Company dissolved or struck off owing you money: restoring it, objecting to a strike-off, when the director is personally liable, and how to find them

What dissolution does to your debt

When a company is struck off the register and dissolved it ceases to exist as a legal person. It cannot be sued, it cannot pay, and anything it still owned passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. The debt does not vanish in the moral sense, but there is nobody to enforce it against unless the company is brought back. The directors are not the company. Unless one of the exceptions below applies, they do not inherit its debts, which is the whole point of limited liability and the reason some directors let a company die rather than wind it up properly.

Check the register entry carefully. "Active, proposal to strike off" means a notice has been published and there is still time to act. "Dissolved" with a date means it has happened, and the clock for restoration is running.

Objecting to a strike-off

A company that applies to be struck off voluntarily must tell its creditors, and a notice appears in the Gazette. Any creditor can object to Companies House while the notice period runs, by sending evidence of the debt, such as the invoice and correspondence. A valid objection suspends the strike-off, which keeps the company in existence long enough for you to issue a claim or a statutory demand against it. If the directors have applied while owing you money without telling you, say so: it is a breach of the rules on voluntary strike-off and the Registrar takes it seriously.

Restoring a dissolved company

A creditor can apply to the court to restore a dissolved company, generally within six years of the dissolution, so that it can be sued or wound up. The company comes back as if it had never been dissolved, and any assets that passed to the Crown can be recovered. The application has a court fee, the Registrar's costs and usually solicitor's costs, so it is a route for a debt that justifies them, or for a creditor who knows the company still held something worth having, such as a claim of its own or an insurance policy. Administrative restoration through Companies House without a court application is only available to former directors and members, not to creditors.

When the director is personally liable

The rule is that a director is not liable for the company's debts. The exceptions are real but narrow, and each needs evidence:

If one of these applies, your claim is against a person, and a person has to be served at their home.

Why the register will not give you the address

Every director has two addresses on file at Companies House. The service address is public and is where official correspondence goes; it is often the company's own registered office, an accountant, or a formation agent. The usual residential address is protected and is not shown on the public register. Once the company is dissolved, letters to the service address go to an accountant who no longer acts or to an office that has closed. For a claim against the director personally you need their current home address, and the register will not supply it. Finding a company director's home address explains the position in full.

Finding the director

You have more than you think. The register gives the director's full name, month and year of birth, the service address, every other company they have been involved with and the addresses those used. Your own file gives the rest: the email, the phone, the trading address, perhaps where they live from conversation. The minimum for a trace is the full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address, and the company's trading address or a former service address counts as a previous address.

Trace Bureau cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a private investigator verifies the result before it is released. You receive a dated PDF report with the director's current registered UK address and a confidence rating: Confirmed, Probable or Possible. A claim under a personal guarantee or against a director personally is a legitimate interest under UK GDPR; we record the purpose against the instruction and refuse anything that reads as a grievance rather than a claim. The director is not told who instructed the trace. Standard is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days, and Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. Nothing is paid at instruction. Your card is only held, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified the address. Not found, no fee. If you also want to know whether the director owns the property, a property ownership check from HM Land Registry can be added at £30, charged only with a find.

Deciding whether it is worth it

Be clear-eyed. Restoring a company that owned nothing recovers nothing. Suing a director without a guarantee, a personal contract or a phoenix situation fails. A trace tells you where the director is and, with the ownership extra, whether they hold property, which is often what decides whether a claim is worth the court fee. If the sum is large or the facts suggest fraud, our sister service Investigation Bureau can look at the director's assets and conduct before you commit to a claim.

When to instruct a trace

When you have a route to the director personally and the register has run out of addresses. Instruct a trace online in about five minutes, or see the page for tracing a debtor.