Has your registered office changed without you knowing?
When completing the audit of one of my clients this week we noticed that the company’s registered office address had mysteriously changed.
My surprised client had never heard of the address some 50 miles away. We obtained a copy of the signed form 287 from companies house and it became apparent that the director’s signature had been forged
and someone, not connected with the company, had changed the Registered Office address.Unfortunately, I have heard of this before. A fictitious party purchases assets with a credit agreement using the company’s details and a “fake” Registered Office (which the lender checks at Companies House) to complete the deal. They then take (and probably sell) the assets leaving the liability with the company.
My client has contacted Companies House and the police - we can now only wait to hear from any lenders who think they have an agreement in place with the company.
There is clearly a lack of control over the current paper system and going forward my client will be using internet filing at Companies House - although this is not without its own complications (see http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/miscellaneous/misc1.shtml)
So my advice is to keep an eye on your statutory details and apply for internet filing as soon as you can.
This exact same thing has happened to me and now I have received a debt collection notice for goods delivered to the fraudulent address. I want to know if my company can be held liable even though it had no knowledge of the registered office address change ?
Dominic
Sorry to hear that. I'm not sure of the legal position, are there any solicitors out there who have come across this issue ? My recommendation is to sign up for e filing at Companies House as soon as you can so that it can't happen again.
Thanks
Gary