While the requirement for a company secretary of a private company was abolished under the Companies Act 2006, the burden of keeping a company compliant often falls to a director or other nominated individual who ends up trying to shoehorn the additional work into their normal day job.

Filing deadlines can get missed, documents can be completed incorrectly, and although the penalties may not be severe, these are statutory requirements and any non-conformities can come back to bite when shareholders are looking to exit and the buyer’s due diligence exercise exposes errors or gaps that can be fundamental to a deal (if the shareholders are selling their shares, they need to be able to demonstrate that they were properly acquired in the first place!). A properly administered company secretarial function is essential, but alarmingly easy to get wrong if insufficient time and attention is devoted to it.

Our company secretarial and governance expertise takes this weight off your shoulders and ensures a company remains compliant with the latest regulations and is in good standing. We take care of all the unfamiliar procedures, obligations and administrative details leaving you to do what you do best – focusing on running and growing a business.

In addition to providing the below fixed fee services, our dedicated company secretarial team have experience looking after the following, but are not limited to:

  • re-constituting corporate statutory registers
  • preparing and filing Companies House forms
  • advising on corporate changes (such as company name changes and director changes) and preparing all required documents
  • preparing documents for any changes with share capital (including share allotments, sub-divisions, consolidations, re-designations and capital reductions)
  • dealing with share transfers (including any required stamp duty applications)
  • advising on directors’ duties and conflicts
  • drafting of board meeting agendas and minutes and directors’ resolutions
  • drafting shareholders’ resolutions and documents required for any shareholder meetings
  • incorporating and managing property management companies (including individual plot sales)
  • advising on PSC (people with significant control) regulations
  • drafting of articles of associations, shareholders’ agreements and partnership agreements
  • advising on the procedure to strike a company off and preparing the required documents

Incorporations

Limited by shares or guarantee and limited liability partnerships.

We incorporate electronically using specialist software meaning we can have your company up and running, in most cases, within 24 hours. Upon incorporation, we will prepare a set of electronic statutory registers and the company’s first set of board minutes.

Company Secretarial and Registered Office Service

  • Appointment of HP Secretarial Services Limited as named Company Secretary (optional).
  • Maintaining the statutory registers using our specialist software.
  • Preparing and filing (once approved) the annual confirmation statement.
  • Filing the signed final copy of the statutory annual accounts.
  • Providing the auditors with copies of the statutory registers annually.
  • Drafting board minutes or directors’ resolutions approving the annual statutory accounts and any related matters (such as dividends and re-appointment of auditors), together with any required shareholders’ resolutions approving any dividends.
  • Providing our address as the registered office address for a company, which can either be our Milton Keynes, Northampton, Leicester, Cambridge or Norwich office.
  • Forwarding registered office post received at the registered office by email to a nominated contact (or by post if required).

Company Secretarial Service

  • Appointment of HP Secretarial Services Limited as named Company Secretary (optional).
  • Maintaining the statutory registers using our specialist software.
  • Preparing and filing (once approved) the annual confirmation statement.
  • Filing the signed final copy of the statutory annual accounts.
  • Providing the auditors with copies of the statutory registers annually.
  • Drafting board minutes or directors’ resolutions approving the annual statutory accounts and any related matters (such as dividends and re-appointment of auditors), together with any required shareholders’ resolutions approving any dividends.

Registered Office Service

  • Providing our address as the registered office address for a company, which can either be our Milton Keynes, Northampton, Leicester, Cambridge or Norwich office.
  • Forwarding registered office posted received at the registered office by email to a nominated contact (or by post if required).
  • Holding a company’s statutory registers (this does not include maintaining the registers).
  • Annual reminders for the accounts and confirmation statement filings.

Get in touch

To contact us, please fill out this form and we will get back in touch as soon as possible. Your personal data will be processed in accordance with our privacy policy which can be found here.

Thank you for your enquiry. We will respond as soon as possible.

'Combines high quality legal expertise with excellent commerciality in approach and recommendations.’

- Legal 500
Legal insights
Latest articles

A key building block in the provision of vital services

Howes Percival has continued to expand its corporate, commercial and banking (CCB) team with the recruitment…