Counterparty check · Companies House

Is this importer a real, active company?

Before you release goods, extend terms or sign the contract: check the UK company against the Companies House register. Status, age, outstanding charges, London Gazette strike-off signals and qualitative risk bands — on one verdict card. And when the name is ambiguous, this tool says so instead of guessing.

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Verdict states

Not

A credit decision

The check · /api/company-check

One name or number in. One verdict out.

A company number identifies a company exactly. A name often doesn't — two active companies share the exact name "TESCO STORES LIMITED". Where the name is ambiguous you get unconfirmed plus the candidates, never a green tick on a guess.

Company name or company number UK registered companies only. 8-character number (SC/NI/OC prefixes accepted) or the registered name.

Indicative due-diligence · public Companies House data · not a credit decision or legal advice

Reading the result

Five verdicts. None of them is a credit score.

verified

Identity confirmed, no adverse signals

Matched by company number, or by a name that only one company holds — and the register shows nothing adverse. It says the entity is real and active. It does not say they'll pay you.

unconfirmed

We found a company. Not necessarily the company

A best-guess or shared name match. The candidates are listed — confirm the company number before you rely on anything. This is the failure mode that ships goods to the wrong "Tesco Stores Limited".

caution

Identity confirmed, soft signals present

Very newly incorporated, a weak health or high insolvency-risk band, or overdue filings. Not a stop — a reason to shorten terms, ask for a deposit, or look harder.

red_flag

Dissolved, in an insolvency process, or gazetted

Hard public facts: a dead company status, a dissolution date, or a London Gazette strike-off / insolvency notice. A human escalation, never auto-cleared.

not_found

No match on the register

Could be a trading name, a sole trader, a partnership, or a non-UK entity — or a name that doesn't exist. An unverifiable counterparty is not a cleared counterparty.

source

Every result says where it came from

Each verdict carries a freshness block: live (read against the Companies House Public Data API) or snapshot (the ingested register copy, which can lag). You see which one you got.

FAQ

Is this a credit check?

No. There is no credit score, no credit limit and no payment-behaviour data here. This is public-register due-diligence: does the company exist, is it active, is it in an insolvency process, has it been gazetted, how old is it, does it carry outstanding charges. For a credit decision use a credit reference agency.

Why does a name sometimes come back "unconfirmed"?

Because a name is not an identifier. Companies House holds companies with identical registered names in different jurisdictions, and near-identical names across a group. When the match is fuzzy, or an exact name is shared by more than one company, the verdict is unconfirmed and the candidates are listed. Re-run with the company number to confirm identity — that is the only thing that confirms it.

How current is the data?

The base match runs against an ingested copy of the Companies House register, which is point-in-time and can lag. Where a live Companies House Public Data API read is available it is overlaid on top, and the result's freshness block says live rather than snapshot. The overlay only ever escalates: a company that has died since the ingest turns the verdict red, but a live "active" read never auto-clears an existing red flag — that stays a human decision.

Are overdue filings a red flag?

Not on their own. A filing due-date that has passed in the ingested snapshot may already have been filed, so it's reported as something to verify on the live register rather than a failure. Where the live read is available and says overdue, the result says so explicitly. Hard red flags are the reliable public facts: dead status, dissolution date, gazette or insolvency filings.

Can I check a non-UK supplier?

Not here — this reads the UK register only, so an overseas exporter will come back not_found. That's an absence of evidence, not a clean bill. For the shipment side of an overseas supplier, the instant quote runs sanctioned-party screening on the named parties as part of pricing.

Where does my email + result go?

Your result is sent to your inbox. Your details land in the BRG intelligence layer (Supabase, RLS-protected) so we can follow up with a sector plan. We never share or sell your data. Consent is explicit and tied to the opt-in box.