Reply to: Money gone to Company House

[Tilamok]

Well Done.

It's pretty straight forward.

You just fill out a form to close the company.

Closing / Dissolving a company (Striking-off or winding-up)

Thanks

[prozak]

Well Done.

It's pretty straight forward.

You just fill out a form to close the company.

Closing / Dissolving a company (Striking-off or winding-up)

[Tilamok]

Closing company down

Hi

I have managed to get my funds back from the companies house.

Please could someone advise me how to close a company down?
I'm bound by the court order to close the company asap

Thanks

[Tilamok]

Given my reply above and now that its deemed 'Bona Vacantia' (exactly the same predicament I was in 8 years ago), I wound up the company and paid off all the related taxes, with alot left over but I must give you more detail.....

............

Good luck either way....

Thanks
I had a look online and there are tons of solicitors that do this kind of work

Appararently
You can't avoid 2 fees
Court Filing Fees £130
Treasury Solicitor Fees £300

and then on top the administration fees which can range from £150+vat (spiegelutrera) onwards

[Tilamok]

Did your accountant warn you to close the bank account before the striking off application was submitted? Did he ask for bank statements to ensure it was done? If not, perhaps that's a good bargaining tool to use against any fees he would charge for handling the restoration process.[/QUOTE]

No my accountant was useless
She never even spoke to me on the phone, she delegated to her assistant all the time.

[sbakoola]

Given my reply above and now that its deemed 'Bona Vacantia' (exactly the same predicament I was in 8 years ago), I wound up the company and paid off all the related taxes, with alot left over but I must give you more detail.....

The amount that got sent to the treasury solicitors from my business account (8 years ago) was alot more than £5K think 7 times or so.

It happened as I was ill advised by a certain business account bank to keep my business account open even after I dissolved the company (which I told them was the case). Of course unknown to me, Companies House/The Treasury Solicitor then without warning or informing me "struck off" the company (expected) and the company bank account was frozen and assets freezed and seized (this was unexpected but back then this was normal) .. i.e. Bonna Vacantia ('ownerless goods') which gets transferred to the Treaury Solicitors i.e. all the money in my/your bank account.

UK Data Ltd who helped me i.e. they had to pay a solicitor to go to the High Court and the judge ruled (its more of a formaility) that it was ok to re-open the company for a few days so that the treasury solicitor could transfer the money back to the unfrozen company account to help me retrieve my money, I could then extract the money and then re-apply to Companies House to have the limited company closed again.

You cannot believe how greatful and relieved I was. This apparently happens alot. I even liased with a contact at the Treasury Solicitors who was very helpful and informed me of what was going on each step of the way. I phoned many City based solicitors many of which had no clue how to go about dealing with this some quoted me £600 for the whole thing with maybe more for some extras, I'm sure UK Data limited charged me something really low like £150 or £350 for the whole job
, it was worth every penny..

I'm not sure how helpful the Treasury Solicitor would be know given that the country is in debt and they need every penny they can get, also I'm not sure when this £3,000 maximum limit was introduced for Bona Vacantia, seems like a trap to me to get money out of people for their misfortune based on clerical errors and procedural ignorance and lack of information.

Good luck either way....

[Clare@InTouch]

Clare

Many thanks again for the link and very valuable details
Bona Vacantia seems to refund up to £3000 only

It depends on how much getting the company restored by Court Order would cost though - it might be a case of taking the view that £3,000 is better than £5,000 less £2,500 in costs. It's worth getting quotes from various solicitors or accountants to see how much it would cost.

Did your accountant warn you to close the bank account before the striking off application was submitted? Did he ask for bank statements to ensure it was done? If not, perhaps that's a good bargaining tool to use against any fees he would charge for handling the restoration process.

[Tilamok]

Sorry, I missed the voluntary bit in your first post - have a look at the Bona Vacantia procdeures then. The Crown will often make discretionary payments when assets are passed to them in error. You need to jump through a few hoops, but it's easy enough:

FAQs > Companies > Bona Vacantia

Clare

Many thanks again for the link and very valuable details
Bona Vacantia seems to refund up to £3000 only

[Clare@InTouch]

Clare

Many Thanks for your reply
It looks as if RT01 is used where the company is dissolved involuntarily. However I dissolved mine voluntarily.

I dissolved the company with everything paid, all accounts and reports done to the best of my accountant's knowledge

I think I need solicitors because I dissolved it voluntarily

Sorry, I missed the voluntary bit in your first post - have a look at the Bona Vacantia procdeures then. The Crown will often make discretionary payments when assets are passed to them in error. You need to jump through a few hoops, but it's easy enough:

FAQs > Companies > Bona Vacantia

[Tilamok]

Clare

Many Thanks for your reply
It looks as if RT01 is used where the company is dissolved involuntarily. However I dissolved mine voluntarily.

I dissolved the company with everything paid, all accounts and reports done to the best of my accountant's knowledge

I think I need solicitors because I dissolved it voluntarily

[Clare@InTouch]

It's not that complicated anymore, the rules changed when the Companies Act 2006 came into force.

The downside may be if you had outstanding accounts for which a penalty would be due if you restored it - depends on whether you struck it off properly in the first place.

All you need to do is:

4. How do I apply for administrative restoration?

You must send an ‘Application for administrative restoration’ (Form RT01) to the registrar which includes a statement of compliance confirming that the applicant is legally entitled to make the application (see question 1) and that the conditions for restoration are met (see question 2).

The registrar’s fee for processing the application is £100. Please make cheques payable to ‘Companies House’ and write the company number on the reverse.

Guidance - strike off, dissolution and restoration (GP4)

[Tilamok]

This happened to me many years ago, I had alot more than £5K in my bank account.

A company named UKData sorted it out for me, the money in my business account actually went to HMRC Treasury Solicitor. I had to get UKData to re-open the Company for one/two days only so I could have the company bank account 'unfrozen' and have money transferred out to my personal bank account. I remember UK Data made an application to the 'High Court' in London to have the dissolved company re-opened temporarily. The whole process took about 5 weeks from start to finish, really easy cost me about £150, which is not bad considering what I would have lost. I don't know if its the same procedure these days. .. this was like 9 years ago. I think UKData may be still around, ring them and see if they still do it and get a quote.

Thanks
I don't mind losing £150 considering that "companies house" seems to suggest that if the balance is less than £3k then ot's not worth the hassle,
I'll try to contact UKdata

My old accountant is also giving me the impression that it's gonna be costly especially if solicitors are going to be involved

[sbakoola]

This happened to me many years ago, I had alot more than £5K in my bank account.

A company named UKData sorted it out for me, the money in my business account actually went to HMRC Treasury Solicitor. I had to get UKData to re-open the Company for one/two days only so I could have the company bank account 'unfrozen' and have money transferred out to my personal bank account. I remember UK Data made an application to the 'High Court' in London to have the dissolved company re-opened temporarily. The whole process took about 5 weeks from start to finish, really easy cost me about £150, which is not bad considering what I would have lost. I don't know if its the same procedure these days. .. this was like 9 years ago. I think UKData may be still around, ring them and see if they still do it and get a quote.

[Tilamok]

Hi Thanks for the reply

I've been told I need to go to court to get it restored by "companies house"

Do you why I need to get a court order ?

Thanks

[Clare@InTouch]

You need to look into an Administrative Restoration, see Chapter 4 here:

Guidance - strike off, dissolution and restoration (GP4)

An accountant should be able to help you out with the process, but it's really quite simple.