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If a UK construction company owes you an invoice, retention or other contract sum and has entered administration or liquidation, act quickly but do not assume registration means payment. First confirm the legal debtor and formal insolvency procedure, identify the administrator or liquidator, then submit a properly evidenced claim in the form that officeholder requires. Preserve your contract records, separate any retention and set-off issues, and keep your contact details current. Ordinary unsecured creditors are paid only after insolvency costs and higher-ranking claims, so the eventual dividend may be partial or nil.
The correct route depends on the exact procedure, your contract, the type of debt and whether you are in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. This is general information, not advice on an individual claim.
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What to do first
- Confirm the company. Match the legal name and company number on your contract and invoices. A trading name may not be the entity that owes you.
- Confirm the status. Check Companies House records and relevant public notices for administration, compulsory liquidation or voluntary liquidation. Financial distress or a late payment, without a formal process, is a different situation.
- Find the officeholder. Record the administrator, liquidator or official receiver and their correspondence details. If nobody has contacted you, write to the person handling the case and state that you are a creditor.
- Submit the claim. Ask for the case-specific proof-of-debt form and instructions. The Insolvency Service says a claim above £1,000 requires a Proof of Debt form under its registration guidance; for £1,000 or less, provide your contact details and the amount owed, while following any additional request for evidence.
- Build the evidence file. Include the signed contract and amendments, purchase orders, applications, payment notices, invoices, valuations, certificates, completion records, variation instructions, retention calculations, defect correspondence and records of credits or counterclaims.
- Track the case. Keep your address, email and bank details current, read reports and notices, and ask how progress and any proposed dividend will be communicated.
Registration puts you on the creditor list and may allow participation in creditor decisions. It does not guarantee a dividend. The Insolvency Service’s creditor guidance puts this plainly: "You’re not guaranteed any payment, but you’ll be:" followed by the benefits of registering. That wording appeared in its “Register as a creditor in a bankruptcy or liquidation” guidance accessed on 13 October 2026.
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Do not send a formal insolvency claim to a company that is merely behind with payments, and do not assume that an administration and a liquidation have identical consequences. The public record and the officeholder’s first notice should tell you which process applies.
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| Situation | What it means for your next step | Payment reality |
|---|---|---|
| Administration | An administrator manages the company or its assets under the stated objective of the administration. Submit your claim to that administrator and follow the notice for creditor decisions and evidence. | Payment depends on the administrator’s realisation and distribution proposals. An administration does not itself promise that trade creditors will be paid. |
| Compulsory liquidation | A liquidator or official receiver deals with the company’s assets and claims. Send the proof of debt and supporting material to the identified officeholder. | Costs and claims with priority are paid before ordinary unsecured claims; the estate may produce only a small dividend or none. |
| Voluntary liquidation | Check whether it is a members’ or creditors’ voluntary liquidation and identify the appointed liquidator. Use the liquidator’s case instructions rather than a generic form. | The outcome turns on available assets, security, priorities, disputes and costs. |
| No formal insolvency process | Use the contract’s payment, notice, adjudication or court routes, and consider a statutory demand or other remedy only after checking current law and the company’s actual status. | A formal insolvency dividend timetable does not apply. A company can be distressed without having entered an insolvency procedure. |
Always check the exact legal entity. A group may contain a main contractor, a special-purpose project company and a separate employer. A purchase order issued by one company does not, without evidence, make another group company liable.
How to register your debt with the officeholder
Contact the case handler
If you are not on the first creditor schedule, write to the administrator, liquidator or official receiver. State your legal name, address, contact person, company number of the debtor, contract or project reference, and the fact that you are submitting a creditor claim. Ask for the current proof-of-debt form, the submission address, the deadline (if one applies), accepted file formats and any instructions for disputed or contingent amounts.
Complete the proof of debt accurately
Give a single, intelligible calculation rather than a bundle of unexplained invoices. Identify each unpaid application or invoice, the contractual due date, amounts certified and paid, retention, agreed variations, credits, tax treatment and any deductions. If part of the claim is disputed, mark it as disputed and explain why. If an amount is contingent, such as anticipated defects or final-account loss, describe the event that would make it payable instead of presenting it as an admitted debt.
GOV.UK creditor-registration guidance states that claims above £1,000 require a Proof of Debt form; claims of £1,000 or less can initially be notified with contact details and the amount owed. That threshold does not remove the need to comply with the officeholder’s case-specific request for documents or a later formal proof. Keep the original records and send copies in the requested way.
State what you want admitted
Separate amounts by legal character: unpaid interim applications, certified sums, final-account balance, retention, damages, interest and costs. Explain whether a sum was due before the insolvency date or arose afterwards. Do not add contractual interest or legal costs unless the contract, applicable rules and the officeholder’s form support them. If you have already received a payment, credit it on the schedule.
