First Published February 2023. Last Updated September 2026.
Has your business been recently closed down, seemingly for good? If so, it’s not uncommon for directors to consider what to do next. When asking questions about the future, you might wonder ‘can you revive a dissolved company’ and wind back the clock to pick up where you left off?
Well, while it is possible to revive a dissolved company, there are a handful of restrictions and requirements in place that could make the process somewhat difficult.
Find out more on if you can revive a dissolved company, how it can be achieved, the protocol behind using the name of a dissolved business, and more in the latest blog from Steven Wiseglass.
What Does it Mean When a Company is Dissolved in the UK?
Dissolving a business in the UK involves the formal process of closing it down. This is done by ‘striking the company off’ the register at Companies House. Dissolving a business can be done either voluntarily or involuntarily. It is generally seen as the most straightforward way to close a business down.
Solvent liquidation is when a company makes the conscious decision to wind down. This is often a result of the director(s) wishing to retire, move on to another venture, or no longer seeing the merit in keeping the business going. Conversely, insolvent liquidation will only occur if your business is no longer able to continue due to outside pressures, often involving financial commitments/debts. In an insolvent liquidation, a liquidator sells the company’s assets to repay creditors, and the company is dissolved and removed from the register once that process is complete.
Can I Reopen a Dissolved Company?
You can reopen a dissolved company. If your business was dissolved through non-compliance, you have the option to reopen it using a method known as administrative restoration. However, if your business was struck off by voluntary dissolution, it may only be restored by court order.
Administrative restoration can only take effect if all of the following are applicable to your case:
- You were a director or shareholder of the company.
- It was struck off the register and dissolved by the Registrar of Companies within the last six years.
- It was trading at the time it was dissolved.
If any one of the above conditions did not apply to you, you will likely need to instead apply to the courts.
How to Reinstate a Dissolved Company?
How to reinstate a dissolved company depends on how it was dissolved in the first place. If the business was dissolved through non-compliance, you are able to reinstate it via administrative restoration. However, if it was shuttered voluntarily, you can only apply for restoration via a court order.
The process of reinstating your dissolved company by the methods outlined above will include:
Administrative Restoration
You are only able to apply to restore your dissolved company within six years of the date of dissolution.
The actual process to restore your company involves a huge number of moving parts, forms, and steps that must all be completed with accuracy and speed. This includes sending the following to Companies House:
- A completed administrative restoration application form (Form RT01).
- A cheque for £341, payable to Companies House.
- Any outstanding documents, such as company accounts and confirmation statements.
- Any filing fees or penalty payments.
- A waiver letter from Bona Vacantia, if the company had assets.
The waiver letter is the Crown representative’s written consent, and is only needed where the company had assets. You apply for it separately using form BVC14, at a cost of £64. Payment must be made by BACS or CHAPS, as cheques are no longer accepted. Bona Vacantia aims to process applications within 20 working days.
If your application is accepted, you can expect your business to be restored as soon as you receive the confirmation letter from your registrar. If it is refused, it may be possible to apply for a court order to have the business restored, or get a discretionary grant. Either way, it is recommended that you contact a specialist at this stage to assess your options going forward.
If the registrar does opt to restore the business, it will be fully and immediately restored. This means that, effectively, its previous closure did not officially happen. Your business is seen to have carried on as if it had never been dissolved or struck off the Register.
Once the process of restoring your business is complete, you may also be able to apply for a discretionary grant. This is designed to help shareholders reclaim their money.
Restoration by the Courts
You may be able to apply for a court order to restore a company if you did business with it, worked for it, were owed money when it was dissolved, are responsible for its employee pension fund, have a shared or competing interest in land, or were a shareholder or director when it was dissolved. A court order is a method you can use to restore a company with the explicit purpose of extracting financial assets that you feel you are owed.
Court restoration requires form N208, a witness statement, and a court fee of £326 payable to HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The completed form goes to the county court that deals with bankruptcy nearest to the company’s registered office. Once the application is received, the court will issue the claim — which must be served to the Registrar of Companies, and a Treasury Solicitor before a Bona Vacantia waiver letter is, once again, required.
Should the courts deem your application to be acceptable, they will make an order to be served to the Registrar of Companies. Once received, the business will be officially restored.
Court restoration is only a temporary process. It is used mostly to restore the business for a short period of time, allowing creditors to recover their assets or pursue claims.
Restoration alone does not recover the money. Once the company is back on the register, a creditor still needs to obtain judgment for the amount owed, or issue a statutory demand and, if that goes unpaid, petition to wind the company up.
Restoration can also have tax consequences for former directors. Where a loan account was treated as written off during the liquidation and taxed on the director personally, restoring the company puts the balance back within reach of a liquidator, and there is no relief against the tax already paid.
Can You Use The Name of a Dissolved Company?
You are able to use the name of any dissolved business and apply it to your new company. However, restrictions are in place to prevent directors of recently liquidated companies registering new businesses under their old firm’s name. This is to stop these directors from continuing where they left off, thereby cheating the phoenix company system.
Those restrictions come from section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986. They apply personally to anyone who was a director or shadow director at any time in the 12 months before the company went into insolvent liquidation, and they last for five years from the date of liquidation.
During those five years you cannot be a director of, or take part in the promotion, formation or management of, a company or business using a prohibited name. A prohibited name is any name the company was registered under, or known by, in the 12 months before liquidation, including trading names, and any name similar enough to suggest an association.
Breaching section 216 is a criminal offence carrying a fine, imprisonment, or both. Under section 217 you can also be made personally liable for debts the new company runs up while you are involved in managing it in breach of section 216. That personal liability extends to anyone involved in managing the company who acts on instructions from a person they know is breaching section 216.
There are three exceptions to the restriction:
- The whole, or substantially the whole, of the business is acquired from a liquidator or other office holder, and the required notice is published in the Gazette and sent to creditors.
- The court grants permission, which must be applied for within seven business days of liquidation if you want to keep using the name while the application is decided.
- An established company has already traded under the name continuously for the whole of the 12 months before liquidation.
The third exception was tested in 2026. In English v Secretary of State for Business and Trade [2026] EWHC 1711 (Admin), a director had traded as a sole trader under a similar name since 1997, before the company was incorporated and later liquidated. He argued the exception should cover his established unincorporated business. The High Court disagreed, confirming that the exception applies only where the earlier business was an incorporated company. Prior use of the name by a sole trader does not qualify, however long-standing.
Where the exceptions do not apply, the route left is an application to court for permission, which the former director can make at any point in the five years.
If none of this applies to you, there are no official restrictions in place with regards to utilising the name of a dissolved company. However, you should consider the reputation of the old business prior to its liquidation.
For more information about the practice of phoenixing a company, including the restrictions in place when doing so, view our dedicated article.
How Inquesta’s Team Can Support You in Liquidation
If you’re a business owner of a dissolved company and are considering what steps to take next, it is recommended that you contact a licensed insolvency practitioner at the earliest opportunity.
Thanks to decades spent honing our skills in the industry, our team is perfectly placed to provide an all-encompassing, high-quality insolvency service. We understand the difficulty and stress that comes with the liquidation of your company — this is why we always offer the most balanced support possible, while always protecting your best interests.
We have a history of assisting businesses and directors of all walks of life. Regardless of your past, your speciality, or your net worth, we are on hand to help you.
Whatever your current circumstances, our liquidation service is designed to support you through a difficult and emotionally charged time in your life. Our support can include the following:
Get in touch with a member of our team today for more information on the services we have listed above, or for additional details about what we can do for you.