Company liquidation

welshlal

Hi, I’m not sure if this is the right place but our club paid for the kids to have a western experience last year. This was obviously cancelled due to lockdown but the company ( a ltd company ) have today emailed to say they are going into liquidation and no one has any money to pay any one anything so basically tough luck! Can anyone with any legal knowledge help us or know if there is any route we can go down to claim the money back ? Thanks in advance xx

davidmcn

How did the club pay?

Sandtree

As well as looking at options based on how you paid you also need to see the exact status of the company at Companies House, whilst we associate liquidation with insolvency it’s not the only route and you should check what they’re implying 

welshlal

Thank you both. They paid via bank transfer 🤦🏼 I’ve checked companies house and it says still active x

davidmcn

Not much that can be done really, unless you suspect that the company is actually solvent - the fact there isn't (yet) anything about insolvency on Companies House may well only mean that nobody has yet done anything formal about winding it up.

welshlal

Judging by the email they send I don’t think they are going to do anything about winding the company up. Would you mind haveinv a look at the email for me to see if there is anywhere we can go with this. This they literally have a couple of grand off the kids in this club 😢

Ectophile

You can object to a company being wound up if it owes you money.  But that's often a futile gesture.

The company is put into administration instead.  If you then put in a claim with the administrators, you might get a few pence back.

davidmcn

welshlal said:

Judging by the email they send I don’t think they are going to do anything about winding the company up. Would you mind haveinv a look at the email for me to see if there is anywhere we can go with this. This they literally have a couple of grand off the kids in this club 😢

I don't think us looking at the email is going to give you any clues about whether they've secretly got the cash somewhere. If it's a business in a sector which has been badly affected in the last year, I would assume they're correct in saying they don't have the money. I suppose you could try waiting for a bit just in case they recommence trading (under the same company name) and then try pursuing them.

steampowered

Unfortunately, if this is a genuine liquidation, there's not much that can be done. If the money has been paid to suppliers it has gone.

You will be an "unsecured creditor" so should be entitled to a share of anything that is left, but that probably won't be much.

Its worth having a look on Companies House to see what filings have been made by the company - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/. 

welshlal

Thank you all. They are still active on companies house. This is what they have sent us , I’m guessing the thousands of pounds are lost even though they should still have our money as they haven’t paid the theatres yet as they were closed ?

davidmcn

welshlal said:

Thank you all. They are still active on companies house. This is what they have sent us , I’m guessing the thousands of pounds are lost even though they should still have our money as they haven’t paid the theatres yet as they were closed ?

They'll have had other bills to pay - given their last accounts showed them to have to have net liabilities, what they say in the letter seems credible to me.