What a buyer's solicitor will ask a legal and accounting business in the UK first

Complete after 5 April 2027 and the BADR limit is £500,000, not £1 million: up to £30,000 more tax if lifetime gains, earlier claims included, go over £500,000.

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A buyer's solicitor sends a first request list once heads of terms are agreed. This is what the public records answer today, item by item, with who sorts each one and the dates.

Bondstone is a data intelligence and cyber security firm, registered in Australia with its UK office in Leeds. It checks public records the way a buyer's side will. In our review of who holds the web address, email and logins, you show us each login on a shared screen and we write down who holds it.

Section 1 · Your dates before 5 April 2027

Your dates before 5 April 2027

Completing by Monday 5 April 2027 keeps the £1 million limit. The first table counts back from that day to the latest safe day to start each step with a clock; the second is what the register says is due.

Start by counted back from Monday 5 April 2027

Step	What has to happen	Latest safe start	Where you stand today
HMRC clearance	If you ask HMRC for advance clearance of a share sale (ITA 2007 s.701): it answers within 30 days, and the clock restarts if it asks for more.Apply by Thu 4 Feb 2027 to leave room for one request for more information; the 30 days alone run to Sat 6 Mar 2027. Calendar days. Source: ITA 2007 s.701(5).	Feb 2027	Time in hand
Landlord	Asset sale: the landlord's consent to assign the lease. Share sale: a check of the lease for a change-of-control clause. Not needed if the premises are owned.No statutory clock. We count back eight weeks, to Mon 8 Feb 2027, to leave the landlord and its solicitor time to answer.	Feb 2027	Time in hand

Does not apply: FCA change in control, Lender, CQC registration, Ofsted registration.

Due on the register

Step	What has to happen	Due	Where you stand today
Identity verification	Every director verified at Companies House. The company cannot file its confirmation statement until they are.The transition for existing directors ends on 18 November 2026. Source: gov.uk, verifying your identity for Companies House.	Before the next confirmation statement	Not done yet
Accounts	Accounts filed on time. A buyer and its lender check the filing history early.From the register.	Oct 2025	Overdue since Oct 2025
Confirmation statement	Filed on time, once every director is verified.From the register.	Feb 2026	Overdue since Feb 2026

Section 2 · The buyer's first list, and what we found

Item by item

Grouped by what it does to the sale. Each item says why the buyer asks, what the records show, how to check it yourself, who fixes it and what that involves.

Stops or delays completion5

01Stops or delays completionYour accountant

A proposal to strike the company off

Why the buyer asks

A strike-off notice appears in The Gazette, and the buyer's solicitor will see it in the first week.

What we found: Companies House shows the company as active, with a proposal to strike the company off.
Check it yourself: The company's page at Companies House, and The Gazette.
Who fixes it: Your accountant. File what's overdue at Companies House now.
What fixing it means: File what's overdue at Companies House now, and object to the strike-off before the notice runs out.

02Stops or delays completionBondstone, in the review

The web address is in someone else's hands

Why the buyer asks

A buyer will not complete on a trading name whose web address serves another party.

What we found: The business's web address now serves an online gambling page, not the firm's own site.
Check it yourself: Open it in a browser and compare it with the firm's own pages.
Who fixes it: Bondstone, in the review.
What fixing it means: Establish the holder, then recovery or a dispute. Start now, as it's the longest clock on this page.

03Stops or delays completionYour accountant

Accounts overdue

Why the buyer asks

A buyer and its lender check the filing history early, and they will ask why the accounts are late.

What we found: Accounts were due in October 2025.
Check it yourself: The filing history at Companies House.
Who fixes it: Your accountant.
What fixing it means: File the accounts. The buyer's solicitor will want them in the data room anyway.

04Stops or delays completionYour accountant

Confirmation statement overdue

Why the buyer asks

The register the buyer relies on is out of date, and an overdue statement can start a strike-off.

What we found: The confirmation statement was due in February 2026.
Check it yourself: The filing history at Companies House.
Who fixes it: Your accountant.
What fixing it means: File it. If a director is not yet verified, that comes first.

