It takes very little time and effort to set up a limited company in the UK if you choose the online company formation route. Provided you have all of the required information to hand, you can complete an application to register a limited company in just 5 minutes. Once submitted, your new company could be registered at Companies House in under 24 hours, but this is subject to Companies House workload.
If you have an urgent need to incorporate a company as soon as possible, we would always recommend that you add the ‘guaranteed same-day service’ to your order. This is provided by most company formation agents.
There is also the option to complete a postal registration process using form IN01 – application to register a company, but this takes at least 8-10 days and costs significantly more than online incorporation through a company formation agent or Companies House.
Furthermore, it is much easier to make mistakes on a paper form, so there is a significantly higher chance of a postal application being rejected. According to Companies House, 53% of paper applications are rejected, versus just 8% of online applications.
When is the best time to set up a limited company?
Generally, the best time to set up a limited company is first thing in the morning on a weekday. The earlier you submit the application form, the quicker it should be processed and approved.
Monday mornings are often quite busy due to the backlog of company registration applications received over the weekend, which is worth bearing in mind. In any case, most incorporations are approved on the same day.
Why would company formation be delayed or rejected?
It is often the smallest of errors and oversights that delay company formation or cause Companies House to reject an application. However, due to built-in checks, the online application form greatly minimises the risk of making mistakes.
The most common culprits of delayed or rejected company registration include:
- Proposed company name is already taken, or it is too similar to an existing name on the register
- Proposed company name contains a ‘sensitive’ word
- Providing initials, rather than full forenames, of the individuals listed on the application
- Essential information is missing from the application
- Failing to provide registered office details, or listing a registered office that is not in the same country as company formation
- Misspelling an individual’s nationality
- Stating an individual’s ethnicity, rather than nationality
- Wrong articles of association
- Director is under the age of 16
- Director is a disqualified bankrupt
- Appointing a corporate body as the sole director
- Appointing a disqualified director
- Incorrect share structure
- Providing incorrect date of birth and/or residential address and so causing the electronic anti-money laundering (AML) to fail
To avoid disappointment and ensure a successful company registration, check the availability of your company name, ensure that you have included all of the information required to register a company, and review the application carefully before submitting it online to Companies House.
Quality Company Formations provide a Free Pre-Submission Review with all packages. By checking applications for errors, we dramatically reduce the average rejection rate of new company applications in the UK, from 8%, to just 1%.
What’s more, if a company is rejected, we will fix the problem and re-submit the application.
Set up a limited company online today
At Quality Company Formations, you can set up a limited company online, choosing from a range of company formation packages from as little as £51.99 +VAT.
All packages include the £50.00 filing fee charged by Companies House, a free .com or .co.uk domain name for the first year, a business bank account (optional), a pre-submission review, and a full set of company formation documents including share certificate(s) delivered by email.
Nick, I had a query. How should I check if a company name is unique?
And can an LLP be converted into a private limited? Because I wanted the name of my company to remain the same.
Kindly do reply, a great article by the way!
Regards,
Saurabh Singhania
Hi Saurabh,
Thank you for your kind comments. You can see if a name is available using the company name checker on our home page – this checks to ensure your name is unique against all companies already registered.
Unfortunately, an LLP cannot be converted into a private limited company as these are entirely different corporate structures. An alternative is to change the name of your LLP to a placeholder name, and then to incorporate a new private limited company under the old name. Thereafter, you can undertake a transfer of the assets over from the LLP to the new entity (you’ll need a contract to undertake this).
Hope this helps,
Nick