Unregistered companies

The most common types of unregistered company are unincorporated associations and overseas companies not covered by the Retained Recast Regulation on Insolvency (Regulation (EU) 848/2015).

There are other unincorporated associations that do not fall under this subtopic, namely companies incorporated under the Companies Act 2006, partnerships, and charities. These are covered under separate subtopics. See: Restructuring & Insolvency—new starter guide, General partnerships and insolvency—overview, Winding-up a general partnership as an unregistered company and Charities and education—overview.

Unincorporated associations

An unincorporated association was defined by Lawton LJ in Conservative

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Latest Restructuring & Insolvency News

Liquidators’ assignment of claims against former directors not perverse (Lanigan and Lenehan v Hyslop and others)

Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: Two former directors of the company in liquidation (the Company) applied under section 168(5) of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) to set aside an assignment of claims against them to the second respondent. The application was made on the grounds that the liquidators’ decision to assign and the process by which they had reached their decision were perverse. The court held that the applicants did not have standing to apply: even if they were creditors of the Company, they had a collateral interest that transcended the interests of the creditors as a class for whom they purported to act. Further, even if they had had standing, the liquidators’ decision was not perverse. Written by Bridget Williamson, barrister at Enterprise Chambers.

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Insolvency Service publishes monthly insolvency statistics for February 2026

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