Winding Up Applications

Another big month with the 3rd month in a row posting new highs in winding up applications. This high was in large part driven by the IRD pushing through application before the Christmas closedown making up 87 of the 125 applications. All other creditor applications has remained constant when compared to the last three months in the high 30’s. We expect this drive from IRD to continue into November in a race to collect funds and apply pressure to derelict debtors before the courts close. It is important to keep in mind however that while this is a high when compared to the last five years it is off a very low base.

The year-to-date applications (972) is eclipses the last five years yearly total and reinforces the point that this increase continues off a very low base from the 2020 lockdowns.

Personal Receiverships

October saw a further 5 personal receiverships, all from the same lender who has made up 19 of the 41 personal receiverships in 2024. There has been a total of 44 personal appointments for the rolling past 12 months. Lenders who have taken personal general security agreements from borrowers continue to make appointments when borrowers and their companies default.

Why have we seen this increase in personal receiverships that historically was not the case, one of the reasons is likely the difficulty and time it takes to enforce personal guarantees while a personal general security agreement allows the lender almost immediate access on default to the borrowers assets.

Company Insolvencies – Liquidations, Receiverships, and Voluntary Administrations

With the normal October dip as we head to the end of the year we remain above past Octobers. The Official Assignee once again took the largest amount of appointment in the month taking 72 appointments.

Total insolvency appointments for the year continue to track up in line with 2015/2016 figures. Month on month October had 244 total appointments, well above the long-term average of 163 and past September’s (2023: 171, 2022: 146, 2021: 112, 2020: 114, 2019: 139, 2018: 166, 2017: 177)). With 2331 appointments in the year to date we are above full year figures back to 2018. We expect the higher insolvency appointment levels will continue into 2025 at least due to a large backlog at IRD and a struggling economy in most sectors.

Solvent liquidations remain well below the long term 13% with the lost 10% picked up by court appointments whose long term average is traditionally 26%. This is a flow down from the strong winding up application in the year to date.

As you can see above the gap between personal and corporate insolvency has continued to grow and will continue to do so into 2025.

Personal Insolvencies – Bankruptcy, No Asset Procedure and Debt Repayment Orders.

Personal insolvency appointment figures for Bankruptcy, NAP and DRO remain low for the year to date in line with the very low levels seen over the last two years. This is reflected in both graphs.

While we are expecting to see corporate insolvencies continuing to grow into next year, I don’t believe we will see a lift in personal insolvencies till early 2025. There is traditionally a slow down over Christmas and January, then as people return to work and have to deal with the Christmas overspend, this may be when we see a lift in personal insolvency figures.

Where to from here?

The signs continue to point to the NZ economy being in for continued pain for the foreseeable future, it is likely to get worse before it gets better regardless of the potential OCR decrease. We foresee continued rising appointments when compared to prior years.

If you want to have a chat about any points raised or an issue you may have you can call on 0800 30 30 34 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.