Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Receiver definition

What does Receiver mean? A receiver is an office-holder appointed by a secured creditor to take control of charged assets (or, at times, the whole business) to collect income and realise value for debt repayment. The label is used across contexts; the role and powers depend on statute and the security document. Two main types arise. Administrative receivers (defined in the Insolvency Act 1986 in Great Britain and in equivalent Northern Ireland legislation) are appointed under a floating charge over the whole or substantially the whole of a company’s undertaking and may manage and sell the business. In England & Wales and Scotland, the Enterprise...

Receivership in England and Wales: duties, liabilities and effects on employees, contracts and landlords (administrative, court-appointed and fixed charge/LPA)

Published by a LexisNexis Restructuring & Insolvency expert

Practice notes

administrative receivership

The position of employees following the appointment of an administrative receiver

As a general position, employees are not immediately affected by the appointment of an administrative receiver, and there is no automatic cessation of their contracts. For further guidance, see Practice Note: How a company's insolvency affects its employees. That principle is, however, displaced in three specific situations, each of which results in automatic termination:

where the appointment occurs alongside an immediate sale of the business;
where, at the time of appointment or shortly afterwards, the administrative receiver and the employees agree a new contract that is inconsistent with the previous terms;
where continuing the employment of a particular individual would conflict with the administrative receiver’s role and functions (for example, if the appointment renders the managing director’s position redundant).

Administrative receivers also incur personal liability for any contracts they enter into while discharging their functions, and for any contracts of employment they adopt in the course of those functions, insofar as they relate to qualifying liabilities—namely wages, salary, and contributions to an occupational pension scheme...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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