Where we’ve helped

We structured a pre-pack sale of the restaurant’s assets to a newly formed company at independently assessed fair value. All staff were offered TUPE transfer. The original company entered CVL, closing out its historic liabilities while preserving the brand, the team, and the customer base. The new company is trading profitably from new premises.

Diana’s bounce back loan was the company’s only significant creditor — the business itself remained viable. We reviewed the financials and approached the bank with a structured commercial position. When the bank passed the matter to appointed debt collection agents, we negotiated directly and secured a repayment plan of under £20 per month with interest frozen. The business continues to trade.

Before committing to any route, we remodelled the trading figures with two adjustments: removing personal credit card repayments draining business cash, and restating stock costs to reflect undetected theft. On both bases, the business returned a viable trading position. We negotiated an informal creditor arrangement freezing interest on personal debts and agreed a HMRC Time to Pay for overdue VAT. The business returned to full compliance, has expanded, and George is working part-time toward retirement.

Nimo and Tanya were hours from signing a liquidation engagement letter when referred to us. The liquidation route would have triggered a personal demand for £30,000 — the overdrawn director’s loan account, which the firm already engaged had not disclosed. We confirmed voluntary strike-off remained available, settled all creditors in full for £7,800, submitted the strike-off application, and the company was removed from the register without a liquidator ever being appointed. Saving against the liquidation route: over £22,000.

Lightside secured an emergency adjournment of the bankruptcy petition hearing at four days’ notice. When the bankruptcy order was subsequently made, we applied for annulment on the grounds the order should never have been made — a basis that, if successful, removes the bankruptcy from all records entirely, preserving Mr. G’s FCA authorisation. HMRC contested and raised their demand from £60,000 to £194,000. We challenged the revised figure successfully. The annulment was granted on the basis of the original petition debt. The bankruptcy was annulled and his FCA registration preserved.

Nearly twelve months of sustained negotiation with the Trustee in Bankruptcy. The Trustee opened claiming 100% of the family home. We argued comprehensively that the family held a beneficial interest; the Trustee conceded the bankrupt’s interest was 32%. We disagreed. We pressed that Mrs. A had 50% of the 32% interest, despite the Trustee’s lawyers claiming she didn’t. They eventually relented. With the beneficial interest settled at 16%, the Trustee sought £107,000. Lightside’s opening offer had been £100,000. Settlement: £94,000. Home secured.

We established that both properties were beneficially owned by Mr. CR’s step-daughters and built the evidence case: source of deposits, documented intention at purchase, and the written trust arrangement. We presented this to the bankruptcy trustee with sufficient clarity that the trustee accepted the position without dispute. Both properties were excluded from the bankruptcy estate entirely. Mr. CR was discharged within three months — nine months ahead of the standard term.

We took over both personal guarantees and handled them on separate tracks. One creditor had already moved to commence bankruptcy proceedings; we deployed a Breathing Space moratorium to halt that action and negotiated a settlement during the sixty-day window. The second creditor settled at a 75% discount. We also advised against formal liquidation, recommending a managed strike-off instead — avoiding £40,000+ in potential personal liabilities. Both personal guarantees were resolved within twelve months.

A liquidator would have been required to pursue the directors personally for illegal dividend payments. We assessed whether dissolution remained available, confirmed the conditions were met, and structured a route that avoided that outcome entirely. The investor was repaid directly by the directors. The HMRC corporation tax debt was extinguished on dissolution. No insolvency practitioner was appointed, no investigation of director conduct took place, and no personal liability claim arose.

Ken’s estate agency had entered liquidation and the joint liquidators asserted a Director’s Loan Account balance of £95,212 was recoverable from him personally. We reviewed the claim alongside his accountant, forensically reconstructing the historic records. The review identified business costs incorrectly treated as personal drawings, unpaid salary entitlements, and funds introduced by the director. A formal challenge was prepared and presented. After negotiation, the matter settled in full and final terms for £20,000 — a reduction of approximately 79%. The family home was protected.

We compiled a comprehensive brief distinguishing between two separate Border Force raids and demonstrating that Mr. S’s incorrect information submissions arose from honest confusion, not misconduct. The brief was passed to specialist solicitors MD Law to frame the formal appeal. The Insolvency Service accepted our representations in full — reducing the voluntary undertaking from ten years to four and dropping the civil penalty of up to £60,000 entirely.

The HMRC income tax liability was unaffordable and had no viable repayment route — bankruptcy was the right answer. The key practical decision was timing: Mr. JB came to us in January, and by waiting until after 5 April, the current tax year’s accumulating liability was also caught by the bankruptcy order and written off. His specialist tools of trade — including his wood chipper vehicle — were protected throughout as assets essential to his livelihood.

We first stabilised Ms. R’s finances through a creditor arrangement, freezing interest across all accounts. When the builder proceeded with his petition, we advised her to let him bear the cost — because bankruptcy would write off the credit card debt and the builder’s claim simultaneously. We advised her parents, who held a second charge on the Manchester property, to appoint an LPA Receiver before the first charge holder could act. The LPA Receiver collected rental income throughout the bankruptcy period, giving the Official Receiver no viable route to the asset. Ms. R was discharged debt-free, with the property still hers.

Mr. and Mrs. V had been managing their debts through a creditor arrangement when a mortgage rate rise made the position unworkable almost overnight. The property was repossessed and sold for less than the outstanding mortgage, leaving a shortfall that followed them. Combined with existing credit card and loan balances, the total was beyond any realistic repayment plan. We recommended bankruptcy, prepared the application, managed all correspondence with the Insolvency Service, and attended the Official Receiver interview with them. Every debt — including the mortgage shortfall — was written off.

