Discharge and release of insolvency office-holders under IA 1986 and IR 2016: administrators, liquidators (including provisional) and trustees in bankruptcy—timings, creditor decisions and court powers (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Restructuring & Insolvency expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note examines the discharge from liability of administrators, liquidators, provisional liquidators and trustees in bankruptcy (trustees) for their actions as office-holders. The underlying aim is to shield them because, once they leave office, they no longer hold the insolvent debtor’s assets from which liabilities properly incurred could be satisfied, so it would be unjust to keep them generally at risk...

Administrators

When a person stops acting as a company’s administrator, they are discharged from liability for anything done in that capacity. That discharge takes effect as follows:

Event: the administrator’s death.
Time: on lodgement with the court of the notice of their death.
Provision: Paragraph 98(2)(a) of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986).
If the administrator was appointed out of court and has not made a statement under IA 1986, Sch B1, para 52(1)(b) that the company has insufficient property to enable a distribution to unsecured creditors other than by virtue of the prescribed part: by a resolution of the creditors’ committee or, if there is no creditors’ committee, by a decision...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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