The forms CH01, CH02, CH03 and CH04 are new Companies House documents introduced as part of the corporate legislation enacted in October 2009. The previous Form 288c which existed under the Companies Act 1985 catered for all manner of change to company officers.
Under the Current Companies Act 2006, the old form which catered for changes to both directors and secretaries details whether they were individuals or corporate bodies has been split in to for separate documents, each one serving a specific purpose.
Form CH01 - Change of Director’s Details - Person
The Form CH01 is used to facilitate a change of a director’s details where that officer is a person (as opposed to another company). Similar to all of the change of details forms, the CH01 document should be used only to make alterations to an existing appointment and not a supplement to remove one officer and then add another different person or company.
Form CH01 is divided in to seven distinct sections; the first of which require the applicant to confirm which company the documents should be applied against. This is accomplished through entering the company name and number in full.
Details of the company director for whom the changes should be levied are given next. The information provided should match the current data held by the Registrar of Companies in order so that they can identify the individual concerned.
The remaining sections of the Form CH01 require the applicant to enter any information which has changed for the person in question. Parts where the details remain unchanged should be left blank and only those which require alteration should be completed.
Download Form CH01 here
Form CH01 requires a PDF reader such as the one downloadable at the foot of this page.
Form CH02 - Change of Director’s Details - Company
The Form CH02 is specifically designed to inform Companies House of changes applicable to a corporate director. The information differs slightly to that required by the Form CH01 in several respects.
For example section 5 for the CH02 form facilitates notice that the company director has changed its registered office which is obviously not relevant where the officer is an individual.
Another distinction is the information concerning a company director’s European Economic Area status which again has no relevance to individual persons. In situations where the address of the corporate director’s statutory records has moved, the new location should be entered in section 6 for European Economic Area registered entities.
Section 7 of Form CH02 allows for changes to highlight as they relate to Non European Economic Area companies. As the information required when appointing a Non EEA body as director of a UK company is more extensive than for one registered within an EEA jurisdiction, the features available to be altered in section 7 is again more extensive.
Download Form CH02 here
Form CH02 requires a PDF reader such as the one downloadable at the foot of this page.
Form CH03 - Change of Secretary’s Details - Person
The new Form CH03 specifically provides the facility to change the details relating to company secretaries and therefore does not offer options which would only be applicable to directors; such as date of birth.
The CH03 form is in most other respects is identical to the CH01 document. Whilst this may lead some to wonder why the global 288c form was therefore replaced with four distinct documents, one might conclude that there are both advantages and drawbacks to the new approach.
The separation of the functions might well result in more accurate and relevant information being entered on the form in question as the applicant is required to make fewer choices as to which details to include.
By having a more tailored documents for their purpose (the change of details for a director or secretary, corporate or individual), there are less irrelevant boxes and sections which have to be assessed and then dismissed. The incidences of Companies House having to return incorrect or incomplete forms should therefore, in theory reduce.
Download Form CH03 here
Form CH03 requires a PDF reader such as the one downloadable at the foot of this page.
Form CH04 - Change of Secretary’s Details - Company
For corporate company secretaries whose details have changed the Form CH04 is used to inform Companies House of the new information. Inline with the other documents in the series, this form is tailored towards a single current appointee, acting in a specific role.
Just as Forms CH01 and CH03 share similar layouts the CH04 documents bears a strong resemblance to CH02 which also accommodates changes to a corporate officer’s information.
Download Form CH04 here
Forms CH01, CH02, CH03 and CH04 require a PDF reader such as the one downloadable free from Adobe.
