Staff at a pub and deli which closed last month claim they are still owed wages.
Goldings, on King's Lynn's Saturday Market Place, closed on January 9.
Co-owner Lucy Golding said the owners of the building - formerly the Wenns - had refused to negotiate over rent.
Mrs Golding and her husband Richard have reopened Goldings in Dough Dealers, formerly the Market Bistro, next door - however they say their hands are tied in terms of paying staff back.
Around a dozen staff who lost their jobs in the process say they are still owed wages.
Barman Jack Bradley, 28, said he was owed almost £700. He said: "When she said Goldings was shutting down, a week or 10 days before Christmas, she assured us there was a pot set aside for wages. She said it would be paid on January 11, then the 28th as normal."
One woman, who says she is owed £998, said she had had to move out of her rented property and return home to live with her parents because she had no job and could not afford the rent.
Staff have received a letter from Mr Golding confirming their redundancy.
"Full details of the redundancy payment which will be available to you are in your final payslip," it adds.
"Unfortunately the company has insufficient realisable assets and no funds with which to appoint an insolvency practitioner and therefore initiate a voluntary liquidation. I am not in a financial position to fund this personally.
"The company, therefore, will now lie in a state of limbo until either Companies House strikes it from the register or a creditor winds it up through the high court, leading to the official receiver being appointed as liquidator, at which point you will be able to claim any monies owed to you from the government."
Former chef Graham Ridgwell said he had received a payslip saying he would receive £1,098.59 but the money had not yet been paid into his bank account. He said he had previously been given verbal assurances he would be paid.
"I can survive but that is a substantial amount of money," he said. "In hospitality January and February are very slow months.
"The job market isn't strong enough for us all to walk into other jobs. You've got one who's a student who's unable to pay his rent, you've got single parents who are struggling - it's all a bit of a mess."
Mr Golding said: "The long and short of it is the company went into liquidation on January 9 and at that point we were told we couldn't touch the bank account or do anything.
"I'm not withholding wages, we can't pay them by law. At the end of the day it's a legal issue."
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