Get A Certificate Of Good Standing From Companies House UK

We occasionally get asked about these, so here is what you need to know.

A Certificate of Good Standing is issued by Companies House and posted by them to the company’s registered office address.

The paper version is better. You can also get an electronic copy, but this will not be signed by a Companies House employee, so, it will not do for some purposes.

It states at minimum:

- Company name and number;
- Date of incorporation;
- That the company has existed, without interruption, since the time of its incorporation;
- That no action has been taken by Companies House to strike off the company;
- That the company isn’t in insolvent, as far as the registrar can determine;
- That the company is not subject to an administration order and no official receiver has been appointed to take charge of its property.

→ Contact us here if you are interested in getting one

Companies House can also add the following information:

- Registered office address;
- Names of Directors;
- Names of Secretaries;
- Names of Shareholders;
- Nationality and date of birth of directors;
- Company objectives;
- Share capital.

The above information could be sourced by energetic individuals direct from the Companies House website, but it is a help for legal administrators to have a tangible, summary verification document in their hands.

It is tangible, explicit, immutable and collated in a way a web database is not.

- It can have asterisks at the end like this: *********, to stop people adding their own creative work to it.


What is it used for?

It's a basic check that:

- Your company exists and will continue to do so for the immediate future;
- It has met its basic legal filing obligations;
- It is, at the very least, not broke.

It is sometimes required if your company wishes to:

- Reassure clients, lenders, investors or suppliers, when there are large sums of money involved in a deal;
- Get an overseas business bank account;
- Get UK business bank account when your company has only foreign (non-UK-resident) directors.
- Set up a foreign branch outside the UK;
- Trade in a foreign country.

We would characterise it as a basic fraud or idiot-filter; if a UK company can't get one of these, it's in poor shape.

Companies House will not issue a Certificate if:

- The company's filed accounts are not up-to-date;
- The company's annual returns are not up-to-date;
- Standard details for the register have not been filed, or have been incorrectly or insufficiently filed e.g. who is the actual owner or controller of the company.
- The company has only corporate directors i.e it must have at least one 'natural' director: a human being over 16 years of age.

Also: The Certificate in only valid for 3 months from the date of issue, for obvious reasons.

- It can be provided quite quickly, being delayed only by the time it takes Companies House to generate it from their database, for an official to sign it and for the postman to deliver it to you.

→ Contact us here if you are interested in getting one