Winding-up petition statutory timeline
A creditor's winding-up petition runs to a fixed legal timetable. A statutory demand for a debt over £750 gives the company 21 days. Once a petition is served, it cannot be advertised in The Gazette until at least 7 business days later, and the notice must appear at least 7 business days before the hearing. The company's evidence opposing the petition is due at least 5 business days before the hearing. Any other creditor who wants to be heard must give notice by 4pm on the business day before. The date that matters most is the one the petition was presented, because if a winding-up order is made, the winding up is treated as starting then. Insolvency Act 1986; Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016
Data as of: the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 as published on legislation.gov.uk, checked 23 September 2026 · Source: legislation.gov.uk · England and Wales only. To work out your own dates, use the petition timeline tool.
Every time limit, in order
These are the steps in a creditor's petition against a registered company, in the order they fall. Each row gives the time limit as the rule states it and links to the rule itself. The court can shorten or extend most of these periods, and rule 7.10 applies unless the court directs otherwise.
| Stage | Time limit | Rule | What it means for the company |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory demand served (optional first step) | Debt over £750; 21 days to pay, secure or compound it | IA 1986 s123(1)(a); IR 2016 r7.3(1)(h) | The demand is left at the registered office. If the 21 days pass without payment or an agreed arrangement, the company is deemed unable to pay its debts. A creditor does not have to use a demand: it can petition on other grounds, such as proving the company cannot pay its debts as they fall due |
| Petition based on an old demand | More than 4 months between serving the demand and presenting the petition | IR 2016 r7.6(6) | The petitioner must file a witness statement explaining the delay |
| Petition presented | Day the petition is filed with the court | IR 2016 r7.7; IA 1986 s129(2) | The court fixes the hearing venue and endorses it on the petition. If a winding-up order is later made, the winding up is treated as starting on this date |
| Payments after presentation | From presentation onwards | IA 1986 s127 | If an order is made, dispositions of company property after presentation are void unless the court orders otherwise. This is why banks freeze accounts, and it runs from presentation, not from the advert |
| Petition served on the company | Day 0 for the advertising clock | IR 2016 r7.9(2); IR 2016 Sch 4 | Served at the registered office, handed to a director, officer, employee or someone authorised to accept service, or left there if no such person is present |
| Copies to an office-holder already in place | Within 3 business days after service | IR 2016 r7.9(3), (5) | If the company is already in voluntary liquidation, administration, administrative receivership or a CVA, the liquidator, administrator, receiver or supervisor must be sent a copy |
| A director asks for a copy of the petition | Petitioner must deliver it within 2 business days | IR 2016 r7.11 | Available on request to the petitioner or its solicitor, on payment of the standard copy fee |
| Petitioner applies to withdraw | At least 5 business days before the first hearing | IR 2016 r7.13 | Only possible while the petition has not been advertised, no notices of support or opposition have been received, and the company consents |
| Earliest Gazette notice | Not less than 7 business days after service | IR 2016 r7.10(4)(b) | The notice gives the petitioner, the presentation date and the hearing venue. Suppliers and banks watch The Gazette, so this is usually when the account freeze starts |
| Latest Gazette notice | Not less than 7 business days before the hearing | IR 2016 r7.10(4)(b) | If notice is not given in accordance with the rule, the court may dismiss the petition |
| Certificate of compliance | Filed at least 5 business days before the hearing | IR 2016 r7.12 | The petitioner certifies the dates of service and of the Gazette notice. The court may dismiss the petition if this is not done |
| Company opposes the petition | Witness statement filed and copied to the petitioner not later than 5 business days before the hearing | IR 2016 r7.16 | It must state that the company opposes the order and the grounds. Leaving opposition until the hearing day is too late under the rules |
| Other creditors give notice of intention to appear | Must reach the petitioner by 4pm on the business day before the hearing | IR 2016 r7.14(6) | Creditors can support or oppose. Anyone who misses the deadline needs the court's permission to be heard |
| List of appearances | Handed to the court on the hearing day, before the hearing starts | IR 2016 r7.15(3) | Shows every creditor who has asked to be heard and whether they support or oppose |
| Petitioner drops out | At or before the hearing | IR 2016 r7.17 | If the petitioner withdraws, consents to dismissal or an adjournment, fails to advertise or fails to appear, the court may substitute another creditor who wants to continue. Paying only the petitioner may not end the petition |
| Hearing | The date fixed by the court | IA 1986 s125 | The court may dismiss the petition, adjourn it with or without conditions, make an interim order, or make a winding-up order |
| Winding-up order | On the day it is made | IA 1986 s136(2) | The official receiver becomes liquidator and the company is in compulsory liquidation |
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How the days are counted
Two rules decide what "7 business days" means, and both catch people out.
