Dissolved vs Active Companies: What the Status Means

What "active" means

An active company is one that is currently registered, recognised in law as a separate legal person, and able to trade, hold assets, enter contracts and employ staff. It is the default status from incorporation onwards and simply means the company exists and has not been struck off or dissolved.

Active does not, by itself, prove a company is healthy or trading profitably. A business can be active yet dormant, behind on its filings, or quietly insolvent. Companies House flags firms that are overdue with accounts or a confirmation statement, and a company can be "active" while also being "active — proposal to strike off", which is a warning sign rather than a clean bill of health. Always read the full record rather than relying on the headline word.

What "dissolved" means (and that it can be restored)

A dissolved company has been removed from the register and no longer exists as a legal entity. It cannot trade, sue, be sued or hold property in its own name. Dissolution usually follows either a voluntary strike-off requested by the directors or a compulsory strike-off initiated by Companies House, and in some cases it is the final step after a formal liquidation.

Crucially, dissolution is not always permanent. A dissolved company can be restoredto the register, either by court order or, in qualifying cases, through an administrative restoration. Creditors, former directors or anyone with a legitimate interest may apply, often to recover assets or to pursue a claim. Restoration generally treats the company as if it had never been dissolved, so a "dissolved" status today does not guarantee the company is gone for good.

Liquidation vs administration vs strike-off

These three routes are often confused, but they are distinct. Liquidation(winding up) is a formal process in which a licensed insolvency practitioner realises the company's assets and distributes the proceeds to creditors before the company is closed. It may be voluntary — a creditors' voluntary liquidation or a solvent members' voluntary liquidation — or compulsory, ordered by the court.

Administration is a rescue and protection procedure. An administrator takes control with the aim of saving the company as a going concern, achieving a better result for creditors than liquidation would, or realising property to pay secured creditors. It pauses most legal action against the company while a plan is worked out.

Strike-off is the administrative removal of a company from the register, ending in dissolution. It is typically used for companies that have stopped trading and have no significant assets or debts, but it can also be forced by Companies House when a company fails to file. Unlike liquidation, strike-off involves no formal distribution of assets to creditors.

What happens to assets and debts on dissolution

When a company is dissolved, any assets it still owns — cash, property, intellectual property, even an overlooked bank balance — do not simply pass to the former owners. They become bona vacantia, meaning ownerless goods, and pass to the Crown. Recovering them generally requires restoring the company first.

Debts do not vanish either. The dissolution of a company does not write off what it owed, and personal guarantees given by directors remain enforceable against those individuals. A creditor left unpaid can apply to restore the company to pursue the debt, and directors who improperly strike off a company to dodge liabilities risk disqualification. In short, dissolution closes the entity, but it does not cleanly erase its obligations.

How to check a company's status

The definitive source is the public register at Companies House, where every company's status, filing history and officers are published free of charge. You can search by name or company number and see at a glance whether a business is active, dissolved, in liquidation or facing strike-off, along with the dates of each change.

On BizLookup you can look up the same official data in a cleaner, faster format, with status, incorporation date and key filings surfaced together. Our guide to checking a company walks through the search step by step, and if you research businesses at scale you can build targeted lead lists filtered by status and other criteria.

Why status matters before you trade with someone

Checking status is basic due diligence. Trading with a dissolved company means dealing with an entity that legally does not exist, so any contract or invoice may be unenforceable. A company in liquidation or administration may be unable to pay you, and an active company with a "proposal to strike off" could be days from disappearing.

A quick status check before extending credit, signing an agreement or shipping goods tells you who you are really dealing with. Pair it with a look at the company's filing history and, if relevant, its company type, and you will make far better-informed decisions. You can start any search from the BizLookup home page.