How to get a dissolved company restored to the register

A customer owes you money, you go to chase it, and the company has gone: struck off the register and dissolved. It can feel like the end of the road. Often it isn't. A dissolved company can be brought back to life, and once it's restored it's treated as if it had never been dissolved.

Here's how restoration works, what it costs, and when it's worth doing. This is a general guide, not legal advice. Fees change, so check the current figures before you apply.

Two ways back

There are two routes. Which one you can use depends on who you are and how the company was struck off.

	Administrative restoration	Restoration by court order
Who can apply	Only a former director or shareholder	Anyone with an interest, including a creditor
When it's used	Companies House struck the company off for not filing	Any strike-off, including a voluntary one, or dissolution after liquidation
Deadline	6 years from dissolution	6 years from dissolution (no limit for personal injury claims)
Decided by	Companies House	The court

If you're a creditor, the court route is yours. Administrative restoration is only open to the company's own former directors and shareholders.

Route 1: administrative restoration

This route is for a company that Companies House struck off, usually because it stopped filing accounts. It only works if the company was still trading when it was struck off.

Check whether any company property went to the Crown. When a company is dissolved, anything it owned, such as money in the bank, passes to the Crown. If it did, you need a waiver letter from the Government Legal Department (form BVC14, £64, usually within 20 working days). If the Crown has already dealt with the company's assets, its costs must be paid first.
Bring the records up to date. Prepare every set of accounts and every confirmation statement that was missing, with their fees.
Pay any late-filing penalties. For a private company these run from £150 to £1,500 a set, doubling if accounts were late two years running.
Send form RT01 with the £341 fee, the outstanding documents, the penalties and the waiver letter to Companies House, Crown Way, Cardiff CF14 3UZ. An incomplete application is rejected.

Restoration takes effect on the day Companies House sends its notice. Specialists suggest allowing two to four weeks once everything is in order.

Route 2: restoration by court order

This is the route for creditors, and for any company that was dissolved voluntarily or after a liquidation.

Get the Crown's consent or waiver if company property passed to the Crown, as above.
Issue a claim on form N208 at the Companies Court in London, Central London County Court or one of the district registries, for example Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle.
Serve Companies House and the Government Legal Department, giving Companies House at least 10 days' notice of the hearing.
Agree terms. Many cases settle by consent without a hearing. The court will usually order you to pay Companies House's costs.
Send the court order to Companies House. The company is restored when the order is delivered.

The court can restore a company if it was trading when struck off, if the rules for a voluntary strike-off weren't followed, or simply if it thinks restoration is just. Allow roughly three to six months.

In Scotland you petition the Court of Session, or the sheriff court for smaller companies. In Northern Ireland you apply to the High Court in Belfast.

What it costs

Item	Cost
Companies House fee (administrative route)	£341
Court fee (court route, England and Wales)	About £326. Check with the court, as fees change.
Companies House's costs (court route)	Usually around £300
Crown waiver letter, if needed	£64, plus the Crown's costs if it dealt with the assets
Late-filing penalties	£150 to £1,500 a set of accounts (private company)
Solicitor, straightforward court case	Typically £1,500 to £3,000 plus VAT

A simple administrative restoration with nothing overdue can cost a few hundred pounds. A creditor's court application with a solicitor is more likely to run to £2,000 to £4,000.

When it's likely to succeed

Restoration tends to go through when:

you apply within six years
you use the right route for how the company was dissolved
the company was still trading when it was struck off, or it was struck off without the proper steps being followed
you have a genuine reason, such as a debt you can prove or a claim to pursue
the paperwork is complete: the Crown's waiver, the overdue filings and the penalties

It tends to fail when the deadline has passed, the wrong form is used, the filings are incomplete, or the Crown's consent is missing.

Is it worth it?

Restoration brings the company back. It doesn't bring money back. Before you spend £2,000 or more, ask what you'd recover:

Did it have money or assets? Anything that passed to the Crown can be recovered once the company is restored. If the Crown sold something, the sale stands and the company gets the proceeds, less the Crown's costs.
Was it insured? For most claims since August 2016, you can claim against a dissolved company's insurer directly, without restoring the company first.
Is there someone to pursue? Restoring a company with nothing in it can simply turn an unpaid debt into a larger one.

Better still: stop it being struck off

Before Companies House strikes a company off, it publishes a notice giving creditors two months to object. An objection is far quicker and cheaper than restoration:

Send evidence of the debt, such as invoices less than six months old showing the company's full name.
A successful objection holds off the strike-off for six months, and longer if you show progress such as starting legal action.
From 1 December 2026, objections must be made online through a Companies House account. Until then, a postal or emailed objection must arrive at least two weeks before the strike-off date.

The catch is timing. You have to spot the notice before the window closes.

Never miss a strike-off notice again

CreditorTrack UK watches the businesses that owe you money and tells you the moment one is proposed for strike-off, with plenty of time to object. It also warns you about overdue accounts, court petitions and insolvency. Your first customer is free.