Illustrative scenario. This story is fictional. It is based on situations that are common in UK practices, but the practice, the client and the people are invented.
The situation
Aldwych Property Holdings Ltd is a small dormant company that holds a single buy-to-let flat for its two directors. Its accounts take ten minutes a year. Its practice, Marlow & Finch, treated it as a “quick one” and filed whatever was needed when the directors’ personal tax returns were done in January.
The company’s confirmation date was in early September, with the statement due 14 days later.
What went wrong
In the autumn of the busy season, the confirmation statement was simply missed. When the team finally came to file it, they found that one director had not verified their identity with Companies House. Under the new rules, the company could not confirm that its directors were verified, so the statement could not be filed straight away.
While the director worked through the verification process, the delay grew. Companies House wrote to the company, and then published a first Gazette notice proposing to strike it off.
What it cost
- A company that owns a property is struck off at serious risk: its assets pass to the Crown. Restoring it is slow and expensive.
- The directors’ mortgage lender was alarmed when it spotted the Gazette notice.
- Many hours of partner time getting the statement filed and the strike-off action suspended.
How Deadlio would have caught it
- Confirmation statements are tracked like every other deadline. Deadlio reads each company’s next statement date from Companies House, so even a dormant company’s statement appears in Due within 30 days.
- The register’s own warning. If Companies House shows a filing as overdue, Deadlio’s client list flags Overdue on register, so the problem is visible the next morning.
- Small clients are not invisible. Every company sits in the same register as the big clients, with the same reminders and the same Monday email.
- Time to sort out ID verification. Seeing the statement a month ahead gives directors time to verify their identity before the filing is due.
Lessons for any practice
- “Quick” filings are the ones most often forgotten. Track them with everything else.
- Build director and PSC identity verification into the confirmation statement process, well before the date.
- A Gazette notice is public. Lenders, suppliers and customers may see it.
Related guides
- Confirmation statement deadline
- Annual accounts filing deadline
- AML client review cycle
- All deadline guides
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