how do I know if a company has gone bust?

[honey123]

I am owed £1000 by a company as I paid a 'fully refundable depposit' to buy a business which then fell though. The company has fobbed me off with 'the cheque is in the post' etc since nov and now there is no answer on the phone. What do I do now?

If it is a limited company, have you had a look at Companies House?

Or you could just google the name and see what comes up?

Insolvency.gov.uk: Owed Money - may help.

Webcheck search.aol.co.uk/aol/search?invocationType=topsearchbox.search&query=companies+house&rp=

This is part of Companies House but gives a quick way of checking whether company is still in business. Be aware that if they only went bust within last week or so, the Companies House file may not have been updated.

Just put in the company name, and when the results come up chack the status column. If there is no letter in the column it means company is still registered and not under any sort of insolvency action.

Thanks nannynick & dweezle
Have found out that the company has gone into administration, have managed to speak to the administrator who says that there probably is a client account, so my money should be safe! It is now just a question of getting it back.