Due diligence · verification

Is this UK company legitimate?

Before you sign a contract, pay an invoice or onboard a supplier, verify the company is real, active, correctly registered and free of obvious red flags. CompanyCheckr pulls every signal you need into one workflow.

One workflow, every check

Run a full legitimacy check in seconds

Search by name or CRN and get status, incorporation date, registered office, PSCs, filing gaps, insolvency history, sanctions screening, adverse news and a plain-English AI briefing. Everything you need to sign or walk away with confidence.

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15 free checks per month. No card required.

What "legitimate" actually means

A legitimate UK trading company is registered at Companies House, has an "active" status, files accounts and confirmation statements on time, discloses at least one Person with Significant Control, and has a genuine registered office. It should not appear on sanctions lists, and its directors should not be currently disqualified.

Who this is for

· Finance teams onboarding new suppliers or customers
· SMEs offering credit terms to first-time buyers
· Accountants running KYB checks
· Procurement teams verifying tender bidders
· Buyers doing pre-acquisition due diligence

The 8 signals we check

Companies House status

Active, dissolved, in liquidation, strike-off pending.

Filing hygiene

Overdue accounts or confirmation statements — a classic distress signal.

Directors & disqualifications

Current officers cross-checked against the disqualified register.

PSCs / beneficial owners

Who really controls this company, and where they sit.

Outstanding charges

Secured lenders sitting ahead of trade creditors.

Insolvency history

Live liquidation, administration, receivership or CVA cases.

Sanctions & PEP screening

Global watchlists via OpenSanctions.

Adverse media

Cited news mentioning fraud, insolvency, HMRC or regulatory action.

Common red flags in fake or shell companies

· Incorporated within the last few weeks but demanding upfront payment
· Overdue accounts or a "first gazette notice for strike-off"
· "No PSC" statement or opaque offshore corporate ownership
· Registered office shared with hundreds of unrelated companies
· Directors with a trail of dissolved short-life companies
· Sudden name change from an unrelated older company

Related tools & guides

Go beyond the basics

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