Active Proposal to Strike Off: What It Means and How to Stop It

"Active proposal to strike off" on a Companies House record means there is a live process to remove the company from the register. Either the directors applied to close it, or the registrar started compulsory action. The company still exists, but it will be dissolved on the date in the Gazette notice unless the process is stopped.

Which of those two it is changes everything about what you do next, and the status line does not tell you. This guide does: how to tell which kind you have, what the clock really looks like, and the exact sequence that stops it, including the parts Companies House only tells you after your first attempt fails.

First, find out which kind you have

Open the company's record on the Companies House register and go to the filing history tab. Not the overview. The filing history.

Look at the most recent Gazette entry.

"First Gazette notice for voluntary strike-off", sitting above an entry called "Application to strike the company off the register", means the directors filed a DS01. Someone chose this.

"First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off", shown as a GAZ1, means the registrar started it. Nobody chose this, and something on the record triggered it.

	Voluntary strike off	Compulsory strike off
Who started it	The directors, by filing form DS01	The Registrar of Companies
Why	The company is no longer wanted	Missed filings, returned post, or a failed registered office
How it shows on the filing history	Application to strike off, then a voluntary Gazette notice	GAZ1, often with RP05, RP09 and RP10 entries near it
How to stop it	File form DS02 online	Fix the default, then ask the registrar to discontinue
Typical time to stop it	Same day	Days if it is filings, weeks if it is the address

If it is voluntary and that is what you want, you can stop reading. If it is voluntary and it should not be happening, the next section is yours. If it is a GAZ1, skip to the compulsory section, because your problem is bigger and your clock is already running.

Stopping a voluntary strike off

If a DS01 was filed and the company needs to stay alive, file form DS02, the withdrawal, through the Companies House online service. It is quick, and the withdrawal appears on the filing history once processed.

Reasons this happens more often than people admit: the company started trading again, a debt or claim surfaced after the application, an accountant filed it on the wrong entity, or, the one that matters on this site, a buyer appeared for a company the owner had given up on.

That last one deserves a line of its own. Do not file a DS01 on a company you might sell. A dissolved company cannot be sold at all, and a live strike off application kills a deal just as dead while it is running. If there is any chance the business has value to someone, get it valued before you file the form that deletes it.

One more thing about voluntary strike offs: anyone with an interest can object. HMRC objects routinely where tax returns are missing or liabilities are unpaid, and a creditor can object over any unpaid debt. An objection suspends the application and the company sits on the register while it is sorted. If your voluntary strike off has been suspended, the register will say so, and the fix is dealing with whoever objected, not refiling.

What compulsory strike off means

The Registrar of Companies has the power under the Companies Act 2006 to remove a company from the register when there is reasonable cause to believe it is not carrying on business.

Before doing it, the registrar warns you by post to the registered office. If nothing comes back, a notice goes in The Gazette. That is the GAZ1 on your filing history, and from its date, two things are true at once.

The company is still alive. It exists, owns its assets, holds its contracts, and can trade.

And the company has an execution date. Not less than two months from the notice in almost every case. A 28 day window applies in limited situations, such as a company found to be registered on a false basis.

The status is public. Your bank sees it, and banks watch the register: a Gazette notice is often enough for an account to be restricted the same week, which is frequently how directors find out about the notice in the first place. Your insurer, your lenders, your clients and any buyer running a basic check see exactly the same thing.

Why compulsory strike off happens

Three causes cover almost every case, and the fix is different for each.

1. Overdue accounts or confirmation statement

The classic. Accounts late, or the confirmation statement never filed, and the registrar concluded the company is abandoned. Easiest to fix, because filing the missing document removes the reason for the action.

2. Post returned from the registered office

Mail sent to the registered office comes back undelivered, and the registrar treats that as evidence nobody is there. This catches companies that moved premises without updating the register, and companies whose accountant shut down while still acting as their registered office.

3. The registered office was moved to a Companies House default address

The newest cause, growing fast since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, and the one nobody writes about properly.

The law now requires an "appropriate address": a real place where post is expected to reach someone acting for the company. If the registrar decides your address fails that test, or a third party successfully challenges it, the registered office is moved to a Companies House default address. On the filing history it is an RP05, and on the register it reads:

PO Box 4385, [company number] - COMPANIES HOUSE DEFAULT ADDRESS, Cardiff, CF14 8LH

Two more entries usually appear the same day, and missing them is the single most common reason a fix fails. An RP09 moves the director's correspondence address to the same default. An RP10 moves the PSC's address there too. Three addresses broke, not one, and each needs its own form.

The cruel part: the company can be fully compliant. Accounts filed, confirmation statement filed, nothing overdue. Strike off starts anyway, because the problem is the address, not the filings. If your record shows an RP05 followed by a GAZ1 while everything else is current, this is you.

The clock, with real numbers

Take the date on the GAZ1 and add two months. That is the earliest dissolution date. Now work backwards, because if your fix has to go on paper, the calendar is tighter than it looks.

