The Companies Act 1985 requires private limited companies to keep and maintain various statutory records, including a register of directors, secretary, members, directors' interests and charges.

Although, in practice, the penalties that can be imposed on companies and their officers for failure to maintain these registers are rarely imposed, it is important to keep the statutory records up-to-date.

The records may be inspected by the company's auditors, when a company sale is proposed or when the company is attempting to raise further finance. It is easy to lose the confidence of third parties if the statutory records are out of date or incomplete.

Failure to complete registers such as the register of members may also affect the member's legal title in any shares held.

Oswalds can assist you in bringing the statutory records of your company up-to-date or in reproducing them where they have been misplaced or destroyed.

Initially, we will review any existing records of the company, its public record, the Memorandum and Articles of Association and the minutes of any company meetings that have been produced. Once this has been completed, the registers will be brought up-to-date appropriately and we will be able to advise on any further action that may be necessary, such as the filing of forms at Companies House or the issuing of new share certificates.

A full set of statutory registers will also be supplied once the process has been completed.

In order to ensure that the registers remain compliant, you may also wish to take advantage of our full secretarial and registered office services.

Next steps

The cost of assisting you in this matter will be dependent on a number of factors, such as the age of the company, the number of members and officers during its life and the level of documentation already in existence.

For further information on this service, please contact our Corporate Legal Services team using the links in the box on the right.