What is Administrative Dissolution?
Companies that are formed and registered within England and Wales have a record of their existence kept at Companies House.
While this record is in place the company is considered operational and valid. Dissolving a company is the legal act for the removal of a company from the register.
Administrative Dissolution is the process for ensuring all legal requirements are met during the company closure. This means informing all creditors, making sure all paperwork is done, and dealing with objections and problems. Once a company is struck off from the register then it is noted as Dissolved.
What does this mean for Directors?
When a company enters dissolution it has reached a point where it’s debts have been paid in full or informally negotiated to the satisfaction of the creditors.
If the dissolution has been carried out correctly then there are no lasting effects on a director.
At the final point of dissolution the companies assets (if there are any) are absorbed by the crown.
What are the benefits of Dissolution?
- Immediate steps can be taken to start closing your company.
- There is no formal meeting of creditors.
- It’s possible to clear thousands of pounds of bad business debt.
- Not as intrusive as formal liquidation procedures.
- You retain final control of the process.
- It’s far less expensive than liquidation.
What are the problems?
In our years of dealing with company closures we have come across many things that can disrupt or halt strike off proceedings, we’ve come to understand that each case brings its own problems; some examples we’ve dealt with include:
- Unhappy creditors/HMRC
- Objections lodged at Companies House will stop a dissolution.
- Accusation of wrongful trading can have implications for directors.
- Employment tribunals can arise should previous employees be unhappy at their dismissal.
- Not correctly filing returns can lead to objections from government bodies.
- Creditor forcing compulsory liquidation.
What we can do for you
The main benefits of using us to help you with your company closure are:
- You save time, all the work is done by us at our offices by expert case managers that are able to handle all the mailing, calling, and 3rd party relations.
- We’ll prepare a comprehensive set of reports for any creditors and related parties. Doing this means one very important thing, it overcomes the likelihood of the company being brought back and ensures that once the company is closed, it stays shut.
- You get the chance to purchase assets from your company, a liquidation would claim all assets which then sold off, but a Strike Off does not demand this.
- We can arrange independent valuation for assets, doing so ensures that the company directors are not seen as fraudulently operating the company / asset stripping.
- Our service also gives protection against S.216 IA ’86 re-use of company name provisions.
- You don’t need to hold a meeting of creditors, another requirement demanded by a liquidation.
- We deal with HMRC and Companies House on your behalf, our case managers have a wealth of experience and know how to operate correctly with the relevant departments of government.
- From the moment you allow us to take on your closure, we start acting for you and we begin immediate action.
Why use us to help dissolve your company?
Without the dissolution procedure being followed correctly directors may become personally liable for the indebtedness of the company and you may face a fine and possible prosecution.
The Insolvency Service now has the powers to investigate directors of companies that have been dissolved ‘on the cheap’ or where they suspect directors have misled creditors in someway.
We act in accordance with all the statutory requirements to make sure that everything is covered and there is no risk to the director including liaising with all creditors and working with banks and HMRC to clear debts in the correct way.
We have over 60 years of combined experience and have helped hundreds of company directors navigate the dissolution process, making sure everything was done the right way so there were no repercussions later on.
Our five-step process to closing your limited company
We have been helping directors to dissolve limited companies of all sizes and with many different problems since 2009. Over this time we have a developed a streamlined process to ensure that everything is done the right way to close your company, even if it has debts.
You can contact us via email, phone, or video and we will keep you updated as your case progresses at all times.
Our process is as follows:
1. Get in touch with us
After doing your research all you need to do is get in touch with us. You can do this in a few ways, you can call us on 0800 975 0380, email us on [email protected], or submit a company closure quote request. Which ever is best for you.
2. Do all the necessary due diligence
Once you have contacted us we’ll explain the options and send you our company information questionnaire to complete, this will enable us to give you a guaranteed fixed price quote to close your company. Once you’ve chosen to go ahead you’ll need to sign our digital agreement, make a payment, and send us some identification to meet anti-money laundering requirements and prevent fraud.
3. Change of registered company address
The first thing we’ll do once we’ve received everything we need from you is change your company’s registered office address to ours. This means that all the post from creditors will come to us so that we can deal with it for you.
4. We’ll file the paper work
Once the registered office has been changed we’ll create a Statement Of Affairs, this is a summary of your company’s financial situation which is sent to creditors. We’ll then write to all the people your company owes money to, including HMRC, to notify them the company is closing, outlining the reasons why using the Statement Of Affairs. If anyone, including bailiffs, contacts you in the meantime we’ll be available to deal with it.
5. Company closure
We’ll submit the application to close your company (DS01) at the right time during the process and deal with any creditor objections or enquiries that come up afterwards, this will ensure they are removed as quickly as possible to allow the company to be dissolved and removed from the Companies House register. Once they have all been removed your company will be dissolved by Companies House.
How to get started
Does your company qualify for dissolution?
Can your company be dissolved? Find out using our free online dissolution test →
Get a free quote to close your company
If you know closing is the right course of action you can get a free quote →
Complete Our Company Closure Questionnaire
Get a better understanding of what options are available to you and how we can help by completing our Company Closure Questionnaire →
Call us for free advice
If you aren’t sure what to do you can call us on 0800 975 0380 for some free and confidential advice