Week	What is happening
Week 0	GAZ1 published. Two month countdown starts.
Weeks 1 to 2	You find out, usually via the bank or a register alert. Diagnose the cause from the filing history.
Weeks 2 to 3	If the fix needs evidence from a third party, such as your office provider, this is where you get it.
Week 3	Paper pack posted to Cardiff, tracked. Allow up to a week in the post.
Weeks 4 to 6	Companies House processing. Paper filings take up to 10 working days, longer if anything is queried.
Weeks 6 to 7	Discontinuance appears on the filing history, or a rejection letter goes to the registered office. If the registered office is the Cardiff default, that rejection goes somewhere you cannot read it.
Week 8+	If nothing valid landed, a second Gazette notice publishes and the company is dissolved.

Read week 6 again. A rejected filing does not come back to you. It goes to the address on the register, and if that address is the default in Cardiff, you will not know it failed until you check the filing history and see nothing there. Check the register weekly. Do not wait for a letter that cannot reach you.

What happens if you ignore it

On the date in the notice, a final Gazette notice publishes and the company is dissolved. From that moment it does not exist.

• Everything the company owns passes to the Crown as bona vacantia under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006. The bank balance, vehicles, tools, stock, property, the lot.
• Contracts fall over. A dissolved company cannot be a party to anything.
• Debts do not vanish. Personal guarantees survive, and director liabilities can still be enforced.
• Getting it back is slow and not cheap. Administrative restoration is available for up to six years if you were a director or shareholder and the company was trading when it was struck off. The Companies House fee is £341 since 1 February 2026. If the company had assets, a bona vacantia waiver letter from the Government Legal Department adds £64. Every overdue filing must be brought up to date with its fees and penalties, and the whole process realistically takes one to three months, longer if HMRC matters are outstanding. Professional fees come on top if you use an agent or solicitor.

And the strike off, dissolution and restoration all stay on the public record permanently. Anyone doing due diligence on you in the future will see the full sequence.

How to stop a compulsory strike off, step by step

Step 1: Diagnose from the filing history

You already know the cause categories. A missing AA or CS01 means late filings. An RP05 means the address. Returned post shows less obviously, but if filings are current and there is no RP05, it is the likely remainder.

Step 2: Fix late filings today, online

Overdue accounts and confirmation statements both file through the online service. Once the register is current, the registrar's reason for the action is gone. This is the good version of the problem. Pay any late filing penalty separately; do not let it sit.

Step 3: If it is the address, read every word of this step

This is where people lose three of their eight weeks, because the online route looks available and is not, and the first rejection is silent.

You cannot file the AD01 online. With the company on a default address, the electronic AD01 is blocked, because the registrar requires documentary evidence of your entitlement to the new address and the online form cannot carry attachments. Paper only.

You cannot file by email either. Companies House cannot accept documents delivered by email, because that delivery method is not permitted under the Registrars Rules. Email them for a case reference and a paper trail, but understand that no email files anything.

A payment receipt is not evidence. The most common silent failure. Proof you paid your office provider proves nothing about entitlement. The registrar accepts three things: a written agreement entitling the company to use the address as its registered office, documentation of proprietary rights such as a lease or freehold title, or a utility bill addressed to the company at the address, dated within the last six months. If you use a serviced or virtual office, ask the provider for a short signed letter on letterhead naming the company, the company number and the full address, and confirming the company is authorised to use it as its registered office. Most providers turn that around same day when you ask for exactly that.

Send all the address forms together. The AD01 fixes the registered office. If an RP09 moved your director correspondence address, a CH01 goes in the same envelope. If an RP10 moved the PSC address, add a PSC04. Fixing one of three addresses fixes nothing.

Check PROOF before you post. PROOF is the free Companies House anti-fraud scheme that blocks paper versions of protected forms for companies enrolled in it. If your company is in PROOF and you post a paper AD01 without the companion form PR03, the pack is rejected automatically, and the rejection letter goes to the default address you cannot read. Only a phone call tells you your PROOF status: ring 0303 1234 500 with your company number and ask directly. Ten minutes, and it decides what goes in the envelope.

Address the envelope properly. Companies House, Crown Way, Cardiff, CF14 3UZ, marked for the attention of the Registrar's Functions team. Send copies of evidence, never originals, because nothing is returned. Send it tracked so you can prove delivery.

Step 4: Put the discontinuance request in the covering letter

Inside the envelope, a short covering letter: company name and number, the GAZ1 date, what was broken, what is now fixed, and a direct request that the registrar discontinue the strike off action. That letter is where the request lives. Not in an email, not in a phone call.

On the online objection service: it exists for third parties with an interest, such as a creditor owed money. It is not the route for a director stopping the registrar's own action against their company, and the DS02 form states on its face that it cannot stop a strike off for default filing either. Neither is your plan A.

