Company Restoration

Further Information about  Company Restoration

Company Restoration is the process by which a dissolved (struck off) company is restored to the register held at Companies House.

When a company is dissolved any assets held by the dissolved company will become ‘Bona Vacantia’. The term ‘Bona Vacantia literally means vacant goods and is the legal name for ownerless property which by law passes to the Crown. When the company’s bank comes to know of the company being dissolved, they freeze the company’s account. Any money in the bank account becomes the property of the Crown. If the company was actively trading when it was struck off it can have detrimental effects on the business because no bank transactions can take place.

So, one of the reasons for restoring a company is to claim the assets back from the Crown. In some cases the company may want to recover the assets and close down again, while in another scenario, the company may want to continue business and unfreeze the bank account as quickly as possible.

This latter case is usually the most urgent one. Fortuanately, for such urgent cases where the company wants to continue in business, a quicker method of restring the company is now available. This avoids having to apply to the Court. This quicker route is called Administrative company restoration and is done via an application made to the Registrar.  This avoids having to make an application to the Court (Court Order Company Restoration), which is relatively more expensive and is a slightly longer procedure. In some scenarios,  court order company restoration is the only method available, for example, if the company was dissolved voluntarily by the directors, they cannot apply for administrative company restoration. In some scenarios, court order company restoration is advisable because, although the cost of restoration is  slightly higher, it avoids filing of outstanding accounts and is therefore more economical.

Whatever the circumstances, we can provide a fast and professional solution to recover the company’s assets, or to get it back on the Register to continue business.

Call 020 8232 5479 for our professional advice.

How is restoring the company different from setting up another company with exactly the same name?

When you incorporate a new company you will be setting up a new entity with a different company number to the one that was dissolved, though the company name of both companies may be the same. You will not be able to transfer assets of the old company into the new company because they are two different entities or ‘persons’ in law. Nor will you be able to trade with the new company and pretend it is the old company as this is a criminal offence. Company restoration on the other hand brings back the ‘dead’ company as if it had never been dissolved.

Our advice – do not set up another company with the same name unless you are doing it to merely protect the company name.

What will happen if someone else has set up a company with our company name?

when a company is dissolved that company name becomes available and any individual can use that name to incorporate a new company. If that happens, we can still successfully carry out company restoration, but will have to apply for a change of company name simulataneously with the application to restore the company. So, your company will be restored under a different company name but the company number will remain the same. This will not affect the legal rights of the company.

Call 020 8232 5479 for our professional advice.