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How to check if a UK company is legit before you trade with it

A 5-minute check on any company: registration, accounts, directors and the red flags to look for.

You've just landed a new customer, or a supplier has quoted you a great price. Before you send that first invoice on 30-day terms, or pay a deposit up front, it pays to ask one simple question: is this company actually legit? The good news is that in the UK you can answer most of that question in about ten minutes, for free, using official public records. Here's exactly what to look for and what each signal is really telling you.

What "legit" actually means

A legitimate company you can safely trade with usually ticks three boxes. First, it genuinely exists as a registered entity. Second, it's currently active, not dissolved or in the middle of being struck off. Third, it isn't hiding obvious red flags such as overdue accounts, insolvency notices, or directors with a history of failed companies. "Legit" isn't a single yes or no. It's a picture you build from several public signals, and any one of them can be the thing that saves you from a bad debt.

Step 1: Confirm it exists on Companies House

Every limited company and LLP in the UK must be registered with Companies House, the official register of companies. Start there. Search the exact company name the other party gave you, and match it against the company number they quote on their invoices, website or emails. The number is the reliable identifier because names can be near-identical. Watch out for two common traps: a business trading under a name that doesn't match its registered name, and a company number that belongs to a dormant shell rather than the business you think you're dealing with. If you can't find them on the register at all and they claim to be a "Ltd", that's an immediate reason to pause.

Step 2: Check the company status

Once you've found the record, look at its status. Active is what you want. Dissolved means the company legally no longer exists and cannot lawfully trade or enter contracts. In liquidation or in administration means an insolvency process is underway, so any money you're owed could join a long queue of creditors. The most quietly dangerous status is "Active - proposal to strike off". That means an application to remove the company from the register has been made, often because accounts weren't filed. Trading with a company in that state is risky: it may vanish before it pays you.

Step 3: Look at the company's age

Check the incorporation date. Age isn't a guarantee of anything, but it's useful context. A company that's been trading for ten years has a track record you can inspect. A company incorporated three weeks ago that's asking for extended credit deserves more caution and, ideally, upfront payment or a smaller first order until it's proven itself. Brand-new isn't the same as bad, but combine a very young company with a request to invoice large sums on terms, and you should slow down.

Step 4: Check the registered office address

Every company must have a registered office address on the public record. This won't always be where they actually operate, plenty of legitimate businesses use their accountant's address, but it's worth a look. If the registered address is a mass-mail-forwarding office and hundreds of unrelated companies share it, that's not proof of anything wrong, but it means you can't verify a real place of business. A residential address for a small trading company is normal. What you're looking for is consistency between what they've told you and what the record shows.

Step 5: Are accounts and confirmation statements filed on time?

This is one of the most revealing checks and the one most people skip. Companies must file annual accounts and a yearly confirmation statement (which confirms basic details like directors and ownership). Companies House shows the filing history and flags anything overdue. A company that files everything on time is being run with basic administrative discipline. A company with overdue accounts is a warning sign: late filing is strongly associated with businesses that are struggling, distracted, or heading towards being struck off. Repeated late filings, year after year, tell you how the business is managed. If accounts are overdue right now, treat that seriously before extending credit.

Step 6: Who are the directors, and what's their history?

Companies House lists current and former directors, and you can click through to see the other companies each director is or was involved with. This is where you spot patterns. A director whose previous companies were all dissolved or went into liquidation shortly after incorporation may be a "phoenix" operator, closing failed businesses and reopening under new names to shed debts. One dissolved company in a long career is nothing; a trail of short-lived failures is a genuine red flag. Also check the Register of Disqualified Directors, maintained by the Insolvency Service, which lists people banned from acting as company directors. Anyone on that list running the company you're about to trade with is a hard stop.

Step 7: Insolvency and Gazette notices

Formal insolvency events, winding-up petitions, liquidations and administrations, are published in The Gazette, the UK's official public record of legal notices, and tracked by the Insolvency Service. A recent notice against the company or its directors is one of the clearest signals to stop and reassess. A winding-up petition in particular means a creditor is trying to force the company into liquidation through the courts, and any credit you extend now could be lost.

Putting it together

No single check is the whole answer, but together they build a reliable picture. An active, established company that files on time, with a stable address and directors who don't have a trail of failures behind them, is one you can trade with confidently. A young company with overdue accounts, a strike-off proposal and a director whose last three ventures collapsed is one to handle with cash up front, or to walk away from. The public record won't tell you everything, but it will tell you enough to avoid the obvious traps. None of this is financial or legal advice; it's simply reading what the official record already shows.

Rather than clicking through five registers yourself, you can let TradeChecker pull it all into one plain-English verdict. If a new customer or supplier is on your desk right now, check a company free and see whether it comes back TRADE, CAUTION or AVOID before you send that invoice, or browse the companies we've checked to see how the signals read in practice.