Prepare a construction evidence file
Construction claims often fail to communicate the amount clearly because records sit across site teams, quantity surveyors and accounts staff. Create an indexed, dated file with a short chronology. Practical documents include:
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- the signed main contract, subcontract, purchase order and every amendment or incorporated standard form;
- scope, drawings, specifications, programmes and records showing what work or goods you were required to provide;
- applications for payment, payment notices, pay-less notices, certificates, valuations and payment ledgers;
- invoices, remittance advices, bank receipts and a reconciliation of certified, paid and unpaid sums;
- variation instructions, quotations, daywork sheets, extension-of-time material and agreed changes;
- delivery tickets, timesheets, site instructions, photographs, inspection records, practical-completion or sectional-completion documents;
- defect notices, snagging records, responses, remedial quotations and evidence of whether alleged defects were accepted, corrected or disputed;
- retention clauses, release milestones, defects-period correspondence and any account or trust documentation;
- records of set-off, contra-charges, delay claims, termination notices or sums that you may owe the company; and
- guarantees, bonds, insurance policies, assignment notices or other security documents.
This is a preparation checklist, not a statement that an officeholder will require every item. Supply the documents requested and preserve the complete underlying file in case the claim is challenged.
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Start with the contract ledger, not the total of every invoice ever issued. Reconcile the account to the insolvency date:
- List the value of work, goods or services properly due under the contract.
- Deduct payments actually received and credits properly agreed.
- Add approved variations and other sums that are contractually due.
- Show retention separately, with its release condition and due date.
- Identify alleged defects, delay deductions, contra-charges or other counterclaims and state whether they are admitted, disputed or unquantified.
- Apply any contractual interest or other addition only where legally and factually supportable.
- Present the resulting balance and attach the calculation in a format the officeholder can audit.
Do not call a retention immediately payable merely because it appears on a payment certificate. Check whether the release milestone, defects period and notice requirements were satisfied before the insolvency date. Conversely, do not abandon a due retention simply because it is labelled “retention”; its treatment depends on the contract and any effective protection.
Retention money: what to check
Retention is a construction-specific risk because the contract may postpone payment and may or may not protect the money from the contractor’s insolvency. Review the retention percentage, the first and second release stages, practical or section completion, the defects-liability period, certification and notice clauses, and any requirement to place funds in a separate account.
Was the retention due?
Establish the date on which the contractual condition for release occurred. Look for completion certificates, expiry of the defects period, notices requesting release and any express right to withhold for unresolved defects. A retention that had not yet become due may be treated differently from a matured debt.
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Check the contract for segregation or trust wording and ask whether a separate account, trust records or other evidence exists. A label alone does not prove that money was legally held on trust. The government-commissioned Pye Tait report describes historical construction cases in which a contractor ranked as an unsecured creditor because retention was not effectively protected; the report does not decide an individual claim.
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The same report recorded a £5,400 median retention loss per contract in a 2017 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy construction-sector survey. That is historical survey evidence, not a forecast of what any particular creditor will lose.
Northern Ireland is not interchangeable with the rest of the UK
Northern Ireland Department of Finance procurement guidance states that, under the Construction Contracts Order (NI) 1997, a contractor must pay subcontractor retention when due whether or not the upstream contractor has paid, and that payment disputes may be referred to adjudication. This is jurisdiction-specific government-contract guidance. It is not a blanket rule for every private contract or for England, Wales or Scotland.
Set-off, counterclaims and mutual debts
You may be owed money while also owing the company money, or the company may allege defects, delay or overpayment. In an England and Wales winding up, rule 14.25 of the Insolvency Rules 2016 requires an account of mutual dealings and set-off. The proof is for the net balance owed to you; if the net balance favours the company, that balance is payable to the liquidator.
For a construction account, the calculation can be technically difficult. Consider unpaid applications, contra-charges, liquidated damages, defects, termination costs, retention and contingent claims together. Do not simply prove the gross invoices while ignoring a debt you owe the company, and do not accept an unexplained deduction without asking for the contractual and factual basis.
The detailed application to a disputed valuation, contingent claim or particular insolvency procedure depends on the facts. Give the officeholder your complete mutual-account schedule and obtain construction-insolvency advice where the sums are material.
Adjudication and enforcement after insolvency
Construction adjudication can establish a valuation or payment decision, but entering insolvency can change the commercial value and enforceability of an award. Do not assume that an adjudication award can be enforced in the same way as against a solvent contractor, or that starting an adjudication will improve the dividend.
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Northern Ireland guidance supports adjudication in its statutory context, but the available material does not resolve enforcement or commercial utility for every insolvency procedure. Before spending on an adjudication, ask a solicitor who handles both construction disputes and insolvency to assess jurisdiction, timing, the insolvency moratorium or equivalent restrictions, set-off and likely recovery.
