The new Insolvency rules which came into force on 23rd February 2012 provide that when presenting a Petition, the Petitioning Creditor must now conduct an initial search to ascertain whether any other petitions have been presented against the debtor within the previous 18 months.
Initial guidance on the effect of this provision suggest that the search for prior petitions presented in the High Court and the Central London County Court must be conducted even where the petition is not being presented in one of these courts. Creditors outside the London insolvency district must write to the appropriate District Judge applying for permission to attend the court to conduct a search and/or adhere to the particular court’s search procedures. These procedures may vary.
Under the circumstances, we must make you aware that this new provision will incur an additional cost to the petitioning creditor and delay between instruction and petition.
