There is a good chance a letter or email from Companies House has already landed, or is about to. It talks about verifying your identity, personal codes and confirmation statements, and it reads like something dreamed up to eat your evening. If you run your plumbing or heating business through a limited company, this one applies to you, and ignoring it is not an option any more.
Here’s the thing. It sounds far scarier than it is. Once you know what is being asked, who has to do it and by when, the whole job takes about ten minutes. Let me explain, in plain English, so you can tick it off and get back to the tools.
What has actually changed
Companies House used to take whatever you told it more or less at face value. You could set up a company in someone else’s name with very little proof it was really them. That loophole was a gift to fraudsters, and the government has closed it.
Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, identity verification is now a legal requirement. In simple terms, anyone who sets up, runs, owns or controls a UK company has to prove they are who they say they are. Companies House describes it as a way to cut fraud and make the public register more accurate and trustworthy.
Think of it like the gas safety check, but for your identity on the register. Nobody enjoys the paperwork, yet it protects everyone from the cowboys.
Who needs to verify
You need to verify your identity if you are any of the following: a director, or the equivalent of a director such as a member or managing officer, a person with significant control (often shortened to PSC, which usually means anyone who owns or controls more than 25% of the company), or an accountant or agent acting on your behalf.
For most plumbing and heating firms, that means you, the owner director. If your husband, wife or business partner is also named as a director or as a person with significant control, they have to verify too. In most cases you only ever do it once, so this is not something that comes round every year.
When you need to do it
This is the part people get wrong, so read it twice.
If you are setting up a new company, verification has been built into the process since 18 November 2025. You cannot incorporate, and you cannot be appointed as a new director, without it. No verification, no company. It is that firm.
If you already run an established company, your deadline is tied to your confirmation statement. That is the short annual filing where you confirm your company details are correct. From your next confirmation statement onwards, you must provide a personal code for every director. Here is the sting in the tail: your company cannot file its confirmation statement at all until every director has verified. Miss that, and you are into late filing territory for the whole company, not just yourself.
People with significant control have their own timing. If you are a PSC but not a director of the same company, your window is the first 14 days of your birth month. If you are both a director and a PSC, you handle the director side through the confirmation statement and the PSC side within 14 days of that statement date.
The two ways to verify
You have two routes, and both are straightforward.
The first is to do it yourself, free of charge, through the GOV.UK One Login service called Verify your identity for Companies House. It asks a few simple questions about you, not your company, then points you to the quickest option. That might be a quick check through an app on your phone, a set of security questions online, or entering your photo ID details and finishing off at a participating Post Office. When you pass, you get a Companies House personal code. That code is yours, not the company’s, so treat it like your Unique Taxpayer Reference and keep it somewhere safe.
The second route is to let your accountant handle it. Firms registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider, which is Companies House speak for an approved agent, can verify your identity and file the statements on your behalf. There may be a small fee, but for a lot of busy owners it is worth it to know it is done properly and on time. This is exactly the sort of job we take off our clients’ plates.
What happens if you ignore it
I would love to tell you this is one of those rules with no teeth. It is not.
Acting as a director without verifying your identity is a criminal offence. Companies House can pursue you through the courts, hand out financial penalties, refer serious cases to the Insolvency Service, and in the worst cases disqualify directors. On top of that, an unverified director blocks the whole company from filing its confirmation statement, which drags the business into non compliance too.
Put bluntly, this is not a fine you want to gamble on to save ten minutes. Would you leave a boiler uncommissioned to save a phone call? Same logic.
Why this is an opportunity, not a headache
Now, I know how this reads so far. Another rule, another job, another thing landed on the trades. But let me offer you a different way to look at it.
A cleaner, verified register is good news for honest businesses like yours. It makes it harder for someone to set up a fake firm in your name, or to trade dishonestly and undercut people who play by the rules. Every bit of fraud squeezed out of the system is a bit less noise you are competing against.
There is a second win, and it is the one I care about most. This is a nudge to get your compliance running like a system rather than a memory. The owners who struggle keep every deadline in their head and react to letters as they arrive. The owners who thrive have a calendar, a checklist and someone whose job it is to catch these things before they become a problem.
Turn it into a system, not a scramble
This is the whole idea behind The Systems Handbook. A business should not run through you, it should run on processes that catch the important jobs whether you remember them or not. Your confirmation statement, your identity verification, your year end, your VAT: none of it should ever come down to you spotting an email at nine o’clock at night.
It is the same discipline I bang on about in The Quote Handbook. A missed personal code and a missed decimal point on a quote come from the same place, a business that relies on memory instead of a method. Picture this instead: a simple recurring checklist that flags the job weeks before it is due, and a name against who does it. That is what turns admin from a threat into a nonevent.
Let us take it off your plate
If the thought of personal codes and confirmation statements makes your eyes glaze over, you are not alone, and you do not have to do it yourself. As specialist accountants for trades businesses, we can verify identities as an approved agent, keep every Companies House deadline in a system, and make sure your filings go in on time, every time. You can see how we help over on our services page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I really have to do this if I am the only director?
Yes. Every director has to verify, and a one director company is still a company. If you are also the person with significant control, you verify for both roles.
How much does it cost?
Doing it yourself through GOV.UK One Login is free. If you ask an accountant or agent to handle it for you, they may charge a fee for the service and for filing on your behalf.
What is a Companies House personal code?
It is a unique code you get once your identity is verified. It belongs to you as a person, not to your company, and you use it whenever you file a confirmation statement, take on a new directorship or become a person with significant control. Keep it as safe as you would your tax reference.
What if I run more than one company?
You still only verify your identity once and you keep the same personal code. You then provide that code against each company where you are a director, through each company’s confirmation statement.
I have had a letter and I am not sure it is genuine. What should I do?
Fair question, because fraudsters love to copy official letters. Do not click a link in a message you are unsure about. Go straight to the GOV.UK website yourself, or speak to your accountant, and verify only through the official service.
A quick word before you go
This article is general guidance to point you in the right direction, not personal advice for your specific situation. Rules and deadlines can change, so always check the current position on GOV.UK or have a chat with your accountant before you act.
Aaron McLeish, Managing Director, Together We Count.
Want to go deeper on building a business that runs on systems rather than stress? Have a read of The Systems Handbook and The Quote Handbook.