Winding-up a partnership that owes you money

How can I wind up a partnership that owes me money?

Partners are personally liable for the debts of the partnership. Given this, a partnership can be wound up and bankruptcy orders can also be made against the individual partners.

Options available to creditors

If you are a creditor of a partnership, you can apply for either:

• the winding up of the insolvent partnership as an unregistered company with no action taken against the individual partners (under Article 7 of the Insolvent Partnerships Order (Northern Ireland 1995)
• the winding up of the insolvent partnership as an unregistered company where bankruptcy petitions are also presented against one or more of the partners (under Article 8 of the Insolvent Partnerships Order (Northern Ireland) 1995)

A creditor can only apply for a winding-up order against the partnership if the partnership has traded in Northern Ireland at any time in the 3 years before the petition is presented.

As the partners are personally liable for the debts of the partnership, a creditor of a partnership can petition (apply) for the bankruptcy of one or more of the partners, without petitioning for the partnership to be wound up.

More information

For information on how to present a bankruptcy petition, please refer to our publication 'How to make someone bankrupt' .

For information on how to wind up a corporate member, please refer to our publication 'How to wind up a company that owes you money' .