Recall is not discharge. Discharge releases you from the debts at the end of the process, and the sequestration stays on the record.

Recall undoes the sequestration itself.

The most useful thing to know before you start is what applying does not do. It does not pause anything.

No, and this is the point that costs people money. Section 29(8) says the proceedings in the sequestration are to continue as if the petition had not been presented, until the recall is granted.

What that means week by week

The trustee carries on realising the estate, the debtor contribution order carries on being collected, and your entry on the Register of Insolvencies stays where it is.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy puts it in plainer words in its debtor guide, which says your trustee must continue to administer your bankruptcy until a decision is made on your application.

Why the delay matters

Section 38(3)(b) protects a transaction the trustee has already entered into with someone acting in good faith. A car or a house sold while a recall petition is pending is not coming back.

So the sequence is the whole game. Get the figures and the money in place first, then apply, rather than applying and hoping the process slows down.

The petition itself is public

Section 29(5) requires the Accountant in Bankruptcy to enter particulars of a recall petition in the register of insolvencies. Our page on whether your sequestration is public covers what the register shows and who can look at it.

So if getting off the register is your reason for applying, note that applying puts a second public entry on it.

A wide group, and there is almost no time limit. Section 29(6) says a petition to the sheriff may be presented at any time, and section 31 states no time limit at all for an application to the Accountant in Bankruptcy.

The two routes side by side

Section 31(2) is deliberately wide on the creditor limb. It reaches any creditor, whether or not they petitioned for the sequestration or concurred in the application.

The one real deadline in the whole of recall

Section 29(7) makes the open-ended rule subject to sections 114(3) and 115(3), which protect a spouse’s or civil partner’s occupancy rights. That is the only time-limited recall route in the Act.

A non-entitled spouse or civil partner has 40 days from the date in the section, or 10 weeks from the award, to petition on the ground that the sequestration was wholly or mainly to defeat their occupancy rights. Every other recall petition may be presented at any time.

When the debts are paid or payable in full, and only then. Section 31(1) gives the administrative route a single ground, and there is no second one.

What the Accountant in Bankruptcy actually needs

Where a private insolvency practitioner is the trustee, section 34(1) lets the Accountant in Bankruptcy recall the award once the trustee has confirmed that the debts are paid in full, including any interest and the outlays and remuneration of the interim trustee and the trustee.

Section 34(1)(b) adds a second limb that is easy to miss. The Accountant in Bankruptcy must also be satisfied that recall is appropriate in all the circumstances.

The sheriff’s grounds are much wider

Section 29(2) keeps a payment-in-full petition out of the sheriff court, unless the award followed a qualified creditor’s petition and the recall petition includes the ground that you were not apparently insolvent. Whether a creditor could have petitioned at all is therefore worth checking.

Do not expect a description of the paperwork here

The detailed procedure sits in sections 32, 33, 35 and 36, and those sections were not obtained in full for this article. We would rather say so than print a timetable we cannot stand behind.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy’s own guidance on ending a bankruptcy early sets out how it handles an application, and your trustee can tell you what it wants and when.

No. Section 30(5)(a) says the sheriff must make provision for the outlays and remuneration of the trustee and any interim trustee before recalling the award.

Must, not may

The sheriff has no discretion about whether the trustee gets paid. The only discretion is about who pays, either out of the estate or by a person who was a party to the petition or application.

On the administrative route the same point sits on the face of section 34(1)(a)(ii). Payment in full means the debts plus the trustee’s costs, not the debts alone.

The words about interest and costs are newer than the section

The express reference to interest, outlays and remuneration in section 30(2)(a) and section 30(4)(a) was inserted on 25 June 2025 by the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024.

Guidance written before that date does not carry it. That is one reason older material on recall reads differently from the section as it now stands.

Who pays where a creditor made the mistake

The Accountant in Bankruptcy says that where a creditor petitions for recall because it made you bankrupt in error, that creditor will be liable for your trustee’s fees and the cost of the recall. That is the Accountant in Bankruptcy’s reading of section 30(5)(a)(ii) rather than words in the section itself.

Nothing, if the whole debt is paid inside six months of the award. Section 37A, inserted on 25 June 2025, switches the interest off at subsection (3) in that case, and subsection (4) switches it straight back on if you pay only part.

The part-payment trap

Paying the whole of your debts within six months avoids the interest.

Paying only part of them does not. Section 37A(4) makes interest payable on the whole debt, including the part you have already paid.

What the section does not say is whether that is tested debt by debt or across the whole sequestration, and no published source resolves it.

If you have several creditors and enough money for some of them, get that specific question answered by a money adviser before you pay anybody.

And the transitional window has closed

A transitional window for people sequestrated before 25 June 2025 closed on 25 December 2025.

Anyone sequestrated before that date who pays in full now pays interest from the date of sequestration. Whether interest is written off on a quick repayment goes through the section line by line.

The rate is no longer 8 per cent

Regulation 26 of the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Regulations 2016 was rewritten by SSI 2024/48 with effect from 6 April 2024.

The prescribed rate has been the base rate plus two percentage points since 6 April 2024, and the rate applied is the greater of that and the rate in your original contract.

Section 129(10) takes the greater of the two, so a credit card running at its own rate keeps running at its own rate. The prescribed rate is a floor rather than a cap.

Three things, and each of them costs you something. Section 38(3) carves out prescription, good-faith transactions and a bankruptcy restrictions order.

The three carve-outs, and one open question

The last row is honest rather than evasive. Section 72(2) of the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987 ends an earnings arrestment on the date of sequestration, which our page on sequestration and diligence covers, and neither Act says whether recall revives it.

A restrictions order needs its own application

Section 161(1)(a) says the sheriff may revoke a bankruptcy restrictions order on recall, and section 161(4)(a) gives the Accountant in Bankruptcy the same power on its own route.

May, not must. A refusal can be reviewed and appealed, and what a bankruptcy restrictions order does sets out what carries on in the meantime.

What does stop is any new order

Sections 161(1)(b) and 161(4)(b) both say no new bankruptcy restrictions order or interim order may be made once the award is recalled. An order already in force is a different matter.

Ask for a review, then appeal. Section 37 sets four short periods, and the first of them is 14 days.

The timetable

Fourteen days is short, and it runs from the decision rather than from the day you read the letter. Diary it the moment anything arrives.

Where a recall is realistic

Most recalls happen because somebody can pay. A property sale, a family member or money arriving during the sequestration are the usual reasons.

Money that arrives during the four-year window may not be yours to spend, so speak to your trustee before committing it anywhere.

Where to get help before you start

Citizens Advice Scotland, StepChange, National Debtline and Advice Direct Scotland all do this work free. If recall is not realistic, how long a sequestration actually lasts and how sequestration works are the better places to start.