Step 5: Watch the register until you see it in writing

When the registrar accepts the fix, the filing history shows the action discontinued and the status returns to plain Active. If an objection or query is being looked at in the meantime, the history may first show the action suspended. Suspended is paused, not fixed. Discontinued is fixed.

Nothing else counts. Not an acknowledgement email, not a friendly phone call. The register is the only source of truth, which is also why you should set up the free follow service on the Companies House site for every company you own. It emails you the day anything changes on the record. If the RP05 had triggered an alert the day it was filed, the GAZ1 would never have happened.

Filing history decoder

The codes that matter in a strike off situation, in the order you are likely to meet them.

Code	What it means
RP05	The registrar moved the registered office to the Companies House default address
RP09	The registrar moved a director's correspondence address to the default
RP10	The registrar moved a PSC's address to the default
GAZ1	First Gazette notice for compulsory strike off. The countdown starts here
DS01	The directors applied for voluntary strike off
DS02	The voluntary application was withdrawn
AD01	Registered office address changed by the company
CH01	Director's details changed, including correspondence address
PSC04	PSC details changed, including address
CS01	Confirmation statement
AA	Annual accounts
GAZ2	Final Gazette notice. The company is dissolved

Entries reading "compulsory strike-off action has been suspended" or "compulsory strike-off action discontinued" appear in plain English on the history and mean exactly what they say.

Who can object to a strike off, and why it cuts both ways

Anyone with an interest can object to a company being removed: creditors, HMRC, employees, shareholders, anyone owed money or mid-claim. Companies House runs an online objection service for exactly this, and objections need evidence, such as invoices showing a debt.

If you are trying to keep your company alive, an objection from a creditor buys time but does not fix your default, so treat it as a side effect, not a strategy.

If you are trying to close your company, an objection stops you. HMRC is the most common objector, usually over missing returns or unpaid VAT, PAYE or corporation tax. The strike off sits suspended until the objector is dealt with, and refiling without dealing with them just produces another objection.

If you are selling a business

You cannot sell a company that is scheduled for deletion. No solicitor acting for a buyer will let their client exchange on an entity that might not exist by completion, whichever kind of strike off it is. The action has to be discontinued or withdrawn and the status back to plain Active first.

Even after that, the Gazette notice stays on the filing history forever. A buyer will see it and will ask. That is survivable with a clean one paragraph answer, but it is a conversation you will be having in every process from now on.

The wider point for anyone within a couple of years of an exit: your public register is part of your sale readiness, the same as your books. Both get inspected, both make buyers nervous when they are messy, and the register is the cheaper of the two to keep clean. If you are working towards a sale, our UK guide to selling a contracting business covers the rest of the preparation, and a free valuation takes under a minute if you want to know what a clean entity is actually worth.

If you are buying a business

An active proposal to strike off on a target is information, not automatically a dealbreaker. What matters is which kind and why.

A DS01 voluntary application means the owner started closing the company. Sometimes that is exactly your opportunity: an owner winding down for retirement who never considered a sale. The application can be withdrawn with a DS02 if a deal comes together. But confirm why they were closing before you get attached to the story.

A compulsory GAZ1 over a late confirmation statement on an otherwise healthy business is an admin lapse. It tells you something about the back office, and it is fixable in days.

A compulsory GAZ1 with an RP05 next to it means the address failed. Often that is an office provider collapsing under the new rules rather than anything sinister, and it is fixable in weeks.

A suspended strike off is the one to slow down for, because suspension usually means someone objected, and the most common objectors are unpaid creditors and HMRC. That is a solvency question, not an admin question.

Three checks on any UK target before spending money on professional fees: the full filing history, not the summary, looking for repeat Gazette notices, RP entries and habitual lateness; registered charges, because secured lenders change what you are actually buying; and the free follow service on the company, so the register cannot change during diligence without you knowing the same day. Our complete UK buyer's guide takes it from there, or browse UK trade businesses for sale to see what clean looks like.

The short version

• The status means deletion is scheduled. The filing history tells you whether it is voluntary or compulsory, and everything depends on which.
• Voluntary and unwanted: DS02 online, done.
• Compulsory over filings: file them today, online.
• Compulsory over the address: paper only, real evidence of entitlement, all three address forms together, check PROOF by phone before posting, mark it for the Registrar's Functions team, send it tracked.
• Rejections go to the address on the register, which may be one you cannot read. Check the filing history weekly instead of waiting for post.
• Fixed means "discontinued" or "withdrawn" on the register. Nothing else counts.
• Dissolved means everything passes to the Crown, and the way back costs £341 before penalties and takes months.

This article is general information about the Companies House process, not legal or accounting advice. Fees and forms change; the figures here were checked against the official Companies House fee schedule in August 2026, but confirm the current position on GOV.UK before relying on them. If your company has debts it cannot pay, strike off is unlikely to be the right route at all, and you should speak to a licensed insolvency practitioner.

Thinking about selling once your register is clean? Get a free ballpark valuation in under a minute, no sign-up needed, or list your business and we will connect you with a vetted broker and solicitor to handle the sale properly.