ltd company strike off

[GlobalC]

Hi all, again!, just a quicky, i had ltd company that is no longer trading, it ceased trading just after xmas this year, and i was advised to just do nothing and let companies house strike it off. On their website it says the status is active, pending strike off. There is an outstanding debt to yell for about £1600 who for awhile persued me personally, i have not heard anything for ages though. I just wandered how long it takes them to strike off and if there's any way to check if yell have objected this. I have searched their site but cant find any info.

[stevieb]

Re: ltd company strike off

Hi all, again!, just a quicky, i had ltd company that is no longer trading, it ceased trading just after xmas this year, and i was advised to just do nothing and let companies house strike it off. On their website it says the status is active, pending strike off. There is an outstanding debt to yell for about £1600 who for awhile persued me personally, i have not heard anything for ages though. I just wandered how long it takes them to strike off and if there's any way to check if yell have objected this. I have searched their site but cant find any info.

3 months unless they have an objection raised against the strike off.

[GlobalC]

Re: ltd company strike off

3 months unless they have an objection raised against the strike off.

Im sure they started the strike off in july, as accounts were due beginning of June, so i guess this means that it has been blocked, surely there must be a way to see if thats the case?

[stevieb]

Re: ltd company strike off

I am going by what they did with my company, they wrote saying they where going to strike off, I agreed then they put a notice up in the london gazette stating that you had to reply within 3 months to object to the company being struck off. Just after 3 months they wrote and told me it was struck off.

Give them a call see what they say.

[garlok]

Re: ltd company strike off

Not quite that simple I'm afraid.

If the company ceased trading within the timeframe of a company financial year, then accounts and the annual return will have to be made to Companies House. The Company Secretary as that is a legally held position will be held liable for any penalties for not conforming. Those penalties for not complying are well detailed on CH website. You as a matter of course during the preparation of those accounts under the Companies Act 1986 rules state that the company has now ceased trading.

Secondly you clearly admit that there is a debt owing to a creditor on the company. It is unclear from what you have said but either it is a personal debt or it is a company debt. If it is a company debt and you are either unwilling or unable to pay it then to comply with the law you will have to take the company into administration no matter how small the debt is.

For Companies House to exercise their right of strike off in its simplest form the company must have no debt, no possibility of objection by a creditor and annual returns up to date.

Garlok

[GlobalC]

Re: ltd company strike off

Not quite that simple I'm afraid.

If the company ceased trading within the timeframe of a company financial year, then accounts and the annual return will have to be made to Companies House. The Company Secretary as that is a legally held position will be held liable for any penalties for not conforming. Those penalties for not complying are well detailed on CH website. You as a matter of course during the preparation of those accounts under the Companies Act 1986 rules state that the company has now ceased trading.

Secondly you clearly admit that there is a debt owing to a creditor on the company. It is unclear from what you have said but either it is a personal debt or it is a company debt. If it is a company debt and you are either unwilling or unable to pay it then to comply with the law you will have to take the company into administration no matter how small the debt is.

For Companies House to exercise their right of strike off in its simplest form the company must have no debt, no possibility of objection by a creditor and annual returns up to date.

Garlok

The reason i am unwilling to pay is because yell told me i would get x amount of calls and interest in the company, however this failed to transpaire, as a result i had no work and a yell bill of 260 a month, so i ceased trading and refused to pay them as it was a ltd company and was not a personal gurantee. I sort advice from my accountant and a insolvency practitioner who basically laughed at yell's chances of getting the money, however i dont want this to be rearing its ugly head when so much else is going on

[garlok]

Re: ltd company strike off

Frankly GC I would think you are not going to win. Never mind what they "say", what is in the contract? I don't want to know but it is a question you have to ask yourself. What is in the agreement to pay £260 per month in return for what? Specific numbers of leads or work contracts etc?. I would be surprised if that was in there and I am disturbed that you have had the advice you have had.

Unless what you are saying is specified in the original contract then everything else would be dismissed by a court as something which is known as "Traders' Puff" and Yell become a legitimate creditor of the company. They might not get any money from you but you will probably not come out of this totally clean unfortunately. They could for instance claim that you have not run the company in a prudent manner and ask Companies House to bar you from being a director for X period claiming you are not competent. All this then goes into the public domain. The limited company is a separate entity in law, just like being another person and as a director of that company you have responsibilities to honour in return for limiting your personal liability to creditors.

I have given you the benefit of over 34 years experience of working for ourselves mostly as a limited company and my OH as an accountant who has never failed to get our books and returns passed first time by the Revenue and Companies House even in extremely difficult times.

Garlok

[GlobalC]

Re: ltd company strike off

Thanks garlok for your input, i do appreciate it However without going into too much detail i really just wanted to know how to find out if the company had been struck off or objected, as the company address is not my home and i no longer get mail from address.