Legal Advice for Company Restoration by Court Order

Creditors, officers or shareholders in a company may wish to restore a company – usually to re-obtain access to assets.

All companies are registered with the Register of Companies, normally referred to as “Companies House”. Companies can be removed from the Register in three circumstances:

• By Companies House – because statutory documents are not filed (often because their filing is accidentally overlooked). Restoration is possible in these circumstances
• By the Directors – because they thought they no longer needed the company. Restoration is possible in these circumstances
• By a liquidator on the insolvency of the Company. Our internet sold restoration would be inapplicable – please Contact Us to discuss such circumstances.

Any assets a company possessed when it was removed from the Register become the property of either the Duke of Lancaster (for companies whose registered office was in historic Lancashire; this includes some parts of what are now Greater Manchester and Cheshire); the Duke of Cornwall (for companies whose registered office was in Cornwall) or the Crown (in all other cases).

The usual reason for wishing to restore a company is to re-obtain access to assets, e.g. ‘stranded bank’ balances, property or insurance policies. A company that has been restored by Companies House can trade on, but it is not normally possible for a Court restored company to carry on trading in the long term.

Please Contact Us for more details of a special procedure which is available for the recovery of bank balances of less than £3000 for which the internet restoration product may be more costly than is necessary.

If the restoration occurs as a result of a removal by Companies House, then the procedure involves an application to Companies House. Other restorations require an application to the Court. Overall the processes are quite similar. In either instance both Companies House, and the relevant Crown or Duchy will charge fees, and Companies House will also require any filings that are overdue to be brought up to date, and any penalties that were incurred to be paid in full. Where Court proceedings are involved, there will also be Court fees. See below for further details.

Mounteney Solicitors have restored many companies; our Restoration service (that can be bought on the internet) is intended to be an economical method of restoring a company.

It usually takes around 60 days to have a dissolved company restored in the absence of unusual circumstances. This can be reduced in cases requiring extra speed for a small charge.

We will:

• Take your instructions
• Contact Companies house and make arrangements including late filings and application as necessary
• As necessary, liaise with solicitors for Crown or Duchy
• As necessary, prepare and issue Court proceedings and evidence
• Once restored, liaise with banks etc as necessary
• For Court restoration, provide Court and Companies House notices once the purpose of the restoration is completed, to have the company re-removed afterwards
• Offer a guidance service

Your supplier is SRA-regulated Mounteney Solicitors, that charges VAT some customers may be able to reclaim

Our work will be charged at a fixed fee of £1080 + VAT = £1200.

In addition to our fees, the following out of pocket costs also typically arise (not all of these costs will arise on every occasion and occasionally what is charged may vary):

• Filing fees – these vary, often a few tens of pounds
• Late Filing Penalties – these vary, often a few hundred pounds
• Direct Restoration
• Companies House fee – £100
• Court Restoration
• Companies House Legal Costs – £250
• Crown or Duchy Legal Costs – £125-£300
• Court Fee – £160

We will require you to pay us these costs before we incur any out of pocket costs for you.

There is more about our fees on our website here

If you have any questions or require any further information, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us.