Solicitors trading as dormant company

[Runoff268]

Good Evening, can anyone in the know advice please whether this is legal? I’ve searched lots online and it looks like it’s ok to remain as a dormant limited company as long as you are not trading as a business. This company has been dormant since 2014 and is very much still trading as a solicitors, taking on clients, offering services etc. Am I missing something?

advise*

They may have a separate trading company or limited liability partnership. A firm that I used to work for had a LLP to trade and a separate limited company to employ staff.

Are they part of a larger organisation?

You will sometimes find that the company has been registered to protect the name but files dormant accounts with all the finances flowing through the parent company.

If you want to PM me the name I can take a look and see if I can work anything out - though I'm hardly an expert but I've spent some time trawling Companies House before now

Or it could be that they set up the Ltd Co to stop anybody else registering the name.

Check your letter of engagement - it should give the exact legal name of the limited company or llp that they’re trading through. Pretty common to have the name registered under a different dormant limited company to protect the name but actually to trade as a llp which is a different legal entity.

Morning, thank you all for replying, it seems that part could have been legit then..

I have been digging a little more this morning and also found online that they’ve been fined £33,000 by the Legal ombudsman for not dealing with complaints and moving hundreds of thousands of pounds from client account to their office to cover their bills! Shall be looking for a solicitor elsewhere…