Defunct Companies

A company may be dissolved under s.338 without winding up if the registrar has reasonable cause to believe it is defunct: The procedure is:

a. Registrar writes to company asking if it is still in operation

b. If no reply within one month, the registrar sends registered letter within next 14 days warning that company will be struck off if no reply within one month

c. If no reply, notice to company and in Gazette that company will be struck off after three months unless causeshown

d. Company struck off the notice to effect in Gazette: dissolution from date of notice

e. To protect members and creditors, the liability of every office and member continues as if the company had not been dissolved, and the court can wind up the company notwithstanding that it has been struck off: moreover on the application of any member, creditor or of the company, the court may within ten years order restoration to the register whereupon the company is deemed to have continued in existence as if its name had never been struck off.