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Restoration meaning

What does Restoration mean?
Restoration describes returning a dissolved or struck off company to the official register (Companies House in the UK; the Companies Registration Office in Ireland) so it again has legal capacity to trade, hold assets and litigate. It is a statutory process under the Companies Act 2006 (England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) and the Companies Act 2014 (Ireland). There are two routes: administrative restoration by the registrar and restoration by court order. Administrative restoration is generally available where the company was struck off by the registrar (not voluntarily), the application is made within the statutory window (UK: within six years of dissolution; Ireland: within 12 months), all overdue filings, fees and penalties are delivered, and any required consents regarding bona vacantia property or tax are obtained. Restoration by court order is available to persons with standing (such as former directors, members or creditors) where the administrative route is unavailable or unsuitable, including after voluntary striking off or to enable/defend claims or recover assets. On restoration, the company is usually deemed to have continued in existence as if it had not been struck off, subject to court directions; property previously vested as bona vacantia may re-vest. Practice and terminology are broadly consistent...
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View the related Checklists about Restoration

CHECKLISTS
Voluntary striking off and dissolution of UK companies: Companies Act 2006 practitioner checklist (DS01, stakeholder notifications, Gazette notices and objections)

This checklist outlines the matters to be reviewed and the actions to take in order to voluntarily strike off and dissolve a company in the proper manner. Step Notes/Resources Tick box when the step is completed or the matter considered Preparing for voluntary strike off and preliminary checks Confirm that the company has not, at any time in the last three months: altered its name traded or otherwise conducted business of any kind disposed of property for consideration where the asset was held with the aim of disposing for gain in the ordinary course of business undertaken any other activity at all This does not apply if the activities above were carried out solely to make the strike off application, to conclude the company’s affairs, or to comply with a statutory obligation (for example, filing the company’s accounts or a confirmation statement), and nothing further. If the company has undertaken anything outside these exceptions, it cannot apply...

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CHECKLISTS
Administrative Restoration of Dissolved Companies (UK): A Companies Act 2006 Practitioner’s Checklist

This checklist sets out the points to review and the actions to take to restore a dissolved company to the register using the administrative restoration procedure. For each matter or step, include the relevant Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) section or other citation, and mark when the item has been completed or considered. Preparing for administrative restoration and preliminary checks Confirm that the administrative restoration process is available. It may only be used where the Registrar of Companies has struck the company off the register. It does not apply where the company sought its own voluntary strike off under CA 2006, s 1003. CA 2006, ss 1000–1003; The Registrar’s powers to strike off a company. Ensure that the application for administrative restoration will be made by a former director or former shareholder of the company. CA 2006, s 1024(3). Check that the company met the first condition for applying to be returned to the register: in the case of a company removed under CA...

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View the related Flowcharts about Restoration

FLOWCHARTS
Administrative restoration to the register—procedural flowchart for registrar strike-off cases (Companies Act 2006)

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FLOWCHARTS
Restoring a dissolved company by court order: practitioner flowchart

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FLOWCHARTS
Voluntary striking off a company – procedural flowchart covering filings, notices and time limits

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View the related News about Restoration

NEWS
Fraudulent trading and misfeasance: director hid accounts, destroyed records; absence of records led to £2.5m restoration; s127 IA 1986 claim admitted (England and Wales)

Thiel-Czerwinke and another (joint liquidators of Courtside Recycling Ltd) v Crabb [2024] EWHC 337 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling underlines the uncompromising obligation on directors to maintain trading records, and accepts that discarding or failing to retain them was, on these facts, a constituent part of the director’s fraudulent design. It also clarifies that once office-holders demonstrate that company assets or cash were transferred to a director, the absence of documents showing that the funds or property were applied for the company’s advantage renders the director liable to repay the whole amount to the company. That outcome applies even though the judge did not doubt that Mr Crabb did in fact use some of the cash when making payments for Courtside... What was the background? Mr Crabb served as the Company’s sole director; the business dealt in scrap metal. For the trading periods from August 2014 to February 2018, the Company submitted VAT returns declaring sales, net of VAT, totalling...

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NEWS
UK corporate law weekly update: ECCTA reforms for LLPs, FCA NSM changes, NSIA review and case, EU board gender targets, High Court rulings and deadlines—9 January 2025

In this issue: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 Equity capital markets Private M&A (share purchase) Corporate governance—EU Members Company restoration Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information New Q&As Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 SI 2024/1377: These Regulations update LLP company law to reflect recent changes under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and expand the scenarios in which a person’s residential address can be withheld from the company register, covering former registered office addresses, while maintaining corporate openness and aligning LLP provisions. They commence on 27 January 2025. See: LNB News 07/11/2024 27. Equity capital markets The Financial Conduct Authority has released Policy Statement PS24/19: Enhancing the National Storage Mechanism, setting out the feedback to Consultation Paper CP24/17, its longer-term vision for the NSM, and...

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NEWS
Ireland: Companies Act 2024—Audit exemption lost only after two late annual returns in five years (from 16 July 2025)

Under Irish legislation, each company is required to have its financial statements examined by a statutory auditor, except where it qualifies for, and uses, an exemption. Until recently, per section 363 of the Companies Act 2014 (Ireland) (CA 2014 (IRL)), a company that did not submit its annual return within 56 days of its annual return date forfeited the ability to rely on this exemption for the subsequent two years, effectively as a sanction for late filing...

