Companies House has robust plans in place to maintain services for our customers and protect the welfare of our employees during the coronavirus outbreak.

In response to the spread of the virus, we’re closely following government guidelines. The situation is dynamic and is changing quickly, and we’re continuing to monitor and adapt our services accordingly.

Contacting Companies House

Our telephone contact line will reopen from 8:30am on Friday 24 July.

You can also email enquiries@companieshouse.gov.uk and we’ll answer as soon as possible.

How to send your documents to us

Our priority is to protect the welfare of our employees during the coronavirus outbreak. We may not be able to process paper documents as quickly as we have done previously.

Our latest release of the service allows users to upload:

See our guidance about the Upload a document to Companies House service.

File online

You should use our existing online services to:

See the full list of Companies House documents you can file online.

How to get the company authentication code

You can request to have your code sent to your home address or your registered office address.

Send to a home address

If you are unable to access your company’s registered office address, you can request to have your authentication code sent to your home address instead.

This is a temporary service in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Send to a registered office address

Request your code now. It’s sent by post to your company’s registered office and can take up to 5 days to arrive.

Watch our video to see how easy it is to register and order your code.

If you’re new to the service, you’ll need to:

  1. Register your email address and password.
  2. Select ‘Request an authentication code’.
  3. Enter your company registration number.
  4. Select ‘Request code’.

For more information, see Company authentication codes for online filing.

More time to file accounts and other information

On 25 June 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 received royal assent.

Some of the measures in the Act came into effect immediately on Friday 26 June 2020. Other measures came into effect on Saturday 27 June 2020 when the secondary legislation came into force.

The measures introduced by the Act will relieve the burden on businesses during the coronavirus outbreak and allow them to focus all their efforts on continuing to operate.

Companies and other types of business registered at Companies House will get more time to file accounts and other information. We are in the process of updating all deadlines on Companies House service.

We’ll update your filing deadline automatically. You do not need to apply for an extension.

Changes to strike-off policy and late filing penalties

We understand that this is a difficult time and we’re committed to supporting businesses who may be struggling with their filing requirements during the coronavirus outbreak.

We’ll continue to write to companies who are late filing their annual accounts or confirmation statement and help them bring their record up to date.

For a temporary period, we will:

  • ease compulsory strike off activity
  • treat late filing penalty appeals sympathetically – if the late delivery of accounts was caused by the coronavirus outbreak
  • provide a break for companies to pay late filing penalties
  • provide additional support with payment plans for late filing penalties

From 1 June 2020, there will be an exception to the suspension of strike off activity. In cases where our law enforcement partners have concluded that companies are no longer in operation following an investigation, the registrar will continue with strike off action for those companies.

 Applications for voluntary strike off (DS01)

This temporary measure was lifted on 10 September 2020. We have restarted the process for companies who have applied for voluntary strike off.

Strike off by the registrar

From 10 October 2020, we’ll resume the compulsory strike off process for companies we believe are no longer carrying on business or in operation.

Late filing penalties

If you do not apply for an extension before your filing deadline, and your accounts have been filed late, an automatic penalty will be imposed. The registrar has very limited discretion to not collect a penalty.

Paying your penalty

You can pay your penalty by BACS.

We’re not able to take credit card payments over the telephone.

LFP appeals

Each appeal is treated on a case-by-case basis, and we already have policies in place to deal with appeals based upon unforeseen poor health. We’ll consider appeals based upon coronavirus under these policies.

So we can process your appeals as quickly as possible – send your appeal form to us by email.

See our guidance on late filing penalties and appeals for more information.