The Office of the Attorney General of Trinidad & Tobago recently published a list of companies that it says have been struck-off from its register of companies. Unsurprisingly, many people are in a panic about what it could mean for them and their businesses.

This article is an attempt to outline what losing your registration could mean and why it's imperative that you take care of the situation as soon as possible as you may still have some recourse when this happens.

Benefit Corporation vs B Corp

Your current bank account

Let's suppose you already have a bank account in the name of your business, and it has been struck from the register. It should come as no surprise to you that this could put your bank account in jeopardy as the bank opened your account with the belief that your company was registered.

This change in status will be problematic sooner or later.

Borrowing money

It goes without saying that any attempt to borrow money will be unsuccessful, as you'd be required to produce up-to-date annual returns, which would be virtually impossible under the circumstance this article is talking about.

Office of Procurement Registration (OPR)

What if you're currently registered with the OPR as a legitimate provider of X or Y services? Well it can't be a stretch to say that the legitimacy of your business will now be in question, which in turn will affect your ability to be considered for any opportunities the OPR has.

Sell a Property

If for any reason, you were intending to sell property vested in your business' name, the transaction will require up-to-date annual returns, which you will not have nor will you be able to get. And these two facts will bring that real estate deal to a screeching halt. But even more than the fact that the annual returns will be missing, is the fact that the lawyer for the buyer will simply not allow his or her client to buy from an illegitimate entity.

Goodwill wasted

And lastly and probably most importantly, if you have an existing business and have existing customers, and your failure to file your annual returns has resulted in your business name being stricken from the government's register, you'll ultimately not be able to conduct anymore business in that name, and you will lose all of the goodwill built over the time the name was in use.

That is not something to take lightly, as starting over can be very very difficult.

The bottom line is that if the name of your business is worth something to you, and your business has been stricken from the government's register of companies, you need to attend to the matter urgently.

Below is a link to a database we created out of the list of names of companies the Office of the Attorney General says were struck from the Register of Companies.

Database of Companies Recently Struck From the Register of Companies