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Ben Jones
Ben Jones, UK Lawyer
Category: Law
Satisfied Customers: 50202
Experience:  Qualified Solicitor
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I ran a restaurant under a sole trader ship and had built up

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I ran a restaurant under a sole trader ship and had built up a debt, owning business rates of £10,000. My landlord who granted me a lease went into receivership and my restaurant lease had expired, making it difficult for me to pay the outstanding debt.After 2 years the business rates council have now contacted me at my new business address and are now chasing me to pay the outstanding amount and have instructed inforcement agents to recover the outstanding money.My question is: when I occurred the debt I ran a sole trader ship business in my own name and I now run a company under a company name at the address where I am receiving the notice of enforcement from the inforcement agent.As I said the old business address was in my personal name and now my new address is in my company name, so the question is: can my company become responsible for the sole trader ship debt
Ben Jones
Hello, my name is***** am a qualified lawyer and it is my pleasure to assist you with your question today. Are you able to pay the debts personally?
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Customer: replied 2 years ago.
No
These debts will belong to the sole partnership and cannot be transferred over to any new entity, such as a new limited company you may have set up. However, as a sole partner you will be personally responsible for the debts of your business and as such they can pursue you personally to repay these. Whilst they cannot touch the new company’s assets, they can go after you as an individual and any of your personal assets may be at risk, including your house. So to answer your question – your new company cannot directly be held responsible for these debts but you personally can. I hope this has answered your query. I would be grateful if you could please take a second to leave a positive rating (3, 4 or 5 stars) as that is an important part of our process and recognises the time I have spent assisting you. If you need me to clarify anything before you go - please get back to me on here and I will assist further as best as I can. Thank you
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