There’s so much to think about when setting up a new company, it’s easy to leave things until later, or assume that someone else will sort them out for you. Even if you start off on the right foot, over the years your business’s statutory registers (often referred to as ‘statutory books’ or ‘company books’) can become out of date and inaccurate.

Having incomplete or inaccurate statutory registers can result in fines and (in the worst case) your business could be struck off the company register. At best, the inaccuracies may pass unnoticed until you seek investment or attempt to sell your business.

When this happens, the buyer’s solicitors will check that the records on Companies House match your statutory books and related documents. Any discrepancies may undermine their confidence in your business, and will have to be rectified before a transaction can be completed. 

Recreating or rebuilding company books can be a time consuming and expensive task, and may cause delays in the completion of your transaction. Depending on the nature of the errors, your investor or purchaser may require you to give risky indemnities, or may even abandon the transaction altogether.