Becoming bankrupt

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Cancel a bankruptcy

You can apply to cancel (‘annul’) your bankruptcy if:

  • the bankruptcy order should not have been made
  • all your debts and bankruptcy fees have been paid or secured (guaranteed) by a third party - ask your trustee how much your bankruptcy fees are
  • you‘ve made an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) to pay all or part of your debts

How to apply

Download and fill in form IAA.

Send or take your completed form to your nearest court that deals with bankruptcy. You can find a legal adviser to help you.

Check if you can get legal aid to help with your legal costs. If you’re eligible, Civil Legal Advice can give you advice.

You’ll be given a date for a court hearing of your application, which you must attend.

You’ll still need to co-operate with the official receiver or the trustee (the person dealing with your bankruptcy), for example by providing information or attending an interview.

If the court agrees with your application, they’ll make an annulment order which cancels your bankruptcy.

You can ask the official receiver to publish details of your annulment. You must ask within 28 days of getting the annulment. You can only do this if your name and address have already been published to advertise the bankruptcy.

Details of your annulment order will be published wherever details of your bankruptcy order appeared.

After your bankruptcy is cancelled

When the court cancels the bankruptcy, all bankruptcy restrictions end immediately. You’ll have to start making payments towards any debts you have left.

You’ll get back possessions that the trustee did not sell.

Your bankruptcy will be removed from the Individual Insolvency Register after:

  • 28 days if the bankruptcy order should not have been made
  • 3 months if your debts have been paid in full or an IVA has been agreed

The notice in the Gazette is a permanent record of your bankruptcy but your details will be left out of internet search engine results after 1 year and 3 months.

You must apply to both Land Charges and HM Land Registry to have your bankruptcy entry removed from their registers.

Apply to Land Charges

Send an application to cancel an entry in the Land Register (K11) to the Land Charges department.

You need to include:

  • a copy of your court order permitting the cancellation (or ‘vacation’) of the entry

  • the correct fee for each entry you want to cancel

The address is on the application form.

Check how much it costs to submit a Land Charges application.

Apply to HM Land Registry

You need to send HM Land Registry either:

You must include a copy of your court order.

The address to send it to is on the application forms.

Your documents will not be returned once the registers are updated. You can send copies if you write “I certify that this is a true copy of the original” and sign the document on the first page.

View a printable version of the whole guide