Money owing to a closed Limited Company

bowman19

I am new to this site and unsure of where to post my query. I had a Limited Company (A)go into liquidation in 2012, owing a disputed amount of £8000 with EON. (EON's lawyers petitioned). I was happy to let the company (A) go, as it was inactive in any case due to my semi retirement. However, the company (A) was owed £40k by another company (B), but as the company (A) was wound up, the company (B) owing the large amount refused to pay on the grounds that the company (A) didn't exist. The £40k was actually owed to me personally, but the invoice was raised on company (A) letterhead. (I then raised my own invoice to company (A)). It sounds complicated but it is above board. Is there anything I can do to claim the debt? I would appreciate any help/advice/signposting

Undervalued

bowman19 wrote: »

I am new to this site and unsure of where to post my query. I had a Limited Company (A)go into liquidation in 2012, owing a disputed amount of £8000 with EON. (EON's lawyers petitioned). I was happy to let the company (A) go, as it was inactive in any case due to my semi retirement. However, the company (A) was owed £40k by another company (B), but as the company (A) was wound up, the company (B) owing the large amount refused to pay on the grounds that the company (A) didn't exist. The £40k was actually owed to me personally, but the invoice was raised on company (A) letterhead. (I then raised my own invoice to company (A)). It sounds complicated but it is above board. Is there anything I can do to claim the debt? I would appreciate any help/advice/signposting

Well I would get some proper legal advice as this is potentially a very serious matter.

On the face of it, I am struggling to understand how a company was wound up leaving a creditor unpaid when it had assets of at least £40K.

Why did you invoice the £40K through the company if it was owed to you personally?

You say it is "above board" but based on what you have posted here you effectively hid the £40K the company was due so that it appeared to have insufficient assets to pay an £8K creditor?

Assuming this is for some obscure reason "above board" then I think you are going to struggle to recover the money. Currently the debtor could say "We don't owe you anything, our contract was with A Ltd so any dispute about payment is between us and them. We have no contract with Mr Bowman so please go away.

*~Zephyr~*

During the process of liquidation, all outstanding invoices should have been collected by the administrators, and they at least should have known about it. All the debtors should also have received reports from the administrators showing that the £40k asset was still unrecovered so Eon much have known that there was sufficient funds to cover their bill.

When you say "The £40k was actually owed to me personally, but the invoice was raised on company (A) letterhead." do you mean that the invoice was raised AFTER the company (A) went into liquidation? Because I can't see why it wouldn't have been picked up by the administrators otherwise.

bowman19

... continuing, since I accidently hit the return key.
Due to being unwell at the time, I couldn't be bothered with any hassle. I hadn't realised at the time that the £40k was owed to company A. I thought it was to me. The earlier contract made up for the sale of the company goodwill, was actually in company A's name. I didn't realise this until I started to chase for the money. (12 months later)/ I would have readily let the liquidator know about this.


I paid invoices for company B, (i.e. wage bills) out of the owed £40k, on the assumption I would get the money. But I invoiced on company billing paper. Company B, was the new owner that didn't put in any money when they first took over, until they had invoiced for work, but the wages needed to be paid.
Rather than have workers unpaid, I paid it for company B. I know this sounds very complicated.
I can't believe I did it, but did take advice (albeit bad advice).

Undervalued

bowman19 wrote: »

... continuing, since I accidently hit the return key.
Due to being unwell at the time, I couldn't be bothered with any hassle. I hadn't realised at the time that the £40k was owed to company A. I thought it was to me. The earlier contract made up for the sale of the company goodwill, was actually in company A's name. I didn't realise this until I started to chase for the money. (12 months later)/ I would have readily let the liquidator know about this.


I paid invoices for company B, (i.e. wage bills) out of the owed £40k, on the assumption I would get the money. But I invoiced on company billing paper. Company B, was the new owner that didn't put in any money when they first took over, until they had invoiced for work, but the wages needed to be paid.
Rather than have workers unpaid, I paid it for company B. I know this sounds very complicated.
I can't believe I did it, but did take advice (albeit bad advice).

I'm sorry but I'm even more lost now.

How can you sell the "goodwill" in a company that has gone bust?

If the "goodwill" had a significant value then it was the property of the company and not you personally. So, if B had agreed to buy it then A was solvent and perfectly capable of paying Eon £8K.

Or am I missing something?

CKhalvashi

Undervalued wrote: »

I'm sorry but I'm even more lost now.

How can you sell the "goodwill" in a company that has gone bust?

If the "goodwill" had a significant value then it was the property of the company and not you personally. So, if B had agreed to buy it then A was solvent and perfectly capable of paying Eon £8K.

Or am I missing something?

This is what I was thinking......

Unless a name with a lot of history, then it wouldn't be worth anything, I'd have thought, and even if it was, the name was property of the Ltd company unless licensed by yourself, which would be unlikely.

bowman19

Thanks for replies, sorry if this is getting boring and confusing, but here goes...
I sold company A whilst it was trading and solvent. The new owner took over but under new company B and I had to stay for a while during a transitional period. The new owner didn't put any cash into company B , they were waiting for invoices to be paid, in the interim I paid out the wages and other debts myself. (on the basis that when I was paid the £40k, I could pay myself back.). Company A was now dormant and I was keen to close it down due to being unwell and I didn't want the hassle of it. Eon objected, due to an old invoice that had previously been disputed and had gone to the Ombudsman two years earlier I might add. (another storey!).I decided to just let things take it's course. The liquidator had all of the books etc. I chased for the outstanding money from company B some months later, only to discover that the debt belonged to company A and since it was no longer active, company B wouldn't pay. So, I had personally paid out £8,500 and lost any hope of the £40k. I am trying to find out if the outstanding debt to company A can be claimed in anyway now that it has been closed down. I genuinely or naively, thought the goodwill element went to me, since the company was me in a sense. had I known otherwise, the liquidator could have chased for the money. I understand if this is just one big headache!

getmore4less

You sold assets to company "B" did the workers TUPE over to "B"

If you paid the bills/wages for company B, they still owe you that money.

That would be independant of the sale off assets from company "A"

go back to the administrator they can still go after the debt, and if it is £32k net they cana make their fees chasing it.

Pennywise

OK, you wrongly invoiced £40k on co A headed paper. BUT, what really matters is the contract - who's name is on the contract for you (personally) provided your services to that client. If it's you, personally, named on the contract, you're within legal time limits to raise a personal invoice for the money. If the contract shows Co A or there isn't a contract, then your only hope to get the money is to get Co A reinstated at Companies House, then it's in existence again and can take action to collect it's debt, but so can Eon take action against it again.

As to you personally paying B's expenses, I fail to see how that is relevant at all. Co B owe you that money. Nothing at all to do with Co A nor your customer who owes the £40k.