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Hi All,

I am looking to begin officially trading shortly and initially as a sole trader but considering LTD.

Just checking the LTD trading name and this is currently standing as Dissolved.

Can anyone advise on the good, the bad and the down right ugly with taking a dissolved LTD trading name?

Morning Steve, must admit to not knowing too much, but a quick google gave me this:

Registering a Company using a Dissolved Name

Re-using a Dissolved Company's Name

Dissolved company names are available to be re-used when setting up a new UK business.

The newly regsitered entity will be issued with a different company number and will in no way be related to the old dissolved business except that they will have the same name.

Any transactions that were entered into by the previous company will not be transferred to the new business. The two companies will be seen in law as separate legal entities, the same way that they are seen as distinct from the people who own and run them.
Reputation of the Dissolved Company

One practical consideration when registering a company and using a dissolved name is the reputation (if any) that the previous business may have had. For example, it might be some time until someone chooses to form a company using the names Polypec or Enron.

Setting up a company with these names would likely to be detrimental to the new business. The public would in all likelihood make an association between the new and old companies. This would happen even though the two companies would be completely separate businesses and run by a difference set of directors and probably engaged in different industrial sectors.
List of Dissolved Company Names

The list of dissolved names contained at Companies House can contain some attractive call signs. For people registering a company, it may be worth scouring the lists of dissolved names and perhaps the companies currently in liquidation. When these become available, they can be chosen and will cost no more than the standard £15 Companies House registration fee.
Problems Registering Dissolved Company Names

Company formation agents using electronic incorporation often have problems registering dissolved names. Many of their searches which interrogate the current and proposed lists (which also contain recently dissolved companies) at Companies House are unable to distinguish the status of the businesses returned in their searches. They therefore interpret any name found on these lists as taken.

This is not usually a serious problem in terms of purchasing a company with a recently dissolved name registered; it can however take longer to form as the purchaser would have to contact the company formation agent who will usually invoke some form of manual override to their system.

Once this has been done and the apllication has been sent to Companies House, the three hour clock then begins.

Kip FX Design wrote:Setting up a company with these names would likely to be detrimental to the new business. The public would in all likelihood make an association between the new and old companies. This would happen even though the two companies would be completely separate businesses and run by a difference set of directors and probably engaged in different industrial sectors.
List of Dissolved Company Names

You may want to do a search (Google and the like) to find out any old news & reviews held against the old name. I would even go as far as thinking about running a report with someone like D&B to see what information they held on the old company - similar to running a check on a house when you first move in to make sure it does not have a bad history with debt that you could take the bad rep for.

It would also be worth having a few lines of blurb ready to give to people if you get any questions about the old company. Although you would get a new company number don't be surprised if you get these questions if you apply for credit with anyone as credit managers who have been around for a while (like myself) may want confirmation that you had nothing to do with the old company.

Sound Advice, thank you.

The company number is the key thing as said above.

A company names can be changed at any time subject to availability...some prefer everything registered from the start fresh, others don't mind a name change. At the end of the day it is just a name for a legal company...you can still use a different trading name, XYZ Ltd trading as ABC.

Most (or many) off-the-shelf comapnies are previously traded as well...so be choose carefully.