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Section 251C: Duty of official receiver to consider and determine application

Insolvency Act 1986 · 1986 c. 45View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 7A: Debt relief orders

This section applies where an application for a debt relief order is made.

The official receiver may stay consideration of the application until he has received answers to any queries raised with the debtor in relation to anything connected with the application.

The official receiver must determine the application by—

deciding whether to refuse the application;
if he does not refuse it, by making a debt relief order in relation to the specified debts he is satisfied were qualifying debts of the debtor at the application date;

but he may only refuse the application if he is authorised or required to do so by any of the following provisions of this section.

The official receiver may refuse the application if he considers that—

the application does not meet all the requirements imposed by or under section 251B;
any queries raised with the debtor have not been answered to the satisfaction of the official receiver within such time as he may specify when they are raised;
the debtor has made any false representation or omission in making the application or on supplying any information or documents in support of it.

The official receiver must refuse the application if he is not satisfied that—

the debtor is an individual who is unable to pay his debts;
at least one of the specified debts was a qualifying debt of the debtor at the application date;
each of the conditions set out in Part 1 of Schedule 4ZA is met.

The official receiver may refuse the application if he is not satisfied that each condition specified in Part 2 of Schedule 4ZA is met.

If the official receiver refuses an application he must give reasons for his refusal to the debtor in the prescribed manner.

In this section "specified debt" means a debt specified in the application.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.