Who can apply, the six-year deadline, the £341 Companies House fee, and the point at which the case has to go to court instead.
A supplier emails to ask for a purchase order number, or a customer says a cheque is sitting with their bank waiting for a company that “doesn't seem to exist any more”. A search on the Companies House register confirms it: the company was struck off, usually for missing a confirmation statement or a set of accounts, and dissolved a few months later without anyone at the company realising it was happening. The post about it went to the registered office, which nobody had checked.
Getting it back is not automatic, and which route applies depends on who is asking and why.
Company restoration at a fixed price, agreed in writing before anything starts. See what is included.
Companies House strikes off a company under sections 1000 or 1001 of the Companies Act 2006 when it has reason to think the company is no longer trading, most often because filings have stopped arriving. A warning notice goes to the registered office, and if nothing is filed within the period given, the company is dissolved and removed from the register entirely. From that point it has no legal existence: it cannot be sued, it cannot sue, its bank account is frozen, and any contract it was a party to is now a contract with nobody. Whatever the company still owned — cash in the account, a lease, a debt somebody owed it — passes to the Crown as bona vacantia, Latin for ownerless goods.
Restoration puts the company back as if the gap had never happened. Once restored, the law treats it as having continued in existence throughout, so it can recover a debt, hold property or be sued for something that happened before it was struck off. There are two routes to get there, and they are not interchangeable.
This is the quicker and cheaper of the two, dealt with entirely by Companies House with no court involved, and it is only open where every one of these is true:
The form is RT01, and the Companies House fee for it is £341, in force from 1 February 2026. That fee covers the application only — everything else outstanding on the company's record has to be settled separately, and usually costs more than the RT01 fee itself.
A made-up scenario, showing how the costs stack up. A three-person landscaping company missed two confirmation statements in a row. Companies House wrote to the registered office, heard nothing back, and struck the company off nine months ago while it was still invoicing clients and running a van. A customer has since asked for a company number for a purchase order, and the sole director wants it operating again. Administrative restoration is available here: the company was trading when it was struck off, dissolution was well inside six years ago, and the director applying is a former director. The bill to get there: the RT01 fee of £341, the two missed confirmation statements at £50 each online under current fees (£100), and a set of annual accounts that is now more than a month overdue once the company is restored, attracting a late filing penalty under section 453 of the Companies Act 2006 — £150 if filed within a month of the deadline once the company is back on the register, rising in bands to £1,500 if left for more than six months. Filed promptly, the total runs from £591, before an accountant's fee for preparing the accounts themselves and before any fee for preparing and filing the application.
Court restoration under section 1029 of the Companies Act 2006 covers everything the RT01 route does not: a company that was dissolved voluntarily by its own directors filing a DS01, and applications by anyone other than a former director or member — a creditor owed money, someone with an interest in property the company held, a former employee's pension scheme, or a liquidator. The same six-year limit from dissolution generally applies, with one standing exception: a claim for damages for personal injury against the company can be brought at any time, with no deadline at all.
Court restoration costs more and takes longer than the RT01 route. The claim form fee to the court is £280, and Companies House charges its own costs on top, typically in the region of £300, separate from any solicitor's fee for preparing and arguing the application. Preparing and filing an RT01 is not reserved legal work, so it is something Buzz Legal does directly; conducting proceedings in court to restore a company is reserved, and that goes to AD Solicitors, SRA no. 8011228.
Once the Registrar notifies the applicant that restoration has been approved, the company is back on the register from the date that notification is sent, and the law treats it as if it had continued in existence the whole time it was struck off. That is what allows a restored company to chase a debt that fell due while it was dissolved, or to be the proper defendant in a claim that was waiting for it to come back. What restoration does not do is fix the underlying reason the company was struck off in the first place. The confirmation statements, accounts and any late filing penalties that caused the strike-off still have to be filed and paid — restoration brings the company back; it does not clear its backlog for it. If the restored company's name has been taken by someone else in the meantime, it comes back under its company number as its temporary name, and the directors then have 14 days to pass a resolution changing it, or an offence is committed under section 1033(6) of the Companies Act 2006.
For the filing obligations that avoid this situation happening again — confirmation statements, accounts and the other duties that sit with the role — see a director's seven legal duties, in plain English.
Leave your email and we’ll send the company restoration checklist — the questions that show whether administrative restoration is open to you or the case needs to go to court.
Six years from the date of dissolution, under section 1024 of the Companies Act 2006. The clock runs from the date on the dissolution notice in the London Gazette. Miss the six years and administrative restoration is no longer available at all — the only way back onto the register after that is a court order, and the court has its own six-year limit for most applicants, with no limit at all for someone bringing a personal injury claim against the company.
Only a former director or former member (shareholder) of the company. Nobody else can use the RT01 route, however strong their reason for wanting the company back — a creditor, a landlord or a supplier owed money has no standing to apply administratively and has to go to court instead under section 1029. If more than one former director or member wants to apply, any one of them can make the RT01 application; it does not need to be a joint one.
The Companies House fee for the RT01 application itself is £341, in force from 1 February 2026. That is on top of every outstanding confirmation statement at £50 each filed online, any overdue accounts, and a late filing penalty under section 453 of the Companies Act 2006 if those accounts are now late — £150 rising to £1,500 depending on how many months overdue they are once the company is back on the register. There is no fee waiver for a small or dormant company; the bill is the same whatever the company's size.
Yes, for administrative restoration specifically. One of the conditions on the RT01 form is that the company was carrying on business or in operation at the time it was struck off under sections 1000 or 1001 of the Companies Act 2006, which covers the ordinary case of a registrar striking off a company for failing to file. A company that was deliberately dissolved on purpose, by its own directors filing a DS01, cannot use the administrative route at all and has to apply to the court instead, under section 1029.
On dissolution, whatever the company still owned — a bank balance, a lease, a debt owed to it — passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. Restoration does not automatically hand it back: where the Crown has already dealt with an asset, for example by closing the account, getting it back is a separate process with its own paperwork, run through the Bona Vacantia Division. If nothing has happened to the asset yet, a waiver letter from the Crown representative confirming no objection to restoration is one of the documents the RT01 application has to include.
Administrative restoration is closed to you, but court restoration under section 1029 may not be, depending on who is applying and why. A former director or member is still subject to the same six-year limit in court as under the RT01 route in most cases. A claim for damages for personal injury has no time limit at all. Everyone else — a creditor pursuing a debt, someone with an interest in property the company held, a pension scheme trustee — needs their own legal advice on whether their particular application is still open, because the position depends on exactly why restoration is wanted.
Yes, preparing and filing an RT01 application is not a reserved legal activity, so it is work Buzz Legal can do at a fixed price agreed in writing before anything starts. See the company restoration page for the two routes and what each involves, or send the company name and roughly when it was struck off and you will get back which route applies and what it costs. A contested court restoration involves conducting litigation, which is reserved, and that goes to AD Solicitors, SRA no. 8011228.
Tell us what has happened and what you want to happen about it. We will come back with what the job involves, who carries it out and what it costs, in writing, before you commit to anything.
