Skip to main content

Registered liquidators

Request assistance for external administration: Report on company activities and property, books and records

Request Assistance for External Administration (RAEA)

From March 2020, you can request assistance from ASIC in circumstances when officers and individuals related to an entity in external administration fail to comply with their legislative requirements online via the ASIC Regulatory Portal. Prior to March 2020, this request was formerly known as the Liquidator assistance program (LAP).

External Administrators can ask ASIC for help obtaining:

How ASIC can assist

We may contact company officers or third parties to remind them of their statutory obligations to assist External Administrators when companies enter external administration.

Where the failure to assist the External Administrator persists, we may commence criminal proceedings against:

  • company officers – for failing to provide a ROCAP (e.g s475, etc) and/or failing to provide books and records (s530A)
  • third parties – for failing to provide books and records (s530B).

How External Administrators can request ASIC's assistance

We require you to submit a Request Assistance for External Administration separate from your s533 report so we can deal with the matter quickly and efficiently.

RAEA requests are to be lodged via the ASIC Regulatory Portal.

If you have formed a view that you should lodge a supplementary statutory report (SSR), it is preferable that you seek our assistance to obtain a ROCAP and/or books and records prior to applying for Assetless Administration funding for preparing a SSR that will allege related contraventions. 

Information you will need to provide ASIC

When submitting a Request Assistance for External Administration (RAEA) requesting our assistance, you can provide a covering letter that addresses the following:

  • details of the winding up
  • the company officer(s) concerned
  • the officer's relationship to the company
  • contact details for the officer, including residential addresses, business addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers. Please ensure you confirm to ASIC how your office obtained the contact information
  • the amount of the estimated deficiency of the company. If unknown, the amount claimed by the petitioning creditor
  • details of any contact between you and/or your staff and the officer, including all notices and letters sent to the officer, emails, all file notes of meetings and telephone conversations, and details of any books and records that have already been provided by the officer
  • if some books and records have been provided, but you believe there are further books in the officer's possession, provide details of the further books required and evidence to support your belief that the officer has possession of these books, and
  • if a third party (e.g. an Advisor) has possession of company books and records, provide the name and contact details of the person. Provide evidence to support your belief that the person has possession of company books and records, and details of any contact between you and/or your staff and the person.

What you may be required to do

Once we have received your RAEA request, we perform an assessment and make further enquiries of the officer and/or third party.   

If non-compliance continues, we may request a statement or affidavit from you that describes the history of the matter and the details of non-compliance. We will email you a template statement or affidavit to complete if required.

You must be prepared to attend court and give evidence in the event we commence a prosecution. Once we commence a prosecution, we will only withdraw proceedings in very limited circumstances.

If you submit a RAEA request, and the officer subsequently complies with their obligations to submit a ROCAP and/or books and records, you must immediately notify ASIC.

ASIC information sheet for company officers

When requesting that company officers provide ROCAP, books and records and company property, external administrators should include this, where appropriate: See INFO 53 Directors: Obligations to external administrators.

More information