What is the Legal position if a Company is struck off or dissolved?

When a company is struck off or dissolved, all of its bank accounts, property and assets are forfeit to the Crown, or to the Duchies of Lancaster or Cornwall.

In legal terms, the assets become "bona vacantia". Often the first that the company hears of this is when it is bank calls with the news that its accounts have been frozen.

The only way a struck off company can continue to deal legally with its accounts, property and assets is to apply for a Court Order restoring the company with the consent of the Treasury Solicitor and the Registrar of Companies.

It is not possible to circumvent this by incorporating another company with the same name and indeed to do so may be a criminal offence and is certainly not advisable.

Until the company is restored by court order, it remains unable to deal with its assets.

The company must be restored in order to give good title any property it wishes to sell, to pursue a legal claim, to obtain the benefit of any bank balances, to collect its debts, to pursue tax or VAT reclaims, to administer pension assets or insurance policies or to carry on business in any other way.