Change of Form 509H: CREDITORS STATUTORY DEMAND FOR PAYMENT OF DEBT

As of 1 January 2009, the new Form 509H: Creditors Statutory Demand for Payment of Debt must be used.

The new form is set out in Schedule 2 of the Corporations Amendment Regulations 2007 ("the Regulations"). These regulations, along with the Corporations Amendment (Insolvency) Act 2007 ("the Act"), commenced for the most part on 31 December 2007.

However, the regulations provided a period of 12 months after the commencement date for transition to use of the new form for the Creditors Statutory Demand.

The 12 month period will expire on 1 January 2009, after which time the new form must be used.

Practitioners should take care to ensure that they use the new form 509H to minimise the potential for:

• applications for the setting aside of Creditors Statutory Demands; or
• the courts' reluctance to make orders to wind up companies;

on the basis that the Creditors Statutory Demand was not in the form prescribed by the Act and Regulations.