Should you are within the means of forming a limited company or appointing a director or secretary to an existing limited company, you’ll have seen reference to the term ‘consent to act’. On this post, we take a have a look at how directors and secretaries consent to act.
What does ‘consent to act’ mean?
Because the wording suggests, because of this the person or corporate body being appointed as a director or secretary has given their permission to tackle the role in query and understands the duties that include it.
Without this, a director/secretary could argue that their appointment is invalid.
How does a director or secretary consent to act?
The method for consenting to act is similar for directors and secretaries. It’s a requirement no matter when the appointment is being made (during company formation or after the corporate has been formed). It will probably be broken down into two steps:
1. The letter of consent
Before the appointment is made by the corporate, the director or secretary-to-be must give their actual consent. This may be done via a letter of consent (sometimes known as a ‘letter of appointment’, ‘appointment letter’, ‘notice of willingness to act’, or a ‘consent to act form’). Once complete, this ought to be kept with the corporate files.
That is an internal company document and never an official Corporations House form. For this reason, the precise wording can differ. Nevertheless, it should include the signature of the person being appointed and something much like the below:
‘I confirm that I give my consent to act as a director/secretary for Example Company Name Ltd with immediate effect/from xx/xx/xxxx.’
Some corporations might also use this letter as a way for collecting the knowledge that’s required to notify Corporations House of the appointment (reminiscent of the appointee’s date of birth, residential address, etc.).
2. The AP01/AP03 form
When notifying Corporations House of an appointment, the person completing the AP01 (for directors) or AP03 (for secretaries) form might want to tick a consent to act box, confirming that the person/corporate body has agreed to change into a director/secretary.
This facility is included on each the paper versions of the appointment forms and the web forms.
Paper forms which have not been ticked will likely be rejected by Corporations House. Online forms will simply not allow the user to progress until the box has been ticked.
Directors
1. If using the paper AP01: Appointment of director form, the consent to act box may be situated in section 5 of the document:
2. If making the appointment online using Companies House WebFiling, the consent to act box appears on the very end of the shape, just before the applying is submitted:
3. If making the appointment using our Online Company Manager, the consent to act box appears as soon as you choose the ‘Director’ option:
Secretaries
1. If using the paper AP03: Appointment of secretary form, the consent to act box may be situated in section 5 of the document:
2. If making the appointment online using Companies House WebFiling, the consent to act box appears on the very end of the shape, just before the applying is submitted:
3. If making the appointment online using our Online Company Manager, the consent to act box appears as soon as you choose the ‘Secretary’ option:
About our Director Appointment & Resignation Service
Available for less than £29.99, our Director Appointment & Resignation Service will make sure that your next director appointment (or resignation) is accomplished efficiently and compliantly. If making an appointment, the service includes:
- The letter of consent
- The board resolution
- The preparation and filing of the AP01 form with Corporations House
It doesn’t matter if your organization was formed with 1st Formations or not. All we’d like is your organization authentication code (if your organization was not formed by us) and the next information for the director being appointed:
- Full name
- Residential address
- Service address (also often called the correspondence address)
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Occupation
- Date of appointment
Once we have now all of the mandatory information, we’ll handle making the appointment and can let you recognize as soon as Corporations House records have been updated. This normally takes 2-3 working days.
Thanks for reading
We hope you’ve found this blog helpful. Should you still have any questions on consenting to act or limited corporations (and the roles inside them), please leave a comment and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