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View the related Practice Notes about Restoration

PRACTICE NOTES
Parties in civil litigation: procedural status, capacity, authority and special categories (England and Wales)

This Practice Note This Practice Note offers a summary of the categories of parties that may take part in litigation in England and Wales, whether as claimants or defendants, together with the principal procedural matters and practical points their legal advisers should consider. It outlines who may sue or be sued and the implications for case management and strategy. Corporations Partnerships Sole traders Unincorporated associations Children Insolvent individuals or companies Groups The estate of a deceased party Litigants in person It is crucial that party status aligns with the issues to be determined. In Haque (representative/member of Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan unincorporated association) v Hussain, the defendants were sued as trustees but advanced a defence which the court held could be pursued only in their capacity as members of an unincorporated association, not as trustees. At [27], the judge noted that, in principle, the active defendants should have recognised this within stage one of the...

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PRACTICE NOTES
EU electricity grids—connection, access and operation: regulatory framework, network codes, tariffs, HVDC, emergency/restoration and balancing/capacity mechanisms

Structure of the EU electricity system EU rules on electricity govern two core spheres: the physical set-up for generation, movement and consumption of power (often termed the electricity network or grid), and the organisation of electricity markets (i.e. the flow of money). Electricity moves through the EU grid in broad stages: Generation—the creation of electricity using, for instance, fossil fuels, solar, wind, nuclear or geothermal sources Transport—the conveyance of electricity across the network, typically divided into: Transmission—long-distance transfer on the extra high-voltage and high-voltage interconnected system, with delivery to final customers or to distributors in view Distribution—movement from transmission networks and distribution to consumers. Electricity from smaller renewable installations, such as solar and wind, is generally injected into the distribution networks Supply—the sale (including resale) of electricity to wholesale customers (who purchase for onward sale) and to final customers (who purchase for their own use) As a straightforward analogy,...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Administrative restoration of companies struck off by the Registrar: eligibility, conditions, bona vacantia consent and RT01 process under the Companies Act 2006

This brief note outlines the actions required to return a company to the register by using the administrative restoration route after it has been removed at the behest of the Registrar of Companies under the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). For a full analysis of the legislation, case law and process on administrative restoration, see Practice Note: Company restoration—administrative restoration. For a practical step-by-step overview, see Flowchart: Company restoration—administrative restoration—flowchart. When to use the administrative restoration procedure You may use administrative restoration where the company was struck off on the Registrar’s initiative in accordance with CA 2006 (see Practice Note: The Registrar's powers to strike off a company for further detail). Compared with applying to the court, this route is generally more straightforward, faster and less costly, though the court process remains available even where the striking off was initiated by the Registrar. The administrative route to restore a company cannot be used if the company was struck off...

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View the related Precedents about Restoration

PRECEDENTS
Brief details of claim template—section 423 Insolvency Act 1986 transactions defrauding creditors: declarations, restoration directions and costs (England and Wales and Scotland)

Brief details of claim This action is brought under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The Claimant is the [ insert office held ] at [ insert name of the company ] (the Company). ...

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PRECEDENTS
Precedent: Letter to Interested Parties Enclosing Copy of Application to Strike Company off the Register (Companies Act 2006)

[ Name and address of recipient ] Date: [ insert date ] Dear [ Members OR Organisation name OR Directors OR Individual name ] [ insert company name ] [ LTD OR PLC ] — striking off application We write on behalf of [ insert company name ] [ LTD OR PLC ] (the Company). [ [ As you will be aware, the OR The ] Company has not been [ trading OR in operation ] since [ insert date ], and the directors have no plans to restart the Company’s activities. OR [ Insert other/additional reasons for striking off the company ]. ] As a result, the directors have resolved to submit an application for the Company to be removed from the register of companies. On [ insert date ], the Company’s directors filed a striking-off application with the Registrar of Companies. In line with the Companies Act 2006, a copy of the striking-off application is enclosed. [ Yours faithfully...

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PRECEDENTS
Precedent: claimant’s witness statement for restoration of a company to the register (England and Wales)

Filed on behalf of the Claimant Witness statement by [ insert name ] for [ insert name of claimant ]. Witness statement number: [ First ]. Exhibits listed numbered [ insert number ] to [ insert number ]. Date: [ insert ]. No. ...

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View the related Q&As about Restoration

Q&As
Road maintenance: 'construction operations' under HGCRA 1996?

Such works may fall under section 105(1)(b) of the HGCRA 1996 Such works may fall within section 105(1)(b), which treats road maintenance as a construction operation covering the construction, alteration, repair, maintenance, extension, demolition or dismantling of works forming, or to form, part of land, including walls, roadworks, power lines, electronic communications apparatus, runways, docks, harbours, railways, inland waterways, pipelines, reservoirs, water mains, wells, sewers, industrial plant, and installations for land drainage, coast protection or defence. Alternatively, section 105(1)(e) catches operations integral to, preparatory for, or rendering complete those works, including site clearance, earth-moving, excavation, tunnelling, laying foundations, erecting, maintaining or dismantling scaffolding, site restoration, landscaping, and providing roadways and other access. No specific authority concerns these works, yet courts have often held that less orthodox activities are construction operations, for example: Baldwins Industrial Services plc v Barr: crane with driver hire held integral, preparatory to, or completing works under sections 105(1)(a) and (e). Some contracts are excluded from being a ‘construction...

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Q&As
Appointing charity trustee for paid restoration work after quotes

The matter may not be as simple as obtaining some external quotes. Your starting point ought to be the charity’s constitution; check it first. If that document prohibits paying charity trustees under its terms, remunerating a trustee to undertake the restoration work may not be permitted at all...

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