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Performing company check on any UK company or LLP is extremely fast and simple. A business should register with Companies House to operate as a firm and file some documents about its operations and finances, as well as records of the people who control it.
All records are then put on the official UK company registry and made available to the public through the Companies House Service (formerly named Beta) and WebCHeck.
What company information can be checked?
It is a legal requirement for UK-registered companies and LLPs to file such reports during and after the incorporation process.
If you want to know more about a particular company, you can access the following details using the Companies House Service and WebCHeck:
- Date of company incorporation.
- Information about current company officers (directors and secretaries or LLP members) such as name, date of birth, contact address, nationality, occupation, and date of appointment.
- Registered office address.
- Details of company shareholders, guarantors, or LLP members.
- Information on People with Significant Control (PSCs) such as name, date of birth, contact address, and the nature of each PSC control in the company.
- Resigned company officers.
- Details of disqualified company directors.
- Director's appointments are held in other companies.
- Nature of the company's business activities.
- Previous company names.
- Annual financial accounts (which is known as statutory accounts).
- Confirmation statement
- Deadlines of filing for the next accounts and confirmation statement.
- Mortgage charges.
- Company status (i.e. active, dormant, or dissolved).
- Scanned pictures of company documents, including the certificate of incorporation, confirmation statements, annual accounts, and change of officer details.
- Companies House currently holds more than 170 million digital records. Accessing this information is invaluable, especially when you are considering doing business with a company and want to check that it is legitimate, trustworthy and solvent.
Reasons
Whether you are a business owner, a supplier, an investor, or a consumer, there are various occasions when exercising due diligence before doing business with a particular company may be sensible or necessary. You can use a company check to:
- Figure out if your company is genuine
- Analyze the financial status of a company before investing, lending, providing services, or buying the business.
- Research about a business before applying for a job or accepting a job offer.
- Examine how long a company has been trading before using its services or buying its products.
- Verify who owns, controls, and runs the business.
- Review whether the company is updated with its accounts and other filing obligations.
- Establish the location of the registered office of a company.
- Figure out if a company is in good standing and whether it is being managed efficiently and responsibly.
- Get a better understanding of business performance.
In addition to checking details about a company via Companies House, you may want to do a general internet search for customer feedback, articles and business reviews of services or products, social media posts, and any news reports about the organization or the people associated with it. This will help you to gain a better understanding of the company that you are curious about.
Companies House Service
Launched as a Beta Companies House Service in 2015, it is now called Companies House Service and is very easy to use and free of charge. This online facility enables you to search for more than 3 million companies on the UK register.
Following are the steps you should follow to perform a company check:
- Enter the name of the company, unique company registration number, or name of a company officer into the search bar on the Companies House Service homepage.
- Choose the name of the company or officer that you want information about.
- Click on any blue highlighted text to get more information about the company.
You can also monitor, or follow, a company by registering your information through the Service. By doing so, you can receive free email alerts when the company files new information and updates any of its registered details.
Companies House WebCHeck service
By doing so, when the company files new information or updates any of its recorded data, you can receive free email alerts. A Companies House WebCheck offers free information available on the new Companies House Service. It can be used to view the filing history of a company and also purchase copies of filed document images and company reports including current officer appointments, company records, and mortgage statements.
You need to register a password and email address online to purchase company documents and reports via WebCHeck. Companies House will then contact you to access and securely download your requested documents.
