Company formation- Directors with bad credit and ccj

Sissy

I would really appreciate some help on an issue.

My husband and I would like to start a company after having lost a great deal of money in the property crash. We did our best to repay everything, however we still have a couple of ccjs and defaults although our credit rating is good since we have not borrowed any money for a long time. there is one particular ccj where they are trying to put an attachment to earnings, which we are trying to put aside however they have already contacted my husbands employer. this ccj is due to taking our son out of a private school and although we gave them 8 weeks notice they said we still owed them a terms payment since the notice should have been 12 weeks!

Now the thing is that we would like to open a company where if possible we would not like to be associated with our credit history. We were also informed that in the same way the court contacts your employer, if you are not employed but run a business the court can contact yuor clients which of course would be detrimental.

Does anyone know a way around this? If we as directors open company in UK and give our overseas address can we still be associated with our credit history through the date of birth?


Thanks in advance for your help, comments and suggestions on this issue.

Savvy_Sue

Can a company be opened in the UK with no UK addresses? I didn't think it could, but I'm no expert.

Sissy

The company registered address will be in UK, just the directors address will be foreign, and I know that that can be done, you can also open a foreign company and register it in uk too. But my question is, whether the court can locate you and contact your customers , and whether your personal credit history can effect the company.

podperson

Technically a limited company shouldn't be affected - but you'll find that in practice a lot of people dealing with a limited company (especially a new one) will ask for personal/director gurantees for things (eg setting up credit accounts) so then your own credit will affect it.
Also most banks will do a credit check on the directors before opening a business account so if your credit is bad you are unlikely to be able to get anything like an overdraft or company card to start with.

bni

The judgment is in your and your husband's name so it wouldn't be enforceable against your company. The company is treated as its own legal person.

However, as directors/owners of said company you are still subject to the enforcement options the court can offer the claimant.

- Attachment of earnings - as directors of the company you are treated as employees and drawings from the company are treated as salary and subject to PAYE and would subsequently also be subject to an attachment of earnings order.

- Third party debt order - the court could instruct the company (as a third party) to pay any amounts the company owes to you as directors/shareholders to first satisfy the judgment (plus interest and costs). This could for example include dividends accrued and director's loan accounts.

If the judgment was against the company, then a third party debt order could be used against one of the company's clients but not in your situation.


Apart from that, like the previous poster pointed out, most companies are subject to extensive credit checks when opening bank accounts which includes credit checks on all the directors and in some cases also all the shareholders.