What counts as a business day. For company winding up, section 251 of the Insolvency Act 1986 defines a business day as any day except a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday in any part of Great Britain. A Scottish bank holiday such as St Andrew's Day therefore does not count, even for a petition against an English company in an English court.
Clear days. Schedule 5 to the 2016 Rules applies the civil court rule on counting time (CPR 2.8), under which periods are counted as clear days. The day the period starts from is left out, and so is the day of the event at the other end. Seven business days after service therefore means seven whole business days between service and the notice, so the earliest notice falls on the eighth business day after service. The same works in reverse from the hearing date. The timeline tool on this site uses the same clear-days count and the same bank holiday rule, so its dates match the ones on this page.
Put together, if the notice goes in on the earliest possible day, the hearing can be no sooner than the 16th business day after service. That figure is our own arithmetic from rule 7.10, not a figure stated in the rules, and in practice the court usually fixes the hearing further out.
A worked example
The dates below are illustrative. The hearing date on a real petition is set by the court when the petition is filed. We counted business days using the gov.uk bank holiday list for England and Wales and Scotland. No bank holiday in any part of Great Britain falls in this period, so every weekday counts.
| Step | Date | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory demand served | Thursday 3 September 2026 | Start of the 21 days |
| 21 days run out | Thursday 24 September 2026 | Three weeks after service (section 123 says 3 weeks, rule 7.3 says 21 days) |
| Petition presented | Tuesday 29 September 2026 | Illustrative filing date. Any later winding up is treated as starting here (s129(2)), and the s127 risk runs from here |
| Hearing date fixed by the court | Wednesday 4 November 2026 | Illustrative: the court sets the real date on filing |
| Petition served on the company | Thursday 1 October 2026 | Day 0 for the advertising clock |
| Copies to any existing office-holder | By Tuesday 6 October 2026 | 3 business days after service: 2, 5 and 6 October |
| Earliest Gazette notice | Tuesday 13 October 2026 | 7 clear business days after service (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 October), so the 8th business day |
| Latest Gazette notice | Friday 23 October 2026 | 7 clear business days before the hearing (26 to 30 October, 2 and 3 November) |
| Certificate of compliance, company's opposition evidence and any withdrawal application | By Tuesday 27 October 2026 | 5 clear business days before the hearing (28 to 30 October, 2 and 3 November) |
| Notices of intention to appear | By 4pm Tuesday 3 November 2026 | The business day before the hearing |
| Hearing | Wednesday 4 November 2026 | List of appearances handed in before the hearing starts |
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Two things in this example are easy to miss. The company's exposure under section 127 starts on 29 September, the day the petition was presented, which is two days before anyone at the company has seen it and two weeks before it can appear in The Gazette. And anything the company wants to say against the petition has to be filed by 27 October. Turning up on 4 November with a dispute that was never put in writing leaves the company arguing without evidence on file.
Challenging a statutory demand: companies and individuals differ
The 18-day application to set aside a statutory demand, under rule 10.4, is in Part 10 of the 2016 Rules, which deals with the bankruptcy of individuals. A company served with a demand has no equivalent form. If the debt is genuinely disputed, the company's route is to ask the court to stop the creditor presenting a petition, or, once one is presented, to oppose it or ask the court to restrain its advertisement. Either way, the 21 days are the time to act, not to wait for the petition.
Rule changes, oldest first
This log is append-only: when the law changes, a new row goes at the bottom and the earlier rows stay as they were, so you can see which rules applied on any date. From March 2020 to March 2022 the ordinary timetable was overlaid by temporary coronavirus restrictions on who could petition and when.
