The statutory demand minefield: lessons from recent set aside applications

Key Points:

These three cases illustrate that strict compliance with legislative requirements continues to be imperative when serving statutory demands.

Despite what appears to be a fairly straightforward legislative regime, creditors' statutory demands appear to generate an entirely disproportionate volume of litigation in the courts. The drastic consequences of failing to comply with a creditor's statutory demand warrant very strict compliance by creditors with the technical requirements of the regime.

Nonetheless, the regular feed of reported decisions on applications to have creditors' statutory demands set aside gives rise to a seemingly unrelenting tide of novel issues and often conflicting outcomes on known issues. Recent questions canvassed by the courts include: