Ltd company, everyone leaves...

[macron]

Small company. One director, also secretary. Person resigns. No one is accountable. Can this happen?

Business is failing, but that Co House even.lets it happen I find bizarre.

[trickywoo]

A company can’t function without at least one director.

Companies house is a joke though for letting people get away with stuff.

One guy I know got an extension for 2 years on his first accounts. CH will say that’s only possible in exceptional circumstances e.g. destruction of records but he just fancied more time.

[PoorCarCollector]

Agreed! Companies House is 100% not fit for purpose

[StevieBee]

Could be a lag in the filing.

Depending on how the company is set up, it may be the case the company still exists but owned by shareholders who have yet to assign new directors (IIRC there is a 14 day window for that to happen).

Or, if a company is left with no directors and no one running it, it doesn't vanish immediately. It has to be formally wound up, liquidated, or struck off the register by Companies House which is a process that takes time.

If you want to provide a bit more context we might be able to give a bit more insight.

PoorCarCollector said:

Agreed! Companies House is 100% not fit for purpose

I might have been lucky but have generally found them to be one of the more efficient government agencies. Normally very responsive to enquiry and sorting the few issues I've had over the years.

[Eric Mc]

Companies House is very poor at checking for nonsense in submitted accounts - and has been for many years.

Lot's of non-compliant company accounts are filed each year which should be rejected, but aren't.

[macron]

StevieBee said:

Could be a lag in the filing.

I know the person, a commercial tenant, they've applied for UC then got told it was a fraudulent application if they were the director a Ltd co.

So they've dropped their connection to the company, and there is no plan in place or replacement.

I'm happy to take the property back. I'm.juat hoping they haven't risked getting themselves into inadvertent trouble from a different part of UKG by trying to satisfy another.

[StevieBee]

macron said:

StevieBee said:

Could be a lag in the filing.

I know the person, a commercial tenant, they've applied for UC then got told it was a fraudulent application if they were the director a Ltd co.

So they've dropped their connection to the company, and there is no plan in place or replacement.

I'm happy to take the property back. I'm.juat hoping they haven't risked getting themselves into inadvertent trouble from a different part of UKG by trying to satisfy another.

That will depend on what they've done about the company. You can't just resign and walk away without another Director being appointed or the company being wound up. Companies House can forcibly reinstate a Director until matters have been properly concluded.

You can apply and get UC if you're a Director of a Ltd company provided you meet the low-income criteria. It would only be fraudulent if he were to hide his wealth before claiming UC.

[jeremyc]

I've had a challenge the other way round with Companies House: winding up a company (in an orderly fashion) I remained as a Director in order to be able to effect all the necessary processes.

However, once the company was dissolved, there's no way for me to resign as a Director with Companies House. "I'm sorry Sir, you can't resign as a Director because that company doesn't exist".

I still don't understand what the sequence of events should have been ...

[Sheepshanks]

jeremyc said:

However, once the company was dissolved, there's no way for me to resign as a Director with Companies House.

You don't need to resign, do you?

[jeremyc]

Sheepshanks said:

jeremyc said:

However, once the company was dissolved, there's no way for me to resign as a Director with Companies House.

You don't need to resign, do you?

I don't know: seems strange to be listed as a Director of a dissolved company when I am shown as having resigned from all the others I have been a Director of.

From a tidy governance perspective I would expect there to be no active Directors listed of dissolved companies. It also insists that my ID verification relating to the dissolved company is due on a date that is now in the past, but again there is no way to do that (and online information confirms that I don't have to).

[Sheepshanks]

jeremyc said:

don't know: seems strange to be listed as a Director of a dissolved company when I am shown as having resigned from all the others I have been a Director of.

From a tidy governance perspective I would expect there to be no active Directors listed of dissolved companies. It also insists that my ID verification relating to the dissolved company is due on a date that is now in the past, but again there is no way to do that (and online information confirms that I don't have to).

Well, there aren't any directors of dissolved companies - it's a legal impossibility. It just looks untidy, I suppose.

Maybe the record should say something something like "ceased due to dissolution of company".