Company status check: is the company still trading?

What this test checks

Reads the company's current status on the Companies House register and sorts it into one of three groups: normal (Active), a warning state such as Active - Proposal to Strike off or Dormant, and a critical state such as Liquidation, In Administration, Receivership, Voluntary Arrangement or Dissolved.

For an overseas company registered in the UK (company numbers beginning FC), an Active status only says the overseas company exists. The test also looks at its UK establishments, because an overseas company whose UK establishments have all closed may have withdrawn from the UK.

What a fail looks like

Any status other than Active. The most common fail is an insolvent liquidation; others are In Administration, Voluntary Arrangement, one of the older receivership labels, or Dissolved. A warning is raised for a solvent wind-down, for Active - Proposal to Strike off and for the small number of companies whose status is Dormant. A Liquidation status with no case on record stays a fail.

Harmless explanations

• Liquidation also covers members' voluntary liquidation, the normal way to close a solvent company, in which creditors are paid in full. The test reads the case type and reports one as a solvent wind-down warning rather than a fail.
• Some receivership labels are old and relate to a single charged property rather than the whole business.
• A Dissolved company may simply have been closed deliberately once its work was done.

What to do

• Find out which process lies behind the status before acting: the Gazette notices and the insolvency record say whether a liquidation is solvent or insolvent.
• If you are owed money by a company in an insolvency process, contact the office-holder named in the Gazette and submit a claim.
• If you depend on the company for supply, plan for an alternative now rather than when the status changes again.

Background: Company status at Companies House.

Related tests

• FIN-008Proposal to Strike Off
• LEG-001Active Insolvency Proceedings
• LEG-021Insolvency Process Classification
• DRV-016Company Status Change Alert

Part of the test catalogue. Every check Senserity runs, with its severity and the plan it is available on.

Last reviewed 3 October 2026.