Active - Proposal to Strike off

[macfanuk]

My limited company became insolvent earlier this year and the company ceased trading as of 1st June 2014. I was intending to follow the Spongebob plan but have not yet had chance to file the application with Companies House to strike off the company.

The company has debts of around £18,000 to 4 creditors. I have not filed any accounts since the company was formed 2 years ago, and the first set of accounts were due in August 2014.

On checking companies house today, the companies status is 'Active - Proposal to Strike off' which is presumably due to the fact that I've not filed the accounts.

I am fine with the company being struck off, however, I was just wondering what happens about the companies debts if the company is struck off without the creditors knowing?

 

[StevensOnln1]

If nobody objects the the company will be dissolved so there would no longer be a company to have any debts. In your position I'd just sit tight and wait for the strike off to go through.

 

[Chrismckay]

The debt remain due to the creditor. However, it will be up to the creditor to apply to Court to have the company restored to the register to wind up the company and have a liquidator appointed.

Possible but quite costly.

 

[macfanuk]

Thanks guys.

One of the debts is about £8,000 to Worldpay/Streamline and the other is a similar amount to Amazon. The company also owes about £500 to HSBC (all of which is bank charges) and about £300 to a lease company, so all in all, not huge amounts to any particular creditor.

What is the likelihood that a creditor would apply to have a company restored to go after money that in all likelihood they will never get?

 

[StevensOnln1]

Unless they think the company has significant assets that a liquidator could go after then its extremely unlikely.

 

[nelioneil]

Was there a personal guarantee on whatever you leased? Granted £300 is not much, but is worth bearing in mind.

 

[Paul_Walters]

Write to HSBC for a start. When we ceased we ended up with an overdraft with Natwest which was all charges. I wrote to my business manager and he wrote back to say that it was pointless for them to chase charges, refunded them and closed the account. Very reasonable of them I thought.

 

[macfanuk]

Was there a personal guarantee on whatever you leased? Granted £300 is not much, but is worth bearing in mind.

No, there was no personal guarantee for the lease and the company have already taken the goods back.

Write to HSBC for a start. When we ceased we ended up with an overdraft with Natwest which was all charges. I wrote to my business manager and he wrote back to say that it was pointless for them to chase charges, refunded them and closed the account. Very reasonable of them I thought.

Thanks, I will do this.

On the point of leased goods, I am intrigued. Purely hypothetical because it's not something I had thought of...

Say if I had a lease agreement which included the option to buy the goods at the end for a small admin fee and say there was a personal guarantee in place, if the guarantor could not afford to pay, would the lease company expect the goods to be returned, or would they just chase for the remainder of the balance?