has been abolished and replaced by statutory “taking control of goods” procedures. For commercial premises, the successor is Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery (CRAR) under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. CRAR is available only for qualifying commercial leases, is exercised by certificated enforcement agents after prior notice, and is limited to rent (not general sums under the...

Corporate financial distress: warning signs, management accounts analysis, 13-week cash flow, stakeholder strategies and ipso facto restrictions for commercial lawyers in England, Wales and Scotland

Published by a LexisNexis Commercial expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note offers guidance for the commercial practitioner on identifying when a company is encountering significant financial distress. It also condenses the key matters to prioritise to steady the business whilst evaluating the options available to the company, and outlines considerations for a business trading with a company in financial difficulty...

Establishing serious financial difficulty

Signals can usually be detected in a company’s financial statements and management accounts, as well as in communications with major suppliers and debt providers (eg banks, supplier statutory demands, etc). If the board fails to deal with these indicators, they will, in most cases, result in a value‑destroying formal insolvency of the company...

warning signs

heightened competition causing loss of key customers and tighter margins
an outmoded business model due to technological advances or shifts in customer demand/revenue channels
weak cash generation/poor working capital management
excessive debt and...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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