Dissolving a business - small claims implications?

[PavlovtheCat]

My ex-builder has dissolved his business, or put in his request to do so.

We are in the process of a small claims process, he is suing us and we are suing him

We are meant to be getting surveyor do a joint report. Can anyone tell me the implications of his company paying for costs ie this survey if his business is no longer trading?

I take it you are talking about a limited company rather than a sole trader or a partnership business?

I am not an insolvency advisor or similar so won't mind being corrected if anyone knows better but this is what I understand of the issue...

If a limited company is dissolved then all its debts die with it. Of course, the non-existent (that's what a dissolved limited company is) company cannot sue you either but I'm guessing that might not be your main concern.

Any interested parties can object to the company dissolution. Unfortunately I don't know how you would go about doing that but you do have the right to stop the dissolution.

Things might be a bit more complicated if he is dissolving because the company is insolvent as you've got various other creditors to contend with.

If you want to check whether the company is still in existence then use the Companies House search function wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/48954c858cda1049a5c2ad5625b03bbd/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

Hey thank you! I have been digging all day. I spoke to some-one in companies house who advise me that i can object formally via companies house as 1) a creditor (or potential creditor) who has not been informed that he has applied to dissolve his business (an offence) and 2) because there is a pending legal action in the form of small claims to recoup money owed by his business that is yet to be settled.

He put his request for dissolution in the day after the court directed an independent survey at our joint expense. I shall take this action as realisation on his part that he is fecked and also that he cannot afford to pay for the surveyor, so cannot comply with the order handed down from court.

He is not getting away as easily as folding his business yet. I am not finished with him.