Company status

A company’s status summarises its standing on the Companies House register. The most common is active, meaning the company exists and has not been dissolved. Other statuses each carry a specific legal meaning: dissolved (the company has been struck off and no longer exists as a legal entity), liquidation (a formal process to wind the company up and distribute its assets), in administration (an insolvency process aimed at rescue or better outcomes for creditors), and others.

Status is factual and legal, not commercial. Active does not mean profitable or even trading — a company can be active on the register while dormant in practice, or while quietly failing. Conversely, dissolved is definitive: that company cannot enter contracts, and any assets it still held may have passed to the Crown as bona vacantia.

Status changes are among the most important signals in the register because they mark real events — an insolvency filing, a strike-off application, a restoration. Watching for them is central to both prospecting (a newly active company may need suppliers) and risk (a customer entering liquidation is an urgent problem).

Example

Before extending credit to a new customer, a supplier checks that the company status is active and not, say, “active — proposal to strike off”, which would signal the company may be about to be dissolved.

On Company Shark

Company Shark shows status prominently on every profile and, by default, focuses searches on active companies. Trading Signals draw on status and related filings to give an at-a-glance read of a company’s standing.

Related

• Dormant company
• Dissolved company
• Trading Signals
• Guide: Company status explained (Active, Dissolved & more)