We continue to receive queries about delivery to Companies House, so we wanted to remind you about our Blog post on this subject, which you can find here.
In short, a document is not ‘delivered’ to Companies House until it is received by them in a format which is suitable for filing, meaning there are no mistakes or missing documentation. The problem is that you will not know that it has been delivered until it has actually been registered, as it could be rejected at any time during the registration process and we have been shown examples of Companies House taking 21 days to file documents.
The delays being seen with Companies House are frustrating in all case types, but they could potentially cause a more significant problem in Administrations since, depending on the exit route used, the effective date of cessation of the Administration can be when a notice is registered at Companies House. We can envisage a situation where Companies House could reject a notice of move from ADM to CVL so late that it cannot be re-issued before the Administration has automatically expired. This could end up with you having to seek directions from the Court as to what to do next, and there is no certainty that the court would be able to find a way to validate the conversion to CVL. The court might, for example, have to wind the company up so that the Official Receiver is appointed liquidator, which could make it difficult for you to get the appointment back.
As a result, we would remind you to ensure that you send in your conversion notices in plenty of time prior to the automatic expiry of the Administration. You should carefully check the format and content of the notice and the accompanying progress report to ensure that there are no reasons for Companies House to reject them.
