The Sources, and What Each One Proves
| Source | What it records | What it proves |
|---|---|---|
| Companies House | Existence, filings, officers, charges | The company is real and current |
| Registry Trust | County court judgments (CCJs) | It has been ordered to pay and (sometimes) hasn't |
| The Gazette | Insolvency and striking-off notices | Formal distress is in progress |
| Filed accounts | Financial statements | Solvency as of the balance sheet date |
Each register answers a different question, and a real credit decision uses all of them. A company with a clean Companies House record can still have unpaid judgments; a company with net liabilities on its accounts can still be funded by directors who will not let it fail. The picture is built from the intersection.
Reading the CCJ Record
County court judgments are recorded in the public register maintained by Registry Trust. When a creditor obtains judgment against a company or individual and the debt is not satisfied within a month, the judgment is registered and becomes visible to anyone searching.
- Satisfied judgments — marked satisfied once paid. Still visible, but a much weaker signal.
- Unsatisfied judgments — paid late or never. The stronger signal, especially when recent or repeated.
- Recency matters. A judgment five years ago that was satisfied within a month is history; a cluster of unsatisfied judgments in the last 12 months is a company paying its suppliers last — or not at all.
Remember that judgments can be registered against the individual directors as well as the company. For a small business, the director's personal record is often the more informative one.
Gazette Notices: The Formal Paper Trail
The London Gazette (and Edinburgh/Belfast gazettes for Scotland and Northern Ireland) is the official record of corporate events. The notices that matter for credit risk:
- Winding-up petitions — a creditor has petitioned the court to wind the company up. A petitioned company may trade for weeks or months while the petition is pending; credit extended in that window is exposed.
- Administration appointments — administrators have taken control; the directors' powers are suspended.
- Compulsory strike-off — the registrar has started striking the company off the register, typically for missing filings, but also following an objection by a creditor.
- Notice of intention to appoint an administrator — the directors themselves have filed notice that administration is coming.
A gazette notice is not speculation: it is a formal, dated, public event. When one appears, the risk conversation changes from "could this go wrong?" to "how bad is it?"
Accounts as a Distress Checklist
- Net liabilities — negative shareholder funds on the last balance sheet. The company's own accounts say it owes more than it owns.
- Falling cash or rising debtors — cash at bank falling while trade debtors rise means sales are being collected slowly or not at all.
- Stretched creditors — trade creditors growing faster than sales is the classic sign of paying suppliers late.
- Audit reports with a going-concern emphasis — the auditors (where audit applies) flag doubt about survival. Read the wording.
- Age of the accounts — accounts are a point-in-time statement; the older they are, the less they describe the current company.
Weighing the Signals
No single signal should end a relationship, and no single clean record should start one. The practical weighting:
- Current formal insolvency (any gazette notice, petition, or administration) — stop, and involve someone senior. This is the highest-confidence distress signal in the public record.
- Unsatisfied CCJs in the last 12 months — credit with caution: reduce exposure, tighten terms, take security where possible.
- Net liabilities + late filings — elevated risk; the company is both weak and disorganised.
- Repeated last-minute filing extensions — administrative distress; often the first visible symptom.
- A clean record with timely filings — baseline normal; continue with the routine commercial checks you would apply to anyone.