Limited Company Formation Help

[balltheheed]

Hi,

I am trying to form a company on a budget i.e. submitting all of the forms etc to companies house. However I can't seem to find anything online to really help (even companies house website!). Thus, can anyone on here kindly be of assistance?

Basically, I know that i need to submit:

Form 10
Form 12
Memorandum of Association
Articles of Association
Form 10 is fine, form 12 needs to be signed by me and a solicitor, but its the other two that have me stumped. I have looked at saples online but they seem very complicated.

I know that the Articles of Association is defaulted to Table A if you form a standard two director company but what if I want to be the only director? Is there a default version anywhere that I can send companies house?

Then comes the Memorandum of Association. This seems easy but always looks very complicated. Can I simply fut the following on a piece of paper and sign it in front of a witness?

Company name: Company X
Registered Office: England
Objects: To sell some service to someone.
Liability: The liability of the Shareholders is limited.
Division of shares: I, [my name], will have 100% of the shares.
Share Capital: The company will be registered with 1000 shares at a value of £1 each
Any help in this matter will be greatly received. :redface:

Thanks,

Nick

[David Griffiths]

Given that you can form a company for £37, and it will cost you £20 in Companies House fees to DIY, is it really a good use of your time trying to learn something that you will probably never use again? Just to save £17? :|

[M-C Hoare]

If you can wait until later in the year, the mems & arts provisions are being drastically overhauled as per the Companies Act 2006 and simplified.
Marie

[fathippy]

Given that you can form a company for £37, and it will cost you £20 in Companies House fees to DIY, is it really a good use of your time trying to learn something that you will probably never use again? Just to save £17? :|

Bear in mind also, that unless you are lucky you will probably have to pay a fiver to get the form 12 done, so that leaves a £12 saving..... i do recall seeing some £29.99 ones somewhere, so we are really looking at a £4.99 saving!

[the white rose]

Hi,

I am trying to form a company on a budget i.e. submitting all of the forms etc to companies house. However I can't seem to find anything online to really help (even companies house website!). Thus, can anyone on here kindly be of assistance?

Basically, I know that i need to submit:

Form 10
Form 12
Memorandum of Association
Articles of Association

Form 10 is fine, form 12 needs to be signed by me and a solicitor, but its the other two that have me stumped. I have looked at saples online but they seem very complicated.

I know that the Articles of Association is defaulted to Table A if you form a standard two director company but what if I want to be the only director? Is there a default version anywhere that I can send companies house?

Then comes the Memorandum of Association. This seems easy but always looks very complicated. Can I simply fut the following on a piece of paper and sign it in front of a witness?

Company name: Company X
Registered Office: England
Objects: To sell some service to someone.
Liability: The liability of the Shareholders is limited.
Division of shares: I, [my name], will have 100% of the shares.
Share Capital: The company will be registered with 1000 shares at a value of £1 each

Any help in this matter will be greatly received. :redface:

Thanks,

Nick

I had precisely the same problem last month, balltheheed. Lots of people offered to take the problem off my hands. That involved paying them. There are templates online you can customise, it took me ages to find them and no-one helped me. It was if it was some blooming in club secret, really p*****d me off.

Hold on 5 minutes and I'll post the links I found....

[Jenni@FarrantFrost]

companiesmadesimple.com do the basic version for £27 inc VAT.

[the white rose]

companiesmadesimple.com do the basic version for £27 inc VAT.

That's brilliant, Jenni. If I'd known that I'd have used them. I easily spent a day slogging away trying to work out what to do which on reflection was wasted time.

balltheheed: this is a basic template for Mem and Arts (http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:DqDGqq_UaHkJ:www.stanleydavis.co.uk/Eformation) (as they're known) which you can customise. Remember when you submit your forms to sign and date everything. Witness signatures have to have a date next to them as well.

[balltheheed]

Thanks for the replys everyone.

Errm I would like to know the process as I have other companies that I would like to form in the future. Also I don't really know the process so I didn't want to trust an online company to do this for me because how do I know if they are going to do it right? How do they deal with one director and the Table A issue?

Oh and I don't have a job and have just come back from travelling so saving £5 is a necessary evil at the minute. :p

[balltheheed]

Thats great, cheers "The White Rose". I'll have a look at that now.

[the white rose]

as I have other companies that I would like to form in the future.

