Basic incorporation questions

[matt.g]

Hi all

I'm aware that these questions have been asked in a variety of guises before, however I'd very much appreciate any help that can be offered.

A colleague and I are intending to start our own comapny, we have been advised to start a limited company by my father (an accountant).

I have tried to incorporate by myself, however I'm stuck on the Memorandum and Articles of Assocation documents. Rather than risk getting these wrong, and recognising my complete lack of knowledge in all things legal, I'm instead going to go through an agent. Are the on-line agents a good bet? I have found some that charge around £30-35, this surprises me as I would have to pay Companies House £20 if I did it on my own - the agents don't seem to have a huge profit margin! I assume that the charges quoted are all that I would have to pay for incorporation? Is there any benefit to taking more advanced options? I'm afraid budgets are tight at this point, so if the basic packages are OK I'll go with those.

Also, my colleague and I are intending to take 50% stakes, I assume that in this case the Memorandum and Articles would be reasonably 'standard', would I need to inform the agent of anything in particular? I am using my father's commercial address as the company's registered address - with his permission! - as (as far as I follow) I would have to involve my mortgage lender if I used my home address. Is this correct, and would the agent be able to cater for this?

Apologies for such basic questions, it's quite a learning curve!

[CertaxBexley]

Your father is an accountant??? surely he has agent contacts? and why did he advise incorporation? is he a practice accountant? - on the face of it he doesnt appear exactly helpful :(
You can use any registered office you please, within reason, the registered office is primarily used as a point to deliver company statutory documents to.
There may be some clause deep down in the mortgage document, but I suspect its more to do with running a business from the mortgage address.
Use an online agent & simply follow the prompts.

[dp0848]

As your father knows your situation better than any of us participating in this forum his advice to incoporate is likely to be well founded.

I always use www.quickformations.co.uk to carry out company formations for my clients. I have always found them to be fast, efficient and good value for money.

Regards.

David.

[matt.g]

Your father is an accountant??? surely he has agent contacts? and why did he advise incorporation? is he a practice accountant? - on the face of it he doesnt appear exactly helpful :(
You can use any registered office you please, within reason, the registered office is primarily used as a point to deliver company statutory documents to.
There may be some clause deep down in the mortgage document, but I suspect its more to do with running a business from the mortgage address.
Use an online agent & simply follow the prompts.

I'm sure he does have agents, and I'm sure he has made arragements with them for their services in agreements which I'm not privy to. I could call in favours, but I'm not comfortable with doing so. My father advises me as my father who is an accountant, not as my accountant.

He's been more than helpful, and his reasons for recommending we form a limited company are sound. That's as much as I've asked him, for various reasons.

I'll have a crack at incorporating today through an online agency.

[matt.g]

As your father knows your situation better than any of us participating in this forum his advice to incoporate is likely to be well founded.

I always use (I can't post links in my post, even in quotes) to carry out company formations for my clients. I have always found them to be fast, efficient and good value for money.

Regards.

David.

Thanks David, I'll have a look at their site later today.

[ozbon]

In a similar vein, I've always used CoSun ( http://www.quickcompanies.co.uk/ ) for company formations, and always been impressed with the service and speed.

Their website is awful, but their company formation process is top-notch - with Ozbon, I did the form in the morning, and they emailed me the company registration document at lunchtime! (OK, it took 'til the end of the week for all the paperwork to arrive in the post, but that's fine)

At £90 they're not the cheapest in the market, but I'm yet to find another formation agent who works as fast/efficiently, and who make sure you've got multiple copies of the M&As, along with plentiful copies of all the useful/essential Companies House forms etc.

[matt.g]

Cheers for comments and suggestions

In the end I went through simpleformations, just under £30 for a basic package with downloadable and printable forms. It may take a little while to complete, but I'm not in any great rush.

Remarkably pain-free, a definite contrast to trying to figure the article and memorandum out myself!