When a company is
struck off the register.

Strike-off is not insolvency

A company can be struck off while solvent. Directors of a company that has simply stopped trading use the DS01 route because it is cheap and quick, and they must confirm the company has not traded, changed its name, or been threatened with insolvency in the previous three months. That is the legitimate use of strike-off.

The problem is that the same route is also used by companies that still owe money. Strike-off does not extinguish debts in any practical sense for the creditor: once the company is dissolved there is no entity left to pay, and the creditor's realistic options narrow to applying to restore the company to the register, which costs money and time and requires a reason the court will accept.

What a creditor should do

If a company that owes you money has a Gazette notice against it, act inside the two-month window. Objecting to the strike-off in writing to Companies House, with evidence of the debt, stops the process and keeps the company alive while you pursue payment or start formal proceedings. A creditor who misses the window and lets the company dissolve loses the most direct route to recovery.

Strike-off, administration and liquidation

Strike-off sits apart from the formal processes. Administration and liquidation involve appointed insolvency practitioners, a statutory order of payment and a process creditors can join. Strike-off has none of that machinery. If a company with real assets or real debts is heading for strike-off, that choice itself is worth questioning. See administration vs liquidation for how the formal routes differ.