Limited Company/assets of owner

[dewdrop]

Recent detailed reporting on the personal assets of the owner of a limited company which has received much publicity re non payment of redundancy has made me think is the distinction between a corporate body and a person somewhat blurred. a quote says "he can well afford to pay the workers". Is limited liability being ignored?

 

[Joe_90]

Recent detailed reporting on the personal assets of the owner of a limited company which has received much publicity re non payment of redundancy has made me think is the distinction between a corporate body and a person somewhat blurred. a quote says "he can well afford to pay the workers". Is limited liability being ignored?

Agreed but reporting on something does not mean it it is fact.

Take an example Bob is a builder and he sold a site which he owned personally making a profit of €5m in 2006. His wife told him put it on deposit. Bob has a building company which carried on trading. In 2011 Bob company ran out of money and he made all his staff redundant. Bob may have a moral obligation to pay the redundancy to the staff but if he ran the company properly than he has no legal obligation to pay it himself. By properly I mean that the limited liability would not be pierced by a court.