Mrs. SS’s home was never at risk — but she didn’t know that. A thorough review of the equity ownership structure confirmed the Trustee in Bankruptcy had no viable claim on the property. We managed all correspondence throughout, so she never had to deal with the insolvency service or creditors directly. When the Trustee attempted to claim the family Porsche, we challenged it. The claim was dropped. Mrs. SS was discharged within 12 months with her home, her marriage, and her financial footing intact.

Mr. N had been in a debt management plan for some time but there was no strategy behind it — the balances barely moved. We identified that the right route was a negotiated full and final settlement rather than continued servicing, and assessed each creditor individually for their likely appetite for discount. Each settlement was confirmed in writing before any payment was made, and we carefully sequenced the negotiations around a simultaneous property purchase. Mr. N paid just over £15,000 in settlement of liabilities exceeding £50,000.

We reviewed their income and expenditure, separated priority from non-priority debt, and put a Creditor Arrangement in place — stopping interest and charges across all creditors, redirecting all creditor contact through Lightside, and agreeing affordable repayments structured around their actual income. The bailiff action stopped. Council Tax was brought up to date. For the first time in a long time, Mr. and Mrs. V felt financial stability rather than month-to-month crisis.

We reviewed Ms. J’s full financial position and each creditor individually, then approached them directly with a creditor arrangement based on payments she could sustainably afford rather than minimums driven by interest. A freeze on interest and charges across all accounts was negotiated, so that from that point every payment reduced the actual balance rather than servicing it. We took over all creditor communication. The debt cycle was broken, a clear end date established, and Ms. J’s mortgage position was protected throughout.

Ms. JJ was anxious and worried about the advice she had already received. She had tried to engage with creditors but the letters and calls didn’t stop. We advised, differentiating between the law and commercial reality. We took over dealing with her lenders; the calls stopped, the letters reduced. Ms. JJ knew we could be relied upon, and she got back her peace of mind.

Mr. and Mrs. TA came to us with seven repossessed buy-to-let properties, mortgage shortfall debts including overseas creditor correspondence in French, two final charging orders on the family home, an HMRC claim against a family trust, and active bailiff threats. We coordinated the entire picture. The HMRC trust claim was referred to a specialist tax investigations firm and reduced to nil. A controlled sale of the family home was advised, with proceeds distributed to the adult children per the existing trust terms. The remaining unsecured debts were placed under a Creditor Arrangement. No bankruptcy petition was issued.

We brought both parties into the same conversation and modelled the options honestly: a straight sale-and-clear would have left each with roughly 10% of the equity — too little to restart. We structured a settlement giving Mrs. BB 70% of sale proceeds as primary carer for two teenagers, with a portion ringfenced to repay a family loan. Mr. BB retained 30% and responsibility for the remaining debt, placed into an informal creditor arrangement with interest frozen. Both parties accepted the proposal. No solicitors were required.

Jeff’s widow held the family home as tenants in common — meaning his 50% share was in the estate and creditors had a potential claim on it. Lightside secured a full write-off from all but one creditor; the remaining £25,000 balance was settled for £5,000. Total debt resolved: £54,000 for £5,000. The family home was never put at risk. All creditor correspondence was handled directly by Lightside — the family were shielded throughout.

David died overseas. His wife, as Executor, faced £65,000 in credit cards, a loan and an overdraft — with no income and savings already used. Lightside stopped all interest and charges from the date of death, had post-death charges reversed, and negotiated a pro-rata full and final settlement with each creditor. The family pooled £18,000. Every settlement was confirmed in writing before payment. The Executor’s obligations were fully discharged.

Lightside administered the insolvent estate in strict legal priority order. A thorough review of all assets and liabilities revealed the estate was sufficient to repay the family’s £30,000 soft loan in full. The remaining unsecured debts were written off and all accounts formally closed.

Lightside devised and managed a strategy disposing of fourteen loss-making properties through a coordinated managed repossession process. The resulting mortgage shortfalls and existing unsecured debts were consolidated into a creditor arrangement with affordable repayments across approximately ten institutions. The couple’s home and their one equity-positive property in Camden were preserved — the Camden property secured via a CCJ and interim charging order obtained by the couple’s son. Monthly cashflow improved from the point of implementation.

The case involved a historic government debt that had progressed through the Crown Court system to a point where failure to comply could result in imprisonment. We moved immediately to establish contact with the relevant authorities, explain the circumstances, and negotiate time for the debt to be addressed through a controlled plan. Alongside the Crown debt, Ms M had unsecured creditors whose position also needed careful sequencing. With the immediate enforcement pressure stabilised, we structured a plan addressing both the Crown debt and her unsecured creditors in a coordinated way. Ms M avoided prison and her home was safe.

We separated the mortgage position from the unsecured debt. Her mortgage remained in good standing and we kept it that way. We carried out a full review of her financial position, identified a sustainable level of repayment, and engaged directly with her creditors to establish a structured creditor arrangement with interest frozen where possible. By bringing the unsecured debt under control, the pressure was reduced and her financial situation became manageable. Ms. J got married in 2019 — a milestone that had seemed impossibly distant.

Mr. V’s situation involved multiple historic mortgage charges from lenders that had merged, sold their loan books, or closed down. Lightside carried out a full investigation of the title and historic lending records, tracing the corporate ownership of each lender in turn. Where records had been damaged or lost, we resolved the matter through correspondence and negotiation rather than allowing incomplete documentation to stall the process. For accounts where no valid outstanding liability could be established, lenders agreed to write off the balance and confirm the charge could be removed. The title was cleared and the sale able to proceed.