Companies House25 Jan 2022 14:58
Not sure if it works the same but if anybody has any experience with running a limited company and debt recovery and Companies House in general (I do), you will know that there is nothing one can do to prevent the company being dissolved and removed from Companies House. I was really surprised when it has happened to us for the first time. A customer owed us money, we went through the whole process, went to Court and obtained a judgement against him. In the meantime "First Gazette - notice for compulsory strike-off" appeared on the Companies House website. Apparently it happens when accounts are overdue. We obviously objected. At first, Compulsory strike-off action has been "suspended" and then "discontinued". In the meantime we started recovery process instructing High Court Enforcement Officer to collect the debt (without success). The debtor simply moved out from the premises and disappeared. No tangible assets in the company, debts only. It turned out that the same company had 14 judgements against them from other creditors. We consulted the other creditors - the same pattern of dishonest Directors deliberately accumulating as many debts as possible with a sole purpose of liquidating the company in the future became clear. In the meantime "First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off" appeared again. We objected (again) and so did the others. Compulsory strike-off action has been suspended for the second time. There was nothing we could do, we could not sue the director s because the company is a separate legal entity from its owners. We were told by our legal advisors that in theory we could sue the Directors personally for actions they carried out on behalf of a company (Fraud, Misrepresentations and Insufficient Record Keeping etc) but it will be extremely difficult to prove and win (and costly). Another month or so passed by and CH delivered a final blow - Final Gazette dissolved via compulsory strike-off. We were told that this is a standard procedure by Companies House when the company fails to submit the required documents. We were also told that HMRC and/or creditors can apply to reinstate the company to the Companies House Register if it has already been struck off. They can then force it into compulsory liquidation in an attempt to reclaim the money they are owed. All in all, we made a commercial decision and decided to cut the legal costs and write the debt off as there was a very little chance that there would be any assets left. The worst thing is that those fraudulent Directors successfully do it every 3-4 years taking more service on credit, accumulating more debt, disappearing, liquidating another incorporated company, and ripping off more businesses. And there is absolutely that can be done. Apparently it is "your risk" when you decide to supply them on credit in good faith. I guess it was "our risk" too when we bought shares of FIN based on information that was given to us at the time of purchase....