How to Object to a Striking Off in Singapore

If a company that owes you money has applied to be struck off, you can stop it. Any interested person may lodge an objection through Bizfile, it costs nothing, and a valid objection puts the striking off on hold while the two of you sort the matter out.

Raffles Corporate Services works with a panel of experienced Singapore law firms who offer cost-effective and efficient legal service and advice. This article is general information only and is not legal advice.

The catch is timing. Striking off is a deadline-driven process with published notice periods, and once the name is off the register your cheap option has gone. From that point you are looking at a restoration application, which is slower, and in some cases needs a court order.

So the real skill here is noticing early. Below is who can object, what ACRA actually wants to see, and what happens in the two months after your objection is approved.

What an objection actually does

An objection is a statutory right, not a complaint form. Under Section 344C of the Companies Act 1967, where the Registrar has given or published notice of an intention to strike a company’s name off the register, any person may deliver an objection on the ground that there is reasonable cause why the name should not be struck off. Section 66 of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2005 gives the same right where an LLP is being struck off.

The objection must reach the Registrar by the date specified in the notice, and it must be in the prescribed form and manner. That form and manner is the Bizfile eService for submitting and clearing objections against striking off.

Two routes lead to a striking off, and you can object to either:

• Voluntary striking off, where the directors apply to close the company under Section 344A. The Registrar writes to the company, its directors, secretaries and members giving 30 days to show cause, then publishes a notice in the Gazette, and cannot strike the name off until 60 days after that publication.
• Registrar-initiated striking off under Section 344, where ACRA has reasonable cause to believe the company is not carrying on business or is not in operation. The same pattern of letter, Gazette notice and waiting period applies.

Either way, the window is finite and it is advertised in the Gazette rather than sent to you personally. Nobody is going to telephone a creditor.

Who can object

Any interested person. You do not need to be a shareholder, a director or a registered charge holder. Unpaid suppliers, landlords, employees owed wages, counterparties to a live contract and government agencies all object in practice.

There are two practical gates:

The entity must not already be struck off. If the status in Bizfile reads “Struck Off”, the objection route is closed and you are in restoration territory instead.

If you object in the name of your own company or LLP, that entity must be in order. It needs a “Live” status and must genuinely be active or in operation. The same applies to a corporate service provider objecting for itself or for a client. In plain terms, ACRA will not let a dormant or lapsed entity be used as a shield.

Before you file, make sure your own annual returns are up to date and your corporate email address in ACRA’s records is current. Both of those cause avoidable rejections, and the second one causes the single most common Bizfile error on this filing.

What you need to prepare

The supporting documents are where objections are won and lost. ACRA’s position is that an objection lodged without supporting documents may be rejected, and that everything you upload must be recent. A statement of account from 2019 will not carry an objection in 2026.

Evidence that actually works

Think about what proves an unresolved matter exists now:

• Invoices, purchase orders and an accounts receivable ageing that ties to them
• Bank statements showing the payment that never arrived
• A lease or utility bill where the entity is still your tenant or account holder
• Signed agreements or contracts covering an ongoing or pending project
• Evidence of ongoing legal action, court documents, or a pending prosecution
• Assessments or notices from other agencies, for example an IRAS notice of assessment, outstanding CPF contributions, or a licence condition
• Documents showing a liquidator or judicial manager has been appointed
• Proof of asset ownership where the entity holds something of yours

Two PDFs is a tight budget. Merge your evidence into a single well-ordered file with the strongest document first, rather than uploading two loose pages and hoping.

The filing itself

You file through the Bizfile eService for submitting and clearing objections against striking off. The route in depends on who you are:

1. As an individual, log in to Bizfile as an Individual User through Singpass. Our guide to logging in to Bizfile as an individual covers the access side if you have not done this before.
2. On behalf of your company or LLP, log in as a Business User through Corppass, and check the entity shown on the top menu bar before you start. The Corppass business user route is the one to follow.
3. As a corporate service provider, log in as a Business User, switch to the Corporate Service Provider tab on the profile selection page, then pick the client entity.
4. From the Deregister menu, choose local company or limited liability partnership, then the submit or clear objection service, and start.
5. Enter the UEN, declare your objector category, state the reason, upload your evidence and submit.

There is no fee. ACRA’s stated approval time is up to 20 working days, during which it may come back to you through Bizfile asking for clarifications or further documents. Answer those quickly. A slow reply here can push you past the striking off date, which defeats the entire exercise.

What happens after ACRA approves your objection

Approval is not the end. It starts a clock.

Two points deserve emphasis. First, only the objector can see the objection status in Bizfile, so the company on the other side is working blind and will chase you. Second, the obligation to clear the objection is yours. If you are paid and then forget to clear it, you are holding a solvent company hostage over a settled debt, which is not a position anyone wants to explain.

What goes wrong

Finding out too late. Most creditors discover the striking off when a letter arrives about something else entirely. If you carry meaningful exposure to a customer, a monthly Bizfile check of their status costs almost nothing. Once the name is struck off, your route is a restoration application, and for a voluntary striking off that means going to court under Section 344(5) of the Companies Act 1967.

Objecting with nothing attached. An objection that says “they owe us money” with no invoice behind it invites rejection.

The corporate email trap. If Bizfile throws a “This field is required” error that makes no sense, the usual cause is an outdated or missing corporate email address on your own entity’s records. Update it, then lodge again.

Using an objection as leverage rather than as a remedy. The two-month window is designed for resolution. It is not a parking space. An objection that is never cleared simply causes the application to lapse, and the entity can start the process again afterwards.

Assuming an objection recovers your money. It does not. It preserves the debtor’s existence so you can pursue recovery. If you need to actually collect, that is a separate exercise, and our note on third party debt orders covers one of the sharper tools available once you have a judgment.

Frequently asked questions

Can I object to a striking off if I am not a creditor?
Yes. The statutory test is whether there is reasonable cause why the name should not be struck off, and any person may deliver an objection. Employees owed wages, parties to a live contract, licensors and government agencies all have standing. You still need recent documents showing an unresolved matter.

How much does it cost to object?
Nothing. Both lodging an objection and clearing it later are free in Bizfile. ACRA’s stated approval time for an objection is up to 20 working days, and clearing one takes effect immediately.

Will the company know it was me?
Yes. If ACRA approves the objection it writes to the entity at its registered office, and that letter states the objector’s name and the reason given. There is no anonymous objection against a striking off in Singapore.

What if the company is already struck off?
You cannot object once the status is “Struck Off”. The remaining route is restoration. For a company struck off following its own application, that means applying to court under Section 344(5) of the Companies Act 1967 within six years of the striking off.

Does an objection stop the company being struck off forever?
No. It suspends this application. If the matter is not resolved within two months the application lapses, but the company is free to apply again later, and you would need to object again if the debt is still outstanding.

Can my corporate secretary object for me?
Yes. A corporate service provider can file for its own firm or for a client through the CSP profile in Bizfile, provided the entity’s details in ACRA’s records are complete and current.

Do not find out from the Gazette

The hard part of this is not the filing. It is knowing that the filing is needed, on a Tuesday, before a sixty day window closes on a debtor you have not thought about in months.

Raffles Corporate Services monitors entity status for clients with real counterparty exposure, prepares objections with evidence that survives ACRA review, and handles the clearing side once you are paid. If a customer of yours has gone quiet and you are not sure whether they are still on the register, that is a two-minute check and worth making today.

Talk to us through Raffles Corporate Services, or read more Singapore corporate secretarial practice notes at Singapore Secretary Services.

— The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services