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You missed your deadline. Here is what actually happens.

Nothing happens automatically the day you miss it. Your company is not struck off overnight and you are not disqualified. But the clock does not stop either, so the useful question is how late you are and what to do this week.

Overseas Verify · Last updated 11 September 2026

First, check it is really your deadline

Most people have the wrong date. The one they remember, 18 November 2026, is about the end of the transition period and is not a personal deadline for anyone. Companies House says so in as many words. What matters for a director is the company’s next confirmation statement, and for most companies that falls earlier. Look yours up before assuming anything.

Check your date

When is your company's deadline?

Your directors must be verified before your next confirmation statement. Start typing your company name to see that date.

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What actually happens

Companies House will not accept your confirmation statement until every director named on it has verified. Missing the statement is an offence committed by the company and by every officer in default. In practice Companies House imposes a financial penalty rather than prosecuting, and its published tariff for an offence of this seriousness runs from £500 to £1,500. GOV.UK also quotes £5,000, which is the maximum in Scotland and Northern Ireland; a court fine in England and Wales has no upper limit. Strike-off is real but separate, and runs over several months of letters and notices.

You can still fix this

Verifying late costs no more than verifying on time, and there is no surcharge. The law is explicit that being unverified does not invalidate anything you have already done as a director: your past decisions and signatures stand. If the statement was missed during the transition period, the identity statement is delivered with the company’s next confirmation statement. You do not resign and start again. You verify, and then you file.

If Companies House has already written to you

A missed deadline produces a letter, and that letter starts a clock of its own. Act within 28 days of the date on a penalty warning notice and no penalty is charged at all. If you need to explain why the statement was not filed instead, that representation must also reach them within 28 days, and Companies House usually pauses enforcement for up to two months if it accepts one. More than three quarters of a million default letters had gone out by 31 March 2026, so one arriving does not mean you have been singled out.

You are very far from alone

Companies House publishes its progress every quarter. At 30 June 2026 just over 55 per cent of director appointments had been verified, and about 42 per cent of appointments held by people with significant control. Close to half the register had not caught up. These are unaudited management figures, and because one person can hold several appointments they count appointments rather than people.

If you are a PSC and not a director

A person with significant control who is not a director does not block the confirmation statement. If you are already on the register you give your personal code within the first 14 days of your birth month. Companies House can extend that by up to 14 days, but only while the window is open: you cannot ask before it starts or after it has passed. Someone who is both a PSC and a director gets 14 days from the day after the company’s confirmation statement date instead.

What to do this week

Look up your company above and find out how late you actually are. Verify every director named on the statement, not only yourself, because one unverified director blocks it for everyone. If a default letter has arrived, note its date, because the 28 days run from there. Then file. Same-day verification exists for exactly this.

Where this comes from

Every statement on this page comes from published government material. The links go to the originals.

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