Frozen Small Business Account - UREGENT HELP PLEASE!

eniasmb

I have a business account with Barclays Bank where regularly payments for my contracting work is paid.

The problem I have is my company was dissolved on Dec 1, 2009 and according to Barclays Customers services they sent me a letter on Dec 9, 2009 informing me that they have or intend to freeze my business account to date, I have not seen this letter yet hope its still in the post. (actual contents of the letter are not known)

Yesterday, there was a transfer of £100 that went into that account and a BUCS payment of £7000 on the same day. When I tried to access my account yesterday, the card was retained by the ATM machine and when I spoke with with the bank, first they said there was nothing wrong with account. I then went into a branch and was told that there is a remark on the account that there is an intention to dissolve the company hence the reason why the account was frozen.

My questions are;

1. Is it possible for the bank to freeze the account and still let money to come in and deny it to go out?

2. When an account is froozen, what does this mean in technical terms

Please help

Kind regards

Concerned

agsnu

How can your company receive payments if it has been dissolved?

glider3560

When a company is dissolved, its assests (including money) become bona vacantia. This basically means that they are ownerless and belong to the Crown. Any credit balance on bank accounts at dissolution is automatically passed to the Crown.

Any distribution of assets has to pass to the directors/shareholders before the company is dissolved.

The money that has been paid to the business will most likely now belong to the Crown.

eniasmb

glider3560 wrote: »

When a company is dissolved, its assests (including money) become bona vacantia. This basically means that they are ownerless and belong to the Crown. Any credit balance on bank accounts at dissolution is automatically passed to the Crown.

Any distribution of assets has to pass to the directors/shareholders before the company is dissolved.

The money that has been paid to the business will most likely now belong to the Crown.

But the money was only paid yesterday 12/12. The notice from companies house was issued on 1/12. The bank are saying they sent the letter on the 9/12.

Is it possible to ask the bank to return these monies back to where they came from?

agsnu

eniasmb wrote: »

But the money was only paid yesterday 12/12. The notice from companies house was issued on 1/12. The bank are saying they sent the letter on the 9/12.

Is it possible to ask the bank to return these monies back to where they came from?

Why didn't you close the account before dissolving the company?

If the account is still open but frozen, the funds may well have been received into it, and as above they may well be legal property of the crown. Sounds like a tricky legal situation.

If the account is closed, then they will either be automatically bounced back to the sender, or held in a suspense account at the bank while they work out what to do with them,

Talk to your lawyer.

eniasmb

eniasmb wrote: »

But the money was only paid yesterday 12/12. The notice from companies house was issued on 1/12. The bank are saying they sent the letter on the 9/12.

Is it possible to ask the bank to return these monies back to where they came from?

agsnu wrote: »

How can your company receive payments if it has been dissolved?

I didnt know about it until yesterday. The amount that went in yesterday was for last month's work.

BlondBoy

You need to see a solicitor quickly really. Couple of things to bear in mind:

It's illegal for a company to trade after it's been dissolved - so careful there. You could make a bad situation worse of you're still trading.

You may be able to restore the company to the register, get some of the assets back from the Treasury Solicitor and distribute them - but you're best taking advice on this.

Presumably your company wasn't dissolved by yourself? If that's the case, any distribution if you restore the company to register will have to take account of your creditors, so bear that in mind. If it was dissolved by yourself in error before all the outstanding invoices were paid to you and you act quickly, you may be OK.

But get onto a solicitor or good accountant tomorrow morning, else you definitely won't see any of that money again.

lawrie28

Speak to your business banking manager, they will advise you on what they can do to get the funds back.

jonesMUFCforever

lawrie28 wrote: »

Speak to your business banking manager, they will advise you on what they can do to get the funds back.

Which is very little - hence the reason the account was frozen.

Hungerdunger

Do you employ an accountant? If so, assuming you have kept him fully abreast of the situation, he may have been negligent in not advising you to ensure all payments were made and received and the account closed before the company was dissolved. I was in a similar situation a couple of years back, and IIRC the company was dissolved about six months after we actually ceased trading. What was the rush in your case?

wytco0

Can you get the agency to recall the payment, as it was sent to the wrong account?