Director information hub: Dissolved companies
A dissolved company is one that has been removed or ‘struck off’ from the Companies House register. Once dissolved the company is no longer able to trade.
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Deciding to dissolve your company
If a company is no longer needed it may, in some circumstances, be appropriate to apply to Companies House for is to be struck off the register and dissolved.
To be eligible, your company must not:
- have traded or sold stock in the last 3 months
- have changed names in the last 3 months
- be threatened with liquidation or other type of insolvency proceedings
- have any agreements with creditors in place
If your company is eligible meets this criteria, then you can start the process of closing it down.
Dissolving your company
Once you have completed the actions required to close your company down, as a director can apply to dissolve it online at Companies House.
In some circumstances, Companies House can dissolve a company for not fulfilling its reporting duties.
More information on strike off and dissolution is available from Companies House.
Action that can be taken after dissolution
It is possible to restore a company to the register after it has been struck off and dissolved. A director may need to do this if they realise there are assets that have not been dealt with.
It is also possible for a creditor to restore a company. They will have to do this if they want to take action to recover their debt.
More information on restoration of dissolved companies is available from Companies House.
Where matters of misconduct are reported it is possible for an investigation to be carried out and for a director of a dissolved company to be disqualified from acting as a director for a period of time.