ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus on companies entering into insolvent winding up. All legal relationships the company has with any person, including its shareholders, are terminated on dissolution. For the purposes of the insolvency process, s 248 of the Insolvency Act 1986 defines secured creditor as a creditor who holds security over property of the company in respect of his debts, which it defines to include both charges and mortgages. Assets subject to fixed charges are outside the statutory order of distribution. Parliament has responded, first, by restricting the right of the holder of a floating charge and secondly, by requiring public notice of the existence and enforcement of the charge. The importance of registration when a company is a going concern is to establish priority over other secured creditors; subsequent registered charges will take priority over an unregistered charge.
