Wedding venue has cancelled - bankrupt. Where do I stand?

molerat

The big problem from what you have said is likely that The Wedding Co Ltd hires Mrs Smith's venue. Now The Wedding Co 2018 Ltd will be hiring Mrs Smith's venue. The fact that Mrs Smith has a finger in all the pies is irrelevant unless you can prove some wrongdoing. The Wedding Co Ltd has likely only got a laptop, printer and ream of A4 to its name. I am afraid many small (and very large) businesses know exactly how to avoid paying debts.

its_all_over

molerat wrote: »

The big problem from what you have said is likely that The Wedding Co Ltd hires Mrs Smith's venue. Now The Wedding Co 2018 Ltd will be hiring Mrs Smith's venue. The fact that Mrs Smith has a finger in all the pies is irrelevant unless you can prove some wrongdoing. The Wedding Co Ltd has likely only got a laptop, printer and ream of A4 to its name. I am afraid many small (and very large) businesses know exactly how to avoid paying debts.

You often see exactly that scenario on programs about bailiffs, they go around and find the new company has a slightly altered name and can't touch anything registered to the new version of the company.

Tigsteroonie

Just done a little investigating - there has been no change in directors (two of) since this company was started; and the two individuals are not directors of any other limited company.

sheramber

So the new licence is not for the ltd company. It is for a separate business which she may or may not be connected to. This business would not be connected to the ltd company and have no liability for the ltd company debts.

She could set up a new business and continue trading but that business would have no liability for the previous ltd company.

Or she could be letting out her house to another company but again any income she gets from that is hers, not the ltd company's.

Dizzy078

sheramber wrote: »

So the new licence is not for the ltd company. It is for a separate business which she may or may not be connected to. This business would not be connected to the ltd company and have no liability for the ltd company debts.

She could set up a new business and continue trading but that business would have no liability for the previous ltd company.

Or she could be letting out her house to another company but again any income she gets from that is hers, not the ltd company's.

This totally sucks, if true. I do have a letter from her back in March saying the weddings she had booked would be honoured until June. Surely she can't back track and say it's now through another company?

steampowered

If she is genuinely appointing insolvency practitioners, I don't think there is much point chasing the company.

If the invoice was clearly in the name of the company, and you don't have any evidence to suggest that the contract was with her personally, I'm not sure suing her personally would work either.

It would be worth trying mediation.

sheramber

Dizzy078 wrote: »

This totally sucks, if true. I do have a letter from her back in March saying the weddings she had booked would be honoured until June. Surely she can't back track and say it's now through another company?

If she said they would be honoured rather than she would honour them , she could have come to an agreement with the new company that they take over the bookings for weddings up to June.