That's great, balltheheed, but for now if I were you I'd concentrate on getting one company up and running. For that you're going to need to get your head down and work your butt off for 3 years just to give it legs, as they say. At the moment I'm doing 12 hour days and timing all my forum input by the clock - only before or after work or during lunch breaks (lunch breaks. ha ha.)


so I didn't want to trust an online company to do this for me There's nothing inherently untrustworthy about an online company. If you're looking for a company then find one with a good reputation and with good customer testimonials. btw balltheheed, if you find the mem and arts link helpful would you press my thankyou button like Jenni did? (thanks Jenni!)


By the way whilst I'm here (which is what I came on the forum for, actually!) has anyone got any idea how long companies house take to get back to you with all the necessary documents finalising the company formation? So far I've been waiting nearly 3 weeks...

[balltheheed]

Just clicked your thanks buttons!

Its not that I don't trust them, its just I don't know what the implications are....for example some of the online registration companies register their own directors and then automatically resign them....so do I then have to fill out more forms to assign myself as a director? etc etc etc

[balltheheed]

OK, if I use companiesmadesimple.com what do I need to do? Do I still need to submit form 10 & 12 to Companies House?

[Jenni@FarrantFrost]

Fill out the directors and shareholders names as you want them to be, they will do everything including forms 10 and 12. Really simple :)

[balltheheed]

Your too fast....just PM'd a thank you. Cheers.

[Jenni@FarrantFrost]

Actually I saw the PM first but for the sake of the thread I wanted to add the response here too :)

[balltheheed]

All done and dusted with companiesmadesimple.com. It was very easy and worth the couple of quid saving. Thanks to everyone especially Jenni.

[the white rose]

All done and dusted

Which one did you go with as a matter of interest, balltheheed, considering you said that saving even a fiver was a necessary evil atm?

Because the basic bronze package at £24.99 doesn't include a printed certificate of incorporation and in the bumpf it says it's for dormant companies. Then the silver is a lot more than a fiver more expensive, at £59.99. I'm remembering now why I decided to do it myself...none of the cheap options were as cheap as they sounded...

[Jenni@FarrantFrost]

Because the basic bronze package at £24.99 doesn't include a printed certificate of incorporation and in the bumpf it says it's for dormant companies. Then the silver is a lot more than a fiver more expensive, at £59.99. I'm remembering now why I decided to do it myself...none of the cheap options were as cheap as they sounded...

£24.99 + VAT = about £27 (the co house fee is exempt from VAT, it's only the company's charges that have VAT on them).
You can just print the certificate on a piece of buff 160gsm card ;)
This package does everything it needs to, as long as you are happy to print out the relevant docs - you just get everything in pdf format. :)

[pcservicenetwork]

I used companies mae simple last week and it was really easy. I went for the bronze package and then paid the £10 upgrade to get of Certificate Of Inorporation on the required legal paper. All in i spent less than £40 inc VAT.

It turns out that whn i went to open the bank account with Lloyds TSB, they didn't need the certificate on legal paper, so i could of just printed it off and saved a tenna!

[oldeagleeye]

Go to compnayformations247.co.uk. Limited company with all the forms filed with companies house and delivered back by email in 4 hrs - and all for £23.56 including vat. A bargain in itself but wait. If you later sign up to a Barclays Bank account with free banking you get £25 quid back credit to the same credt card you paid with simply by emailing the account number back to the company. Nice one don't you think. Rob

[mahutchinson]

Companies House are deliberately downgrading their paper services these days but 3 weeks sounds way too long. I would give them a ring. They may have sent to a different address or lost it in the post.

[the white rose]

Companies House are deliberately downgrading their paper services these days but 3 weeks sounds way too long. I would give them a ring. They may have sent to a different address or lost it in the post.

Cheers mahutchinson. Comanies House dealt with it within the week, thus the company was incorporated 3 weeks ago unbeknown to me! I rang them on Friday to enquire about it. It turns out there was a malfunction within Royal Mail, setting up my PO box but they dealt with the problem very efficiently on Friday and as we speak (White Rose trots off to answer the door) the postman has just delivered my first batch of PO box mail, including my certificate of incorporation! Woo hoo! :) I will have to frame that and put it alongside my degree (so far never used for owt) and my Tufty club membership.

[mahutchinson]

Great. In future, you can always check this on Companies House web site which allows anyone to look up company details.