The introduction of Form AP01 and AP02 represents a separation of two appointment tasks which were previously covered by the single Form 288a document.
Form AP01 introduced on 1 October 2009 as part of the Companies Act 2006 changes now deals solely with the appointment of natural persons to the position of company director.
It newly inaugurated counterpart, the Form AP02 handles the appointment of corporate directors.
The two main elements which might have suggested that separate forms are required for each type of appointment are the requirements for company directors to provide both service and residential address details and Companies House’s desire to identify corporate vs. people appointments.
Having separate Forms AP01 and AP02 does enable guidance on how to complete each document to be more accurately directed based on the type of appointment which is being made.
This should reduce the incidences of a single director appointment being submitted with some information relating to both a corporate and natural person lodgement.
Completing Form AP01
The first two sections of Form AP01 and AP02 are largely similar which requests as to which company the appointee is being assigned to. This information consists of the UK company number and full registered name.
The date from which the director’s appointment is to take place follows in “dd mm yyyy” format.
Form AP01 then requires first and surnames, country of residence (which was not required under the old Form 288a), nationality and date of birth. Under the Companies Act 2006, the minimum age of 16 for a company director is being strongly enforced.
Details of the person’s service and residential address are then required. Even in cases where the director opts to use their residential location as their service address both sections of the Form AP01 must be completed.
Within the guidance notes there is a reminder that any when using a home address for both sections, the residential address information will appear on public record.
Where the person being appointed is subject to or has applied to for a confidentiality order under section 243 of the Companies Act 2006 they are require to send the AP01 to a alternative Companies House address.
Signatures of both the new and an existing director or company secretary are required to validate the form and once completed it can be despatched to Companies House to be actioned.
Download Form AP01
Completing Form AP02
Section 3 of Form AP02 deviates from the document required to appoint a natural person as a company director in that it requests only a single address of the corporate body.
The rules relating to the use of
PO Box addresses are held and Companies House insist that the physically location where it can be sure that documents can be received.
A new feature contained on the Form AP02 which was absent form its predecessor Form 288a is the relevance of European Economic Area (EEA) countries. EEA consists of 32 nations.
Applicants are requested to complete a single section from parts 4 and 5 depending on where the corporate appointee is resident. Section 4 is for European Economic Area countries whilst part 5 covers rest of the world locations.
In both instances the company registration number and country of incorporation are required. For non EEA participants information on the governing law and entity format must also be specified.
As in the case of Form AP01, authorising signatures are required on behalf of the appointee and an incumbent director or secretary.
Download Form AP02
Forms AP01 and AP02 require a PDF reader such as the one downloadable free from Adobe.
