You are selling your flat. Everything was fine until the buyer's solicitor searched Companies House and found that your building's management company, or the company that owns the freehold, has been dissolved. The sale is on hold, the buyer is nervous, and nobody has explained in plain terms what is wrong. Here it is.
Most blocks of flats are run through a small company owned by the flat owners themselves. That company must file at Companies House every year. When nobody files, Companies House eventually strikes the company off. It happens quietly, and most owners discover it years later, at the worst possible moment.
On striking off, everything the company owned, including the freehold or its role in your lease, passed to the Crown. That is why the buyer's lender will not lend and the buyer's solicitor has stopped.
This is common and it is not fatal to your sale. It does have a deadline. A company can normally only be restored within six years of dissolution, and if the Crown formally disclaims the freehold in the meantime, the fix becomes slower and considerably more expensive. Speed matters.
The company is restored to the register. It is then treated in law as if it had never been dissolved: the freehold comes back, the lease structure works again, and the sale can complete.
Administrative restoration applies where Companies House struck the company off for missed filings: application, Crown waiver correspondence, outstanding filings, penalties settled. Typically four to eight weeks.
Court-order restoration applies where the company was closed voluntarily or other complications arise. Made by our partner solicitors under our case management. Typically ten to twelve weeks, with expedited handling where a completion date is at risk.
We tell you which route applies within 48 hours.
Assessment, £295, credited against your fee if you proceed. Written answer in 48 hours.
Managed administrative restoration, £1,750 fixed. Full handling, including Crown correspondence and filings coordination. Companies House fees, late-filing penalties and other government charges are itemised separately and confirmed before you commit.
Court-route restoration, from £3,950 fixed, including partner-solicitor fees.
Completion or court date at risk? Expedited handling available, priced on assessment.
Compare that with the sale falling through.
Restoration usually needs a former director or shareholder to apply. In a leaseholder-owned company, that is one of your neighbours, or you. Part of our job is establishing who has standing and getting them across the line. If neighbours will not engage, say so at assessment: there are still routes.
It is on Companies House, free. Search the building's name, or send us the address and we will find it.
Restoration is normally barred, but the freehold can still be dealt with by other routes. Book the assessment and we will map them.
No. We are consultants and case managers. Where the fix needs a solicitor, ours are already in the price.
Give us the completion date in the form. Deadline cases go to the front.
Send the company number, or the company name and what has happened. You will receive a written assessment within two working days: what has happened, whether it can be fixed, the route, the price and the timescale. The assessment fee of £295 is credited against your fee if you instruct us.