The Elephant in the Balance Sheet – A Director’s Guide to (Enormous) Contingent Liabilities

Join us on Wednesday 18 November as Jessica Powers from our Commercial Company Insolvency practice group deliver our next webinar.

The legislative landscape features a handful of bear traps which can deposit an elephant onto a company’s balance sheet (if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphors). Go back a couple of decades, and the Pensions Act 2004 introduced the possibility of companies being fixed with financial liability for the under-funded pension schemes of group entities. More recently, the Building Safety Act 2022 has opened the door to associated companies being subject to remediation contribution orders and building liability orders. The latter development is a particularly hot topic as the construction industry continues to struggle to finance defective cladding replacement works.

Through no fault of their own, otherwise solvent companies may be facing huge liabilities, but those liabilities are uncertain and may well be disputed. How can, and should, directors, their advisors and Insolvency Practitioners address such contingent liabilities?

In this one-hour webinar, Jessica Powers will address:

• What is a contingent liability?
• How do contingent liabilities affect a company’s solvency?
• What effect should contingent liabilities have on director decision-making, particularly as to making distributions and the exercise of their duties?
• Are there exit routes when a company has a significant contingent liability?