05Stops or delays completionYour accountant

The only director is not yet identity-verified

Why the buyer asks

The company cannot file its confirmation statement until every director is verified, and an unverified person cannot be appointed.

What we found: Companies House shows no verified identity for the people named on the register (withheld here).
Check it yourself: Each officer's entry at Companies House shows "identity verified" once done.
Who fixes it: Your accountant, as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP), or each director at gov.uk.
What fixing it means: GOV.UK One Login with photo ID, or an ACSP verifies the person and gives them the code to file. Minutes each, once started.

The buyer will ask1

06The buyer will askYour accountant

A person with significant control not yet identity-verified

Why the buyer asks

The buyer's solicitor checks the register of people with significant control (PSCs) against the people who will sign.

What we found: Companies House shows no verified identity for the people named on the register (withheld here).
Check it yourself: The PSC entry at Companies House.
Who fixes it: Your accountant.
What fixing it means: As for a director.

For the file1

07For the file

One director signs for the company

One director in post, the name withheld here.

Nothing to do now: noted so the completion timetable allows for one signatory.

Section 3 · The company record

Companies House, on 6 November 2026

Registered name: withheld on the sample
Company number: withheld on the sample
Kind: Private limited company
Status: Active Proposal to strike off
Registered office: withheld on the sample
Sectors declared: 69xxx Legal and accounting
Accounts filed: micro-entity accounts
Next accounts due: Oct 2025 overdue
Next confirmation statement due: Feb 2026 overdue
Officers in post: Withheld on the sampleDirectornot yet verified
People with significant control: Withheld on the samplesignificant influence or controlnot yet verified
Charges: None registered

Section 4 · Who holds the web address, email and logins

The web address, the email and the website

Web address run by: withheld on the sample
Email run on: Takes no email
Can email be faked in the firm's name: Takes no email
Website: Serves pages that are not the firm's own site
Website padlock (certificate): withheld on the sample
Registrar and admin logins: Public records can't show who holds a login. We note it with you in the review.

Section 5 · Who does what

The split for this company

Counts from the items above. The solicitor's standing list follows, each marked "if it applies".

5Your accountant

Your accountant

A proposal to strike the company off
Accounts overdue
Confirmation statement overdue
The only director is not yet identity-verified
A person with significant control not yet identity-verified

0Your solicitor

The seller's solicitor

Lease if it appliesOn an asset sale the landlord's consent to assign the lease; on a share sale, a check of the lease for a change-of-control clause.
Website copyright if it appliesWithout a written assignment, the agency that built the site owns its copyright. One letter fixes it.
Trade mark if it appliesIf the brand is registered at the UK IPO in a person's name, it is assigned to the company before completion. We search the IPO register by hand in the review.

1Bondstone, in the review

Bondstone, in the review

The web address is in someone else's hands

Section 6 · The review

Our review of who holds the web address, email and logins

What you get: the review prepared from the public record before the call; one call on a shared screen, where you log in to your own accounts while we record who holds each key, in whose name and with what recovery details; the handover report for the data room; and, where a key sits with a former supplier or employee, its recovery started with you. We never take passwords.

A buyer pays £3,500 to £6,500 plus VAT for their own IT review of a single-site business with 10 to 30 staff (CloudSwitched, July 2026: one IT firm's published price). This is the seller's side of it, done first.

What the call covers

The registrar account for the web address
Who runs the DNS, and the login
Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace admin
Website hosting and the content system's admin
Payment accounts (card terminal, online payments, direct debits)
Companies House authentication code and filing access
Software licences and social accounts in a person's name
The handover report, headed for your accountant and your solicitor

Book the review

£2,500

On a client's own page, the booking form is here. This sample takes no bookings.

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Section 7 · What happens next

What happens next

1
Send this page to your accountant and, once instructed, your solicitor: the split in section 5 is their work list.
2
File what is overdue at Companies House now: the accounts and the confirmation statement.
3
Book the review, so the web address, the email and the admin logins are in the company's name before the buyer's list arrives.
4
Keep the PDF for the data room.

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