Liquidator has not submitted outstanding wages forms to insolvency fund

LegacyUser

Hi everyone,

Last year, the company I worked for closed making a number of us redundant.

We came into work one morning and the director introduced us to a gentleman in a business suit, telling us that he was to be the appointed liquidator of the company. We were told that we were given P45s dated the previous week.

The proposed liquidator explained the situation to us and said that we had the option of working for the next few weeks to wind down the company or we could leave there and then. There was no pressure. He explained that any work we did during this time would be paid out of either the liquidation fund or the insolvency fund.

All of us agreed to work and we had a very difficult few weeks explaining the situation to customers and suppliers. Part of our work at that time involved arranging alternative suppliers for customers. Most of us were working from 8.30am to 8pm and taking our lunches at our desks. Our approach was because of our loyalty to our customers and the good name of our former employers rather than merely a financial thing. However we had been constantly assured that we would get paid.

Fast forward a bit and due to external circumstances the proposed liquidator was never appointed and another liquidator was appointed shortly after Easter.

A liquidator's meeting was held and all of us met with the liquidator individually shortly afterwards to sign our claim forms. We were told that these would be processed quickly.

We are now in a position, almost 3 months after we signed the initial forms (3.5 months after the liquidator's meeting) and heading for 12 months after we received notice. We cannot contact the appointed liquidator. He does not answer phones or return calls. His landline message service will not take messages. He does not read or answer e-mails.

I have just come off the phone from the Insolvency Section of the Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation and no claim has been received from them for any former employees of the company.

Can anyone advise please....

Newaglish

There's a good bit of administration involved in submitting the claims but 3 months is far too long of a time for the liquidator to wait after you've signed them unless there's some sort of specific problem.

Have you an address for the liquidator? I'd certainly send a registered letter and I'd consider calling to their office if it's not on the other side of the country.

I'm not sure that there's an adequate legal remedy for this, it's a fairlly unregulated area.

If you don't have much information on the liquidator, send me a private message with the name of the company and I can find out some information for you. It's quite possible that the person you were dealing with has left the organisation and nobody has re-routed their calls and e-mails.

LegacyUser

Thanks Newaglish and apologies for not getting back to you.

Since I posted, the liquidator has been in touch with one former colleague who had to sign the forms again. He claims he will be submitting the forms on-line.

However he has still not been in touch with me.

He is still working for the company - his own company.

In terms of calling to his offices, other former employees have called to his offices and been given the bum-steer i.e. when they call, the secretary calls upstairs "XXX are you there?, so and so from YYY company is here and they want a word". When there is no answer, they are told "He must be gone out".

I'll try again in the morning and may call out later this week.

I very much appreciate your time. Thank you.

brandyrock

Hi,
The conduct of liquidators is "policed" by the ODCE, Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement, you should contact them and see if they can help. You can raise a complaint through them. You should also tell the liqudator that you are going to do this it might frighten them.

Some liquidators have other professions as well as that one and it might be worhtwhile seeing if you can raise a complaint through their professional body e.g. law society, or accountants professional body etc

brandyrock