UK Starting Business

I am a sole trader and only wish to register and protect my trading name.  I have carried out a name check at Companies House and it is free to use.

Could you please advise me of the steps to take to protect my name without having to go through all the costly procedures of setting up a limited company?

My profession is as a management consultancy business, so if someone was to register a limited company using my name it would not be totally disastrous as it would put my personal reputation at stake.

Even though the company would be dormant, as it is registered in my name would the financial exposure liability be limited to the assets, even though there are none?  You see I am also planning to take out Professional Liability insurance as protection, and hence the question that I have now raised. If the Limited Company even though dormant can protect my personal assets against courts from seizing them in the event of trading problems, then this would be great news and save me the annual expense of paying insurance premiums which are not cheap.

This is a query which relates to the incorporation of a company over the weekend. Please provide me the following information before I use an online service for company formation.

1. If I form a company over the weekend, would the agent be able to register the company that day and send all relevant documents to me on that same day.

2. I would want to have £1000 authorised share capital for the new company. When I apply for an electronic formation, do the application forms generally include a facility for these details to be specified before the application is sent for incorporation? What is the limit of authorised share capital?

3. I would like to use my own registered office address for the company. It is common for online application forms include these details?

4. What are the requirements to open a UK company bank account? Do I need electric copy of incorporation certificate or fully printed one in order to satisfy the bank’s code of practice?

Thank you for the information, I would be grateful to receive a reply and any suggestion you have of which company formation agent I should select.

Some advice is needed in respect of whether I need to send anymore documents to Companies House or Revenue and Customs. I recently incorporated a private limited company guaranteed by shares with a company formation agent and I am unsure what to do next.

I am running a single member company of which I am the sole director.

Do I need to submit form 88(2)? I haven’t issued anymore shares to other people. I was the initial subscriber of the shares.

The Stock Transfer Form J30 is only used when I as a subscriber sell my shares to other persons, is that correct? I don’t need to complete this now to register my subscription.

What about the forms notifying Companies House of where the Registers are kept, e.g. Register of Charges/Directors/Members etc. Do I need to submit these?

Do I need to let Companies House know about the dormant status of the company? If so, how do I go about this? I read on a website that a company is dormant by default but according to the record at Companies House it says that the company is active.

Sorry for all the questions, I don’t want to get fined and I am sure there is something I am meant to do that I haven’t.

Incidentally, I must say that I was most impressed by the service received and how easy the incorporation system was to use. I will recommend the service I used to others looking for a Formation Agent.

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.