Statutory Demand Guide (Form 509H)
A precise legal instrument under the Corporations Act, not a fill-in-the-blank template. This guide gets you most of the way there, a solicitor should finalise it before it's served.
Read This Before You Start
Unlike a letter of demand, getting a statutory demand wrong has real teeth, a debtor can apply to have a defective demand set aside, and the creditor can end up paying the debtor's legal costs. This guide gets a business roughly 90% of the way there and saves legal fees on the research and drafting groundwork, but we recommend a solicitor review the completed form before it's served, given the cost-shifting risk if it's defective.
Is Your Debt Eligible? (All Three Must Be True)
- The debtor is a company with an ACN (statutory demands apply to companies, not individuals or sole traders, a different process applies to those).
- The debt is undisputed on genuine grounds.
- The debt totals $4,000 or more (the current statutory minimum).
What the Guide Covers
What a statutory demand is, and when to use it
A plain-English explanation of s459E of the Corporations Act 2001, the 21-day response window, and the insolvency presumption that follows if the debtor doesn't respond.
Form 509H, field by field
Debtor identification (legal name, ACN, registered office address pulled from current ASIC records), creditor details, an itemised debt schedule, the mandatory affidavit verifying the debt, the required statutory warning box, and the signature block.
Service requirements
Must be served at the debtor's current registered office address, and the address on the demand itself must be in the same state as that registered office.
The 21-day clock
What happens if the debtor pays, disputes, or does nothing at all.
Common defects that get demands set aside
Wrong entity name, misstated amount, vague debt description, expired ASIC company details, the reasons this isn't a pure self-serve product.
Pricing for the finished guide is still being finalised.
This is an informational guide and general guidance only, not legal advice. We strongly recommend independent legal review before serving any statutory demand.
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