Does anyone have any experience of dealing with the business archive of a company that went into Administrative Receivership?
We have the company archive of a large business up until the date when the Administrative Receivers were appointed. The records generated subsequent to the appointment of the Receivers and during the continuation of the business have been retained by the Receivers for the last 20 years.
The last part of the business, which dealt with the company pension scheme, has now been wound up, and earlier this year we were contacted by the Receivers to arrange the transfer of the remaining company archive material.
We took delivery of 600 boxes in the summer, and have just spent two weeks working through an additional 670 boxes for which the Receivers did not have a detailed listing. We have identified documents which we think should accrue to the existing company archive, but have now been told that any documents dating from the appointment of the Administrative Receivers onwards are not part of the company archive, and do not belong to the company, but instead belong to the Receivers. They have requested that this material is returned to them.
I understand that the Receivers are required to keep the documents relating to the administration process for a set period, in case anybody challenges the way they dealt with the break-up of the company, but I'm concerned that once that period is finished, they will destroy the documents and the company archive will remain incomplete.
Can anybody give me advice on what the legal position is on the ownership of the records and whether we stand a chance of acquiring the remainder of the company archive? It would be nice to think we could, given the amount of work we've just put into it!
Please reply off-list, as I don't have the Archives-NRA digest delivered to my work email. I will summarise the advice I receive and post on here.
Thanks,
Jan Hicks
Senior Archivist
MOSI
Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
|