Ms Helen Curley:

As I mentioned in my presentation, section 444 of the Companies Act allows the liquidator of a company or any creditor or member of the company to apply to the court in relation to receivers' fees, notwithstanding that they may have been set out in the instrument appointing the receiver. The court's powers extend to fixing the remuneration before the making of the order of the application. If the receiver has been paid previously in excess of the amount fixed by the court; the court order may extend to requiring him or her to account for the excess, or such part of it, that maybe specified in the order. However, this power shall not be exercised in relation to any period before the making of the application for the order to fix the fees unless in the opinion of the court there are special circumstances that warrant it.

On complaints on the conduct of a receivership, the terms under which a receiver will act have been set out in the terms of the contract. If there are specific offences which the receiver may have committed under the Act, there will be provision for reporting such offences to the Director of Corporate Enforcement. There are various offences under the Act, such as reporting offences that a receiver who does not file abstracts and so on may be amenable for. The Director of Corporate Enforcement can seek the books of the receiver in relation to particular receiverships or all receiverships with which the receiver has been engaged.

I am afraid I do not have the data around numbers of complaints.