How do I check if a company is in liquidation?

Type the company’s name or its Companies House number into the search above and read the results: the stage, the date and a link to the notice or case record. Then confirm the company’s status on the Companies House register. A notice means a proceeding was published; no notice is not proof that the company is solvent.

How can I tell if a company is in administration?

Look for an “Appointment of Administrators” notice and an administration stage in the result, and check whether the company’s Companies House status reads administration. Administrators are appointed to rescue the company or sell its assets, and a moratorium holds creditors back.

How do I know if a company is about to go into liquidation?

No notice announces it in advance, but there are early signs: a petition to wind up advertised in The Gazette ahead of the hearing, a change of status at Companies House, overdue accounts and late payments to you. This check shows liquidation, winding-up order and administration notices once they are published.

Does it include personal insolvency or sole traders?

No. Only corporate notices are served, never the insolvency of individuals or sole traders.

Why is there no result for a company I know is in liquidation?

The notice may not be published yet, may be an older proceeding the search does not hold, may use another spelling of the name, or may be a solvent members’ voluntary liquidation, which this search leaves out. Try the company number and check The Gazette.

Yes. The search on this page needs no signup, through a shared demo key with a cap on searches. With your own API key the same search costs 2 credits.

Check if a company is in liquidation or administration

Type a UK company’s name or Companies House number and read the corporate insolvency notices and cases recorded for it: the date, the stage (liquidation, winding-up order, administration) and a link to the notice. Corporate only, free, no signup.

Company name or Companies House number

curl "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/insolvency/search?country=GB&name=construction&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Live notices through a shared read-only demo key, with a cap on searches per page view and per minute. With your own API key the same search costs 2 credits.

What the check covers

The search reads corporate insolvency records for UK companies: the notices of The Gazette, the UK’s official public record (liquidations, winding-up orders, administrations and the notices that follow them), and the insolvency cases recorded at Companies House. Each record carries the company’s Companies House number, so a result joins to the company it is about. Search by a distinctive word of the name (“construction”, not “limited”) or by the company number.

How to read a result

Each card is one published notice, and one company usually has several, because a liquidation publishes a notice for each stage. The example below is illustrative: the company and its number are invented.

On the result card	Illustrative example	What it tells you
Company name	EXAMPLE TRADING LTD	The name as the notice prints it. Compare it with the company you mean: similar names are common.
Date	23 Oct 2026	The date of the notice, or the day the case started. A notice follows the event by days or weeks.
Company number	01234567	The Companies House number printed on the notice. It is the safest way to confirm the match.
Proceeding	Liquidation	The standard stage: liquidation, insolvency proceedings (winding-up orders and creditors’ meetings), administration, receivership or restructuring.
Notice or case record	Appointment of Liquidators \| EXAMPLE TRADING LTD \| 2026-10-23	The source’s own wording: the notice type, the company and the date. A Companies House case reads “administration \| NAME \| Case started: date”.
Notice	open	A link to the notice or case record.

Read the notices of one company together, newest first: the stage tells you more than any single line.

The notices you will meet, and what they mean

Notice or case record	What it means for a creditor
Resolutions for Winding-up	The shareholders have resolved to wind the company up voluntarily. In a creditors’ voluntary liquidation the company cannot pay its debts; a solvent closure looks the same at this step, so read the notices that follow.
Appointment of Liquidators	A liquidator now controls the company. Creditors prove their debts to the liquidator, not to the directors.
Meetings of Creditors	Creditors are invited to meet or vote, for example on who the liquidator is or on the fees.
Winding-up order	The court has ordered the company wound up (compulsory liquidation). In England and Wales the Official Receiver acts first.
Appointment of Administrators	Administrators are appointed to rescue the company or sell its assets, and a moratorium holds creditors back while they work.
Notice of Intended Dividends	The liquidator or administrator plans to pay a dividend. Creditors who have not yet proved their debt must do so by the date in the notice.
administration \| NAME \| Case started	An insolvency case recorded at Companies House, with the date it started. The stage on the card tells you which kind of case it is.

The Gazette’s notice names vary slightly; the stage on the card is the standard reading.

How to tell if a company is going into liquidation

A Gazette notice is a late signal: it follows the event, sometimes by weeks. The earlier warnings are public too. A petition to wind up is advertised ahead of the hearing so other creditors can appear, and the company’s status on the Companies House register can read liquidation or administration before the notice is published. Check the status with the Companies House number lookup. A petition that has not been decided yet may not be in this search, so look for it in The Gazette’s own notice search.

What this check does not show

Corporate only. Personal insolvency (bankruptcy orders, individual voluntary arrangements, debt relief orders and their Scottish equivalents) is never returned, and neither are sole traders’ proceedings.
Solvent closures and strike-offs. Members’ voluntary liquidations, where the directors have declared the company solvent, are left out. A strike-off is a dissolution, not an insolvency; it is served separately as a registry-compliance signal on the company record.
History. This is a check of recent and current proceedings, not a full archive: an older proceeding may be missing. For a company’s whole history, use The Gazette’s own search.
No result is not proof of solvency. It means no matching notice was found. The notice may not be published yet, the name may be spelt differently, or the company may be registered outside the UK. For a decision that matters, check The Gazette and Companies House.
Not an official publication. The notice on The Gazette and the record at Companies House are the sources.

When to use the API instead

This page checks one company at a time. To check a customer or supplier list, sweep new notices every day, or be told when a company changes status, use the API. GET /insolvency/search?country=GB costs 2 credits a call and returns up to 100 notices, newest first. POST /insolvency/check checks up to 100 companies in one call at 2 credits an item. To be alerted, put the company on company monitoring: a status change raises a webhook.

# By Companies House number
curl "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/insolvency/search?country=GB&company_number=12345678&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

# By name, newest first
curl "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/insolvency/search?country=GB&name=construction&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

The Insolvency API page lists every market with its source and grade, and how to read and query Gazette notices explains the notice types in depth. To search another market, use the company insolvency search.

Insolvency notices are corporate only, in sixteen markets: FR, DE, GB, AT, CH, NO, FI, US, NL, DK, HR, SE, ES, LV, EE, SG. Personal and consumer insolvency is never returned. Contains CVR data (Erhvervsstyrelsen), CC BY 4.0.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I check if a company is in liquidation?: Type the company’s name or its Companies House number into the search above and read the results: the stage, the date and a link to the notice or case record. Then confirm the company’s status on the Companies House register. A notice means a proceeding was published; no notice is not proof that the company is solvent.
How can I tell if a company is in administration?: Look for an “Appointment of Administrators” notice and an administration stage in the result, and check whether the company’s Companies House status reads administration. Administrators are appointed to rescue the company or sell its assets, and a moratorium holds creditors back.
How do I know if a company is about to go into liquidation?: No notice announces it in advance, but there are early signs: a petition to wind up advertised in The Gazette ahead of the hearing, a change of status at Companies House, overdue accounts and late payments to you. This check shows liquidation, winding-up order and administration notices once they are published.
Does it include personal insolvency or sole traders?: No. Only corporate notices are served, never the insolvency of individuals or sole traders.
Why is there no result for a company I know is in liquidation?: The notice may not be published yet, may be an older proceeding the search does not hold, may use another spelling of the name, or may be a solvent members’ voluntary liquidation, which this search leaves out. Try the company number and check The Gazette.
Is the check free?: Yes. The search on this page needs no signup, through a shared demo key with a cap on searches. With your own API key the same search costs 2 credits.