Order certified copiesdocuments and certificates from Companies House
How to order certified copies of certificates and documents held on the Companies House register.
You can order:
- a certificate of incorporation with certified facts
- a certified copy of a document held on the register
How to order and costs
You can place an order by:
visitingusing theCompaniesFindHouseandServiceupdate company information service - search for the company, and order from the ‘More’ tab- calling the Companies House contact centre on 0303 1234 500
visitingoneofourinformationcentres
There are 2 differentdispatch typesoptions offor this service: standard and same day.express.
StandardStandard servicedispatch
This costs £15. Orders for incorporation documents cost £30. We aim to processsend these orders within 410 working days.
Standard UK orders are sent by Royal Mail Second Class Delivery.post and international orders by Royal Mail International post.
We’re not responsible for any costs after you’ve received your order, such as courier or legalisation costs.
SameExpress day servicedispatch
The same day service costs £50. WeOrders canfor onlyincorporation acceptdocuments orderscost made through calling the Companies House contact centre on 0303 1234 500.£100.
You must place your order before 11am. If you order after 11am, your order will not be processedsent until the next working day.
Express YourUK orderorders willare besent deliveredby Royal Mail 1st Class post and international orders by Royal Mail International post.
Including additional facts
You can request to include additional certified facts on an incorporation certificate. These are:
- directors’ names, and details such as date of birth or nationality
- secretaries’ names
- registered office address
- the company’s objects
- good standing statement
The good standing wording says that a company has been in continuous, unbroken existence since its incorporation and that no action is currently being taken to strike the company off the register.
We’ll only issue a good standing statement if the company is up to date with its filings. It must be a:
- private limited company with at least one director who’s a natural person
- public limited company with a secretary and at least 2 directors (one must be a natural person)
You cannot order certificates with information on shareholders, shareholdings or statement of capital.
Legalise a document or certificate
You can get a document legalised with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). In countries who have signed up to the Hague Convention of 1961, this gives the document the same authenticity it has in the UK.
To get a Companies House document legalised by the FCO, it must have the original signature of a British public official. To get a document signed in person by one of our officials, you’ll need to request a certified certificate or certified copy.
Last updated
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Changed same day service to express service.
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We can now offer a same day service if you place an order through the Companies House contact centre. Orders must be placed before 11am. It costs £50. Your order will be delivered by post.
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Added information on how to use the Companies House Service (CHS) to place an order for a certified document.
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First published.
Update history
2024-08-27 11:52
Our express dispatch service is available as normal.
2024-07-23 15:08
There are delays to our express dispatch service. We’re working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
2024-03-04 00:00
Good standing statement is now called a summary statement.
2023-02-02 16:28
The Royal Mail cyber incident has been resolved. We’ve started to despatch all overseas orders, but Royal Mail delivery times may take longer than usual while they work through the backlog.
2023-01-18 17:57
Royal Mail’s international export service is currently disrupted because of a cyber incident. Overseas orders for certificates and certified documents are suspended until further notice.
2023-01-18 11:37
We’re unable to access some areas of our office due to unforeseen building maintenance. This means we cannot satisfy orders for non-digitised information, such as missing images, archive searches and some certified documents.
2022-09-28 10:18
Changed same day service to express service.
2022-03-01 09:00
We can now offer a same day service if you place an order through the Companies House contact centre. Orders must be placed before 11am. It costs £50. Your order will be delivered by post.