Reopening dissolved company

**Jubber** · 19 February 2009, 20:46

8k in the account ?

Where you been? Wandsworth?

**NickFitz** · 19 February 2009, 21:14

From the Companies House website:

From the date of dissolution any assets held by a dissolved company will be 'bona vacantia'. This means they belong to the Crown. The company’s bank account will be frozen and any credit balance in the account will be passed to the Crown.

That page also has information on what to do to get the company restored. It's probably worth biting the bullet and shelling out a grand or two to a solicitor to get things sorted out as soon as possible.

**NickFitz** · 19 February 2009, 21:17

Originally posted by NickFitz View Post

It's probably worth biting the bullet and shelling out a grand or two to a solicitor to get things sorted out as soon as possible.

On the other hand, if you think you can handle the legal niceties yourself, the Treasury Solicitor's office has a guide to the process (PDF, 615KB)

**phileds** · 19 February 2009, 21:18

I would have a serious word with your accountant. Why on EARTH did they not warn you about this?

If you paid them a fee to close your company, I would want to know why their reasonable duty of care did not include a warning to take all money out of your company accounts prior to liquidation.

See what your accountant says, make notes, ask if they'll put things right at their cost, assuming they did not warn you. Talk to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, or whoever regulates them.

**BolshieBastard** · 19 February 2009, 21:41

Originally posted by phileds View Post

I would have a serious word with your accountant. Why on EARTH did they not warn you about this?

If you paid them a fee to close your company, I would want to know why their reasonable duty of care did not include a warning to take all money out of your company accounts prior to liquidation.

See what your accountant says, make notes, ask if they'll put things right at their cost, assuming they did not warn you. Talk to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, or whoever regulates them.

WHS.

I'd consider suing the accountant myself for serious maladministration.

**Robot** · 20 February 2009, 09:01

Originally posted by moraghan View Post

Ok. Major balls up between me and my accountant. My company has been dissolved after 8 months waiting. Problem is that NOBODY told me that once the company is dissolved that Companies House informs your bank that the account needs to be frozen. I have left £8K in the account...stupid I know. The idea being that I would pay my accountant closure fees etc. out of the account, pay the rest myself and close the business account.

I now have to pay to reopen the dissolved business. Companies House says that they will only charge about £400 for this .. however .. they said plus 'your own fees' ... meaning solicitors ... meaning major rip off time.

I would be very, very grateful if somebody could provide me with some experience of reopening a dissolved company and if they know a solicitor who would only charge a small amount for doing this.

Try these guys .. set fee may appeal - www.crichtonslawyers.co.uk/

"For standard company restorations our guaranteed legal fees are only £595 plus vat and outlay.

Also, we can often restore a company in as little as 11-19 working days in urgent matters. We agree a reasonable expedited application fee in those cases, guaranteed in advance in all cases"

**Alan @ BroomeAffinity** · 20 February 2009, 09:36

IME, Companies House do not just dissolve a company. This is normally done for a reason, for example if accounts etc are filed extremely late. Even then, they will write to the RO of the company, giving 3 months notice. (I think) they also write to the directors. So maybe its not all the accountants fault - the OP is after all a director of a limited company and is expected to have a certain level of knowledge to go with the responsibility.

**moraghan** · 20 February 2009, 10:24

Cheers

Thanks for all your help here guys. Much appreciated.

I freely admit that its equally .. if not more ... my fault. I simply took my eyes off the ball ... I should have thought about it more.

I am just flaming grateful that the company can be reopened.

You know what really cheeses me off. I pay £25 a month for Premier Banking with Lloyds. You would have thought that they would have contacted me to inform me that I still had money in the account whe they were in the process of closing it down. Thats exacly what happened to somebody who works with me ... pity i only found this today.

Also, you can bet your bottom dollar that if the bank account whould have been in arrears they would have chased me for the money.

Another thought though. When I reopen the business will I have to produce another set of accounts?

Effin shambles all round.

**philip@wellwoodhoyle** · 20 February 2009, 10:50

We use this form for our company formation etc and always find them efficient and cost-effective - they have a section on company restoration - http://www.formationsdirect.com/Restoration.aspx

Costs don't look too prohibitive.

Reopening dissolved company