The same 2020 Act made two permanent changes that sit in the log alongside the temporary ones, because they still affect a company facing a petition today. The moratorium blocks creditors' petitions while it runs, but a company that waits until a petition has been presented has to persuade the court, rather than simply file papers. And the protection for supplies only starts with a winding-up order or a provisional liquidator. Between presentation and the hearing, a supplier with a termination clause triggered by the petition can still use it, so key supply contracts are worth reading as soon as the petition arrives.
| From | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Insolvency Act 1986, as enacted | Section 123(1)(a) sets the statutory demand route: a debt over £750, unpaid 3 weeks after the demand is left at the registered office. The £750 figure is unchanged in the current text | s123 as enacted; current text |
| 6 April 2017 | The Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 come into force and revoke the Insolvency Rules 1986. Rules 7.5 to 7.17 now set the petition, service, Gazette notice and hearing timetable in this table | IR 2016 r1; Sch 1 |
| 27 April 2020 (backdated) | Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, Schedule 10: no winding-up petition may be based on a statutory demand served from 1 March 2020, and a creditor presenting a petition must have reasonable grounds to believe coronavirus has not had a financial effect on the company, or that the ground would have arisen anyway | CIGA 2020 Sch 10, as at 30 September 2021 |
| 26 June 2020 | Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020: the new Part A1 moratorium, a permanent change. While it lasts, no winding-up petition may be presented and no winding-up order made except on the directors' own petition (public interest petitions by the Secretary of State and certain petitions by the financial regulators are excepted). Where a petition is already outstanding, the directors cannot get a moratorium just by filing papers at court: they must apply, and the court makes the order only if a moratorium would achieve a better result for creditors as a whole than winding up. The first period is 20 business days | IA 1986 sA3; IA 1986 sA4; IA 1986 sA9(2); IA 1986 sA20 |
| 26 June 2020 | Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020: the ban on ipso facto clauses, also permanent. Once a winding-up order is made or a provisional liquidator is appointed, a supplier of goods or services cannot rely on a contract term letting it end the contract or the supply because of that event, and cannot demand payment of arrears as a condition of carrying on supplying. It can end the contract only with the office-holder's consent or the court's permission on hardship grounds. Presenting or advertising the petition does not trigger this protection. Small suppliers were exempt for procedures starting up to 30 June 2021. Contracts where either side is an insurer, bank, investment firm or another listed financial services business, and financial contracts such as lending, factoring and financial leasing, are excluded altogether, so the ban does not stop a bank or invoice finance provider ending its facility | IA 1986 s233B; IA 1986 s247(2); CIGA 2020 s15; IA 1986 Sch 4ZZA |
| Extended to 30 September 2021 | As enacted, the statutory demand ban covered demands served up to 30 September 2020. The periods were extended by regulations, the last extension (SI 2021/718) taking both restrictions to 30 September 2021 | Sch 10 para 1 as enacted; para 21 as at 30 September 2021 |
| 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022 | Schedule 10 replaced: a creditor may petition on the inability-to-pay ground only for a liquidated debt that has fallen due, after written notice seeking the company's proposals for payment, with no satisfactory proposal within 21 days, and only where the debt is £10,000 or more | SI 2021/1091; Sch 10 as substituted |
| 1 April 2022 onwards | The temporary period ends with 31 March 2022. Petitions again follow section 123 and the 2016 Rules timetable in the first table, including the £750 statutory demand threshold | Sch 10 para 4 |
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The deadlines that bind the company are earlier than most directors expect. Payments are at risk from the day the petition is presented, not the day it is advertised, and any evidence opposing the petition has to be filed at least 5 business days before the hearing. Take advice the day the petition arrives, so there is time to use the window before the Gazette notice.
- Work out your own petition dates
- Winding-up petition response checklist
- Paying wages after a petition
- The first 48 hours after a petition or demand
General information, not advice about your company.
Methodology and source
Every time limit on this page was read directly from the current text of the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 on legislation.gov.uk on 23 September 2026, and each row links to the provision it comes from. The coronavirus-era rows use legislation.gov.uk's point-in-time versions of Schedule 10 to the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020. The two permanent 2020 rows were read from the current text of Part A1 and section 233B of the 1986 Act, and their 26 June 2020 start date is the commencement date recorded against those provisions on legislation.gov.uk. The worked example is our own calculation using the clear-days rule and the gov.uk bank holiday list, and it is labelled as such. The table covers creditors' petitions against registered companies in England and Wales. Petitions by the company itself, by members, and petitions in Scotland follow different rules. The Insolvency Practice Direction and court listing practice also affect how petitions run in practice and are not reproduced here. This page is general information, not legal or insolvency advice.
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