What are administration orders?
An administration order is a court order. You make a single payment to the court every month. Court staff then give the money to your creditors. During an administration order, creditors are not allowed to take further action against you.
What is a composition order?
If you are only paying a small amount to your creditors your administration order could go on for years. A composition order is a way of stopping this happening. It means that you only pay part of your debts. This is usually an amount that you can afford to pay over three years.
Do I qualify?
To get an administration order you must have:
- debts under £5,000
- one or more county court or High Court judgments against you
- two or more debts
How do I apply?
You can apply for an administration order on an N92 form. You can get the form at your local county court office. The form comes with notes to help you complete it. To fill in the form you will need information about your money, including:
- details of your bank accounts and savings
- how much you spend every week or month (you can use our Digital Advice Tool to work out your budget)
- a list of everyone you owe money to, and how much you owe them
- how much you can afford to pay each month?
What happens next?
Once the court accepts your application form they will tell your creditors. Your creditors then have 16 days to tell the court if they have any objections. They may think the amount you are offering to pay each month is too low. Some creditors can ask the court to leave them out of the administration order.
The administration order is made if the court:
- does not get any objections
- is happy with how much you are offering to pay.
If there are any problems or your creditors object you can go to a private hearing. At the hearing you can tell a judge about your application. If creditors have objected they can go to the hearing too. If the problems are then resolved, the district judge will make the order.
Once the order is in place, you make monthly payments to the court and not to your creditors. If you pay what you have offered, the creditors can take no further action.
