A buyer relying on a personal guarantee, or a seller relying on one from a buyer, is relying on an individual — and that individual’s own bankruptcy history sits in the same public record as the corporation’s, searchable the same way, for the same modest fee.
Key takeaways
SECTION 01 OF 04
Section 11.1(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. B-3, requires the Superintendent to keep “a public record of… proposals… bankruptcies… licences issued to trustees… and… notices sent to the Superintendent by receivers”, and to provide information from it “on request… and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed”. The section says nothing about businesses specifically — it is a record of persons, and an individual who has signed a personal guarantee is a person exactly as much as the corporation that borrowed the money.
SECTION 02 OF 04
The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy’s own Bankruptcy and Insolvency Records Search describes what its database holds: “basic debtor information of all bankruptcies and proposals registered in Canada since 1978… all receiverships registered with our office since January 1993… all petitions… and all companies that have been granted protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act… since September 18, 2009”, at “a minimum fee of $8 per search… except for CCAA Records”. Every one of those categories is keyed to a name — a debtor’s name — and an individual’s full legal name returns exactly the kind of result a corporate name does.
SECTION 03 OF 04
A discharged bankrupt owes nothing further on the debts the discharge covered, but nothing in s.11.1 makes the Superintendent remove a past bankruptcy from the public record once it happened. A search against a guarantor’s name can therefore show a bankruptcy from years earlier even though that person is now fully discharged and current on everything since — which is a fact about their history, not necessarily a live risk, but one worth knowing before relying on their signature on a new personal guarantee or vendor take-back note.
SECTION 04 OF 04
This page is narrowly about the search itself. Personal guarantees and limiting your exposure covers what a guarantee does and does not secure once it is confirmed genuine, and the lien payoff at closing a trustee later called a preference and buying from a trustee in bankruptcy show what a bankruptcy already in progress actually does to a deal. Section 2 of the public searches a buyer runs before closing covers the identical registry from the corporate debtor’s side. Treadstone Law’s note on a seller’s personal guarantee if their company goes bankrupt covers the same individual-liability question from the other side of a deal.
Yes. The federal bankruptcy record kept under section 11.1 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act indexes debtors, not businesses, so an individual guarantor’s full legal name is exactly as searchable as the corporation whose debt they guaranteed — through the same public search, for the same minimum $8 fee.
No. A discharge ends the bankrupt’s personal liability going forward, but nothing in section 11.1 requires the Superintendent to remove a past bankruptcy from the public record once it happened. A search can still show a bankruptcy from years earlier even though the person is now fully discharged and current on everything since.
It covers bankruptcies and proposals registered in Canada since 1978, receiverships registered since January 1993, and CCAA filings since September 18, 2009, all searchable for a minimum fee of $8 — except CCAA records, which carry a different fee.
Sources
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