Your Companies House Deadline Is Probably Earlier Than 18 November

If you run a limited company, there’s a job on your list you might not know about.

Companies House now has to check who you are. Every director. Every person with significant control. That is effectively every company client we look after.

The 12 month transition period ends on 18 November 2026, and that date has been all over the accounting press for months.

Here is the problem with that. For most of my clients, 18 November is not the deadline at all. Theirs is earlier.

What actually changed

Identity verification became mandatory on 18 November 2025 under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.

You verify yourself once and you get a Companies House personal code. One code per person, not per company. So if you are a director of four property SPVs, you still only need the one code.

Voluntary verification opened on 8 April 2025, so a few of you will have done this already without me nagging you. Good.

Your real deadline is your confirmation statement

If you are a director

You give your personal code on your company’s next confirmation statement. Not on 18 November. On your confirmation statement date.

So if your statement fell due in the middle of October, that was your deadline, and 18 November was never relevant to you.

Every company files a confirmation statement once a year, which is why everyone gets caught inside the 12 months. That is where 18 November 2026 comes from. It is the backstop, not the date to put in your diary.

If you are a PSC but not a director

Different rule, and it is an odd one. You verify in the first 14 days of your birth month.

Born on 22 January? Your window is 1 to 14 January. Not the 22nd. I have had to explain that one more than once.

If you are both, which most of you are

Owner-managed companies almost always have the same people as directors and PSCs, so you do both jobs.

Your code goes on the confirmation statement in your capacity as a director. Then you confirm it as a PSC within 14 days starting the day after the confirmation statement date.

Two separate steps. This is the bit people miss, and it is the bit that trips up an otherwise tidy filing.

If someone was added as a PSC after 18 November 2025, they get 14 days from being added to the register.

How you actually get the code

Two routes.

The first is GOV.UK One Login, which is free. You do it on your phone with a passport or driving licence, or you answer questions about yourself, or you take your ID into a Post Office. If your documents are to hand it takes about 15 minutes.

The second is an authorised agent. Accountants and solicitors registered for this can verify you instead. Most charge for it.

I’d start with One Login. It is free and for most people it works first time.

Whichever route you take, keep the code somewhere safe. Treat it like your UTR. It stays with you for life and follows you to every company you are ever involved in.

What it costs to ignore

Companies House has published its penalty scale. A minor first offence is £250. A very serious third offence is £1,500, with the steps in between at £500, £750 and £1,000.

The money is not really the problem though.

If you are not verified, you cannot make filings for the company, and you cannot set up a new one. That is the bit that stops a deal or a refinance dead.

And if you carry on acting as a director past your deadline without verifying, you are committing an offence. Prosecution, a fine and disqualification are all on the table.

Do I think Companies House will be prosecuting a landlord with one SPV in week one? No. But I would not want to be the test case, and neither would you.

Landlords and construction, one warning

If you hold property through SPVs you have likely got several companies and several different confirmation statement dates. The good news is that one personal code covers the lot.

Construction clients, same story if you have got the trading company plus a separate plant or property company.

The trap is the company you have forgotten about. The dormant one you set up three years ago for a job that never happened and never got round to closing.

It still has a confirmation statement. It still needs your code. And if it gets missed, that is a penalty on a company that earns you nothing.

What I’d do this week

Three things, and none of them take long.

1. Find your confirmation statement date. It is on the Companies House register, free to look up, and it takes a minute.

2. Do the One Login verification now, before you need it, rather than the night before a filing.

3. Send the code over to us, or just tell us you have got it, so we are not stopped at the gate when we come to file.

And if you have got a spouse or a business partner who is a PSC but not a director, check their birth month now. That 14 day window comes round faster than you would think.

One last thing so it does not catch you cold later. From no earlier than November 2027, anyone who files at Companies House will need to be verified as well. You will get at least six months’ notice. Park it for now.