Security, guarantees and alternative payers
A company director does not automatically become personally liable for the company’s contract debt because the company is insolvent. Investigate another route only where your documents establish it:
- a signed personal or parent-company guarantee;
- a performance bond, payment bond or project insurance policy;
- an assignment of receivables or other security interest;
- a contractual right against an upstream payer or employer;
- goods supplied under a valid retention-of-title clause; or
- a separate contract with another group company, partnership or LLP.
Each route has conditions, notices, deadlines and possible defences. A guarantee may require a prescribed demand; retention of title may fail if goods were incorporated or mixed; and an upstream payer is not liable merely because it benefited from the work. Do not name directors or related companies as debtors without documentary and legal support.
What happens after you submit the claim?
Reports and creditor participation
Registration supports future correspondence and may enable voting or participation in creditor decisions, subject to the procedure and the officeholder’s rules. Read the report on assets and liabilities, proposed realisations, known claims, investigations and anticipated distributions. Tell the official receiver or insolvency practitioner about relevant assets or information concerning director conduct, but distinguish evidence from suspicion.
Timetable
The Insolvency Service says its initial report to creditors can take up to 12 weeks after initial enquiries. Asset realisation and any distribution may then take weeks, months or years, especially where property, litigation, tax issues or disputed claims are involved. Those are process estimates, not deadlines or promises. No reliable universal recovery percentage can be given: an estate with little distributable value may pay only a fraction or nothing to an ordinary unsecured construction creditor.
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Keep your details current
Tell the officeholder promptly if your business moves, your contact changes, your bank account changes or the claim is assigned. Keep copies of every submission, acknowledgement and follow-up. Set a diary reminder to review the case at the intervals stated in the officeholder’s notices rather than sending repeated unstructured chasers.
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Jurisdiction matters across the UK
England and Wales
Administration and liquidation are governed by the applicable UK insolvency legislation and rules, with the exact rights affected by the procedure. In a winding up, statutory set-off of mutual dealings can reduce the claim to a net balance. Construction payment, adjudication and retention rights still depend on the contract and the insolvency context.
Scotland
Scottish insolvency procedure and court terminology differ. Do not copy an England and Wales proof, set-off or enforcement assumption into a Scottish case. Confirm the officeholder and obtain advice under the law governing the contract and the insolvency.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has its own construction legislation and procurement guidance. The Department of Finance statement about retention payment and adjudication under the Construction Contracts Order (NI) 1997 is specific to that jurisdiction and context. Check whether your contract is public or private and which statutory provisions apply.
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A practical first letter
Use the officeholder’s required form, but a covering email or letter can make the claim easy to identify:
Subject: Creditor claim — [legal company name], company number [number], [project/contract reference]State your legal entity and contact details, the contract and project, the insolvency procedure and officeholder (if known), the amount claimed at the insolvency date, and a short breakdown of invoices, retention, variations, credits and disputed deductions. Ask for confirmation of receipt, the case reference, any missing evidence and the next report or decision date. Put variable details only in the case documents; do not send passwords or unnecessary personal data.
Common mistakes that reduce recovery prospects
- Claiming against a trading name instead of the legal company shown on the contract.
- Treating a financial warning or missed payment as proof that a formal insolvency process has begun.
- Sending only an invoice without the contract, payment notices, valuation and reconciliation needed to explain it.
- Combining matured retention, conditional retention and unagreed final-account amounts into one unsupported figure.
- Ignoring set-off, counterclaims or sums that you owe the company.
- Assuming a director, parent company or upstream employer is liable without a guarantee or separate contract.
- Starting adjudication or enforcement without checking the effect of the insolvency procedure and likely commercial recovery.
- Missing a case-specific deadline or allowing contact details to become out of date.
- Quoting a supposed average dividend or promising that registration will produce payment.
When specialist advice is justified
Obtain advice from a solicitor experienced in construction disputes and insolvency when the claim is substantial, the final account is disputed, retention or trust protection is arguable, set-off could reverse the balance, a guarantee or bond may respond, goods remain on site, or you are considering adjudication, court proceedings or enforcement. Ask the adviser to identify the governing law, insolvency procedure, evidence needed, limitation or notice deadlines and the realistic recovery route. For a straightforward, undisputed invoice, prompt registration with a clear reconciliation may be the most proportionate first step.
Bottom line
Verify the legal debtor and formal procedure, identify the officeholder, submit the claim in the requested form, and support every construction amount with a contract-based reconciliation. Treat retention, set-off, guarantees and adjudication as separate issues rather than assuming they follow the ordinary invoice route. Keep communicating and plan for delay: registration gives you a place in the process, not a guaranteed payment.
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