Published: 31 July 2014
Q: My wife and I are personal licence holders at our village pub. Sadly, we are both being made bankrupt and I wonder if this will affect our licences? I have been told that being made bankrupt does not affect your personal licence.
A: You are quite right in saying that bankruptcy or any other insolvency-related event does not affect your ability to hold a personal licence. However, you mentioned that this was ‘your village pub’ and I wonder whether you or your wife are not only personal licence holders but also premises licence holders for the pub? If this is the case, then bankruptcy will most definitely affect the premises licence, causing it to lapse (i.e. die). At that point, you only have 28 days to transfer the licence to another person, or for an insolvency practitioner to apply to transfer the licence to him/her – after that the licence cannot be resurrected. Remember also that personal bankruptcy could theoretically affect any contracts or leases that you have with third parties.
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