How to check if a UK company is legitimate

Before you pay a deposit, sign a contract, or hand over work to a company you have not dealt with before, it is worth confirming the business is what it says it is. Most companies are exactly what they appear to be, but not all, and a few minutes checking the public record can tell you whether you are dealing with a genuine, established business or something that does not quite add up. This guide sets out how to check whether a UK company is legitimate, and, just as importantly, where the limits of that check lie.

There are two related questions to establish here. The first is whether the company is real and properly registered: does it exist, is it active, are its details genuine? The second is whether it is sound enough to rely on: a company can be real and still be in poor financial health. Both matter, and the public record speaks to both.

Confirm the company actually exists

The first check is the simplest: does the company exist on the Companies House register at all? Every legitimate UK limited company is registered, with a unique company number, a registered office, and a filing history. If a business claims to be a limited company but you cannot find it on the register, that is an immediate reason for caution. If you can find it, note the company number and check that the name and registered address match what the business has told you. A legitimate company’s details will line up; discrepancies between what a business claims and what the register shows are worth questioning.

Check it is active, not dissolved or dormant

Existing on the register is not the same as trading; a company’s status tells you whether it is active, dormant, or in the process of being dissolved or struck off. A legitimate, trading business will show as active. A company that is dormant, dissolved, or has a strike-off notice against it is one to treat with caution, because a business trading under the name of a dormant or dissolved company is a red flag. The status is one of the most useful single facts on the record, and it takes seconds to check.

How long it has been around, and whether it files

A company’s incorporation date tells you how long it has existed, and its filing history tells you whether it behaves like a real, ongoing business. A company that has filed accounts and confirmation statements year after year is demonstrably a going concern. A company incorporated very recently, with no filing history yet, is not necessarily illegitimate; plenty of genuine businesses are new, but it does mean there is less of a track record to rely on, so more caution is warranted. A company that has stopped filing, or files consistently late, is one whose reliability is in question.

Check the people behind it

The director and ownership records tell you who runs the company and who ultimately controls it. Legitimate businesses have identifiable directors with a traceable history. It is worth checking whether the directors are real, whether they are associated with other companies, and whether any have a history of disqualification or a trail of dissolved businesses. A company whose directors are hard to pin down, or who have a pattern of failed companies behind them, warrants closer scrutiny.

Being real is not the same as being sound

Here is the distinction that matters most. Everything above tells you whether a company is genuine, but a genuine company can still be in poor financial health, and dealing with a real but struggling business carries its own risk. Legitimacy is only half the question, and once you have confirmed a company is real and active, it is worth reading its accounts to see whether it is financially stable: does it own more than it owes? Can it cover its bills, and is it heading the right way? A company can be entirely legitimate and still be one you would think twice about relying on. There is more on this in our guide to how to check if a company is financially stable.

Where this check cannot help

Checking the public record tells you whether a company is registered, active, and financially sound, but it does not detect every kind of fraud. A determined scammer can operate through a real, registered company, or impersonate a genuine business they have no connection to, and the register will not always reveal that. Confirming a company exists and looks sound is a strong first line of defence, but it is not a guarantee against deception. For high-value dealings it is worth combining these checks with the ordinary caution you would apply to any new relationship: verifying contact details independently, being wary of unusual payment demands, and not relying on the register alone. The public record is the foundation of checking a company, not the whole of it.

Confirming a company is real and sound is the strongest first check you can make, though it is a foundation to build on rather than a guarantee.

Reading a company’s record and its accounts, and turning them into a clear picture of whether a business is genuine and sound, is what CompanyIQ does. It reads the filed accounts of a UK company, scores its financial health, checks its directors and status, and lays out the warning signs, so you can see at a glance whether a real company is also a safe one to deal with. If you would like the public record read and assessed for you, you can run your first check at company-iq.co.uk.

For more on reading the record itself, see our guide to how to read a UK company’s Companies House record.