A company that owes you money can apply to have itself struck off the register, and if nobody objects it is dissolved and the debt becomes considerably harder to recover. You have two months from the notice in the Gazette to object, and from 1 December 2026 Companies House will no longer accept objections by email, so objections will need to go through its online service. If you are owed money by a company you have stopped hearing from, this is the mechanism to understand.
There are three routes, though two of them account for almost everything. Under section 1003 of the Companies Act 2006 a company may apply to be struck off, the application being made on its behalf by its directors or a majority of them. Under section 1000 the registrar can strike off a company that appears not to be carrying on business, which usually follows a failure to file accounts or a confirmation statement. Since 18 March 2025 the registrar has also had a power under section 1002A to remove a company registered on a false basis, which matters here because it carries a shorter objection period.
In each case the registrar publishes a notice in the Gazette first, inviting cause to be shown why the company should not be struck off, and the company may not be struck off until the period stated in that notice has run. When the striking off is itself published in the Gazette, the company is dissolved.
Dissolution is what matters to a creditor. Under section 1012 of the same Act, the company's property and rights, other than anything it held on trust for someone else, become bona vacantia and pass to the Crown. The company no longer exists to be sued, a judgment cannot be enforced against it, and recovering anything means applying to court to restore it first. The debt becomes uneconomic to chase, which is why the route is attractive to a director who would rather not deal with you.
Yes. Where the application is made under section 1003, section 1006 requires the applicant to secure that a copy of it is given, within seven days of the day it is made, to every person who was on that day a member, an employee, a creditor, a director unless he is a party to the application, or a manager or trustee of an employee pension fund. A creditor is expressly on the list, and Companies House guidance reads creditors as including banks, suppliers, landlords, tenants, guarantors, personal injury claimants and former employees who are owed money, with government departments such as HM Revenue and Customs to be told separately where there are outstanding or potential liabilities.
Failing to do it is a criminal offence. Doing it with the intention of concealing the application from the person concerned is an aggravated offence, and section 1006(7) carries a maximum of seven years' imprisonment on conviction on indictment. That is not a provision that gets used often, but it is a useful thing to know when a director tells you they assumed you would see the Gazette.
The notice does not always arrive, though, and a creditor who waits to be told is relying on the good faith of the person trying to dissolve the company. If a debtor has gone quiet, look the company up on the register: a pending strike off shows on its filing history.
For the ordinary cases, an application under section 1003 or a registrar's striking off under sections 1000 and 1001, the period is two months from the date of the Gazette notice. There is a shorter period of 28 days where the registrar is striking a company off under section 1002A, the power in force since 18 March 2025 to remove a company registered on a false basis. Companies House guidance tells objectors the deadline will be either two months or 28 days from the date in the notice without explaining which applies when, so it is worth reading the notice itself rather than assuming.
An objection has to be evidenced. Companies House requires supporting documents that clearly show the company's full name including the correct ending, that support the reason for objecting, that are less than six months old and that are under 4MB, in image, Word, Excel or PDF format. In practice that means recent invoices, a statement of account, correspondence acknowledging the debt, or a judgment. An unevidenced assertion that you are owed money will not hold the process up.
An objection also has to arrive before the company is struck off. Under the current arrangements, an objection sent by email or post has to reach Companies House at least two weeks before the strike off date, which is a trap for anyone who leaves it to the last fortnight.
Companies House announced on 1 September 2026 that objections must be submitted through its online service from 1 December 2026, and that it will no longer accept objections by email after that date. The online route requires a Companies House account, the company name and number, and the supporting documents uploaded in digital form. Companies House puts the process at around five minutes.
The change is administrative and does not alter the statutory periods. It does mean that a business which discovers late in the window that its debtor is being dissolved needs a Companies House account before it can do anything. If you are regularly owed money on credit terms, create the account now and put the login somewhere your finance team can find it.
If Companies House accepts the objection, its published practice is that the company will not be struck off for a further six months, and that the objector must come back before that period expires, either to confirm the matter is resolved or to ask for more time with evidence of progress towards resolving it. If you do not, and the company still meets the conditions, it will be struck off.
That six month figure is Companies House practice rather than anything in the Act, so diarise it and treat it as a window rather than a result. It is enough time to negotiate payment, instruct a solicitor to issue a claim or obtain judgment, and a creditor who objects and then does nothing is back where they started.
There is a second route where the sum justifies it. Under section 1005 an application to strike off may not be made while a petition for the winding up of the company has been presented and not finally dealt with or withdrawn, and under section 1009 a director must secure that a pending application is withdrawn if such a petition is presented. A petition therefore stops the strike off independently of any objection. It is expensive, it is not right for every debt, and because it is court work it means instructing a litigation firm, but for a substantial debt against a company with assets it brings matters to a head.
Then the route is restoration by the court under section 1029, and a person who was a creditor of the company at the time of its striking off or dissolution is expressly entitled to apply. The general time limit is six years from dissolution under section 1030(4), with no time limit where the purpose is a personal injury claim.
The cheaper administrative restoration route is not available to a creditor. It applies only where the registrar struck the company off under sections 1000, 1001 or 1002A, not where the company applied under section 1003, and in any event only a former director or former member may use it. A creditor faced with a dissolved debtor is going to court, with the costs and delay that implies. Objecting is a form upload. Restoration is litigation.
Yes. Companies House guidance confirms that a creditor is an interested party who may object, and that a debt owed to you is a reason to object, provided you have evidence such as invoices showing the money is due.
Two months from the date of the Gazette notice in the ordinary case, or 28 days where the company is being struck off under section 1002A for being registered on a false basis. The notice itself states the date.
Documents that clearly show the company's full name, support your reason for objecting, are less than six months old and are under 4MB. Invoices, statements of account or a judgment are the usual items.
No. Companies House practice is that a successful objection suspends the striking off for six months, after which you must confirm the matter is resolved or ask for more time with evidence of progress, or the company will be struck off.
Only by applying to court to restore the company to the register under section 1029, which a former creditor may do, generally within six years of dissolution. It is slower and more expensive than objecting in time.
Lawyerly's commercial solicitors handle business debt recovery at the pre-action stage, from reviewing the debt through the letter before action to negotiating repayment terms, on a fixed monthly subscription or a fixed fee. Court proceedings and enforcement are referred out. If a debtor of yours has a strike off notice against it, book a complimentary consultation before the two months run.
This article is general information about the law in England and Wales and is not legal advice. It reflects the position on 18 September 2026. To discuss how it applies to a debt owed to your business, speak to a Lawyerly solicitor.