Care and support

What is an administration order?

An administration order allows you to pay all your debts by making a single monthly payment into your local county court. The court then divides this payment among your creditors. Generally, your creditors can take no further enforcement action while you have an administration order or charge interest on the debt. An administration order is not the same as bankruptcy.

Can I apply for an administration order?

To get an administration order, you must have:-

• total debts of under £5,000
• at least one county court or high court judgment

Which debts can be included in an administration order?

All credit debts, such as credit and store cards, personal loans, bank loans and catalogue debts. You should also list arrears of rent, mortgage, fuel, council tax, magistrates’ court fines and child maintenance on the application form.

Will all these debts be included in the administration order?

Courts can exclude certain debts. These are more likely to be those which can be enforced in another way, e.g. by evicting you or cutting off your fuel supply. If you have already agreed to repay these creditors, it is likely they will be left off the administration order and you will have to continue to pay them separately. Even so, you must still list them on the application form. However a recent county court decision allowed a person to include their council tax arrears in their administration order. At the same time the council continued to collect the debt by other means and the court ruled that the council should not have done so whilst they were included in an administration order.

If this happens to you, seek further advice