Restore Ltd company to recover assets.

[Just curious]

Hi,
A solvent company has very recently been voluntarily dissolved due to Director retirement, however Director loan assets have been left in the bank account, which can no longer be accesed.
The Director loan is detailed in the final accounts.
In addition HMRC have made a repayment which as far as I am aware, can be processed through the company bank account once access is restored. This repayment was received after the date of dissolvment.

I understand that the company will need to be restored to gain access to the assets, but am unsure of which process can be used for voluntary dissolved companies. Can an application indeed be made to Companies House, or can this only be performed by applying to Court for a Court order?

If using N208 to apply to court, who is the defendant, the Companies Registrar, or the original company and Director. Appologies if this is a basic question, however I can't find reference information.

My belief is this should be a straightforward legal issue, which can be readily claimed by an individual, or is it a legal minefield something that only a Solicitor should persue?

[atticus]

You need an order of the court restoring the company to the register. The process takes a few months, and can be found following the link below. But take care to jump through the hoops correctly.

https://www.gov.uk/restore-dissolved-company

[Just curious]

Thanks,
I already had read the guidence for form N208 and had assumed the "Company" was the defendant,
though a previous example form on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/company-restoration-guide shows a sample form which has Companies House shown as the Defendant (see link below), which confused me.

https://assets.publishing.service.go...Claim_Form.pdf

[atticus]

It should be the Registrar of Companies.

You cannot bring a claim against a company that no longer exists!

See also pages 12 onwards of this: https://assets.publishing.service.go...3_5-ver0.1.pdf.

The Treasury Solicitor used to have a really good guide, with examples of completed forms, but I cannot presently find it - links are broken.

[atticus]

See the Appendices: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/company-...ide#appendices

Important: make sure you follow the Companies Court Practice Note (Appendix D)

[Just curious]

Thanks for your help, the assets, publishing guide has the information I was after.

[R0b]

In case you are unaware, you will also have to pay the treasury solicitor costs as part of the restoring of the company, which you should be able to recover via the company's assets assuming the funds are available - normally in the region of £500 give or take.

Also, since the company is being restored, technically the then-director could funnel those funds somewhere else so there is a risk of doing this all for nothing. I don't know if it's possible but if you know the bank account details, you may want to ask the court as part of your application to restoring the company, request a freezing order for that account. It means that those assets cannot be moved or used without an order of the court.

[Just curious]

I am aware of the Treasury Solicitor costs will need to be covered.

The purpose of the restoration is to recover the assets, so no need to block the bank account.

Thanks for your input.

[dslippy]

"The purpose of the restoration is to recover the assets, so no need to block the bank account."
Not sure I follow that

[atticus]

The money will be held by the Crown, so following restoration you will need to arrange for the money to be paid to a suitable account. The Treasury Solicitor can be quite picky at that stage to make sure that the money is going to an appropriate place.

[Just curious]

The money will be held by the Crown, so following restoration you will need to arrange for the money to be paid to a suitable account. The Treasury Solicitor can be quite picky at that stage to make sure that the money is going to an appropriate place.

At present the funds are still in the business bank account, but cannot be transferred.

My assumption is that if the Company is restored the bank account would be released and the signatory could transfer funds accordingly, given any agreements with Treasury Solicitors.
The mechanism isn't particularly important as long as the Directors Loan funds can be recovered to their depositor.

[atticus]

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/company-...ation-guide#10 - see section 10