How to check if a UK company is in financial trouble

No single check tells you whether a customer is about to fail. The useful approach is to layer a few quick checks, weigh what you find, and then act on the strongest signals. This guide covers the main free sources for a UK limited company, one paid source, and how to tell a serious warning from background noise. It describes England and Wales practice unless stated.

Step 1: Look the company up at Companies House

The Companies House "Find and update company information" service is free to use. GOV.UK says it shows the company status (for example live or dissolved), the filing history with document images, charges, current and resigned officers, and an overview that includes overdue markers.

On the company page, look at:

• Status. Statuses such as liquidation, administration or a proposal to strike off are formal events. Our guide to strike-off notices explains the last one.
• Overdue markers. These show if accounts or the confirmation statement have passed their due date. See overdue accounts as a warning sign.
• Filing history. Look for a run of changes in a short space of time, such as a new registered office, a change of name, or several officers resigning.
• Charges. A new charge means the company has given a lender security over its assets. That is not a problem by itself, and it can mean the company is borrowing to grow. It does mean a secured lender may rank ahead of you if things go wrong (inference, based on how secured creditors are paid).
• Insolvency information. If a liquidator or administrator is appointed, the case details are lodged on the register. GOV.UK points creditors to Companies House to find who is handling a company liquidation.

One limit to know about: Companies House guidance says a winding-up petition is not presented to Companies House and does not appear on the public record. A winding-up order does. So a company can be facing a petition while its register page looks normal. That is why the next step matters.

Step 2: Search The Gazette

The Gazette is the UK's official public record. Its terms say the website is made available free of charge. It carries insolvency notices, including administration, creditors' voluntary liquidation, liquidation by court, petitions to wind up and winding-up orders.

To search:

1. Go to the "All notices" section and search by company name or company number.
2. Filter to corporate insolvency if you want to cut out personal notices.
3. Try name variations. The Gazette's own guide suggests this, and warns that older scanned notices can contain text errors.
4. Note the notice date and type.

A petition advert is one of the strongest early signals available to a supplier. The Gazette says the advert must appear at least seven business days after the petition is served and at least seven business days before the court hearing, so it can give you a chance to act. Our guide to winding-up petitions explains the timing and why payments received afterwards can be risky. The Gazette also offers a paid research service for exhaustive searches, but for a single customer the ordinary search is usually enough.

Step 3: County court judgments

Judgments against a company are held on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, run by Registry Trust. Its search service, TrustOnline, covers businesses and the last six years of records. This one is not free: Registry Trust's site showed a pay-per-search fee of £6 when we checked, so confirm the current price before relying on that figure.

A judgment against a customer that has not been paid is a meaningful warning. A judgment that has been paid is far less so. We could not verify from primary sources exactly how paid judgments are displayed, so read the entry itself rather than assuming.

Step 4: A note on people, not just companies

If your customer is a sole trader or partnership, the company register will not help. The Gazette says that in England and Wales you can find bankruptcy records by searching The Gazette or the Insolvency Service's Individual Insolvency Register. We could not confirm from a primary source what the register costs or exactly who it lists, so check its own pages. For a limited company it is mainly relevant if you hold, or are considering, a personal guarantee from a director.

Step 5: Ask the customer

Then ask, calmly and directly. Ask when they expect to pay, whether anything has changed, and whether there is a dispute. A prompt, specific reply is reassuring. Silence, vague answers, and repeated new "payment dates" are not, but that is our judgement rather than a rule.

Strong signals and weak signals

Stronger signals

• A petition or winding-up order in The Gazette.
• Status showing administration, liquidation or a proposal to strike off.
• An unpaid county court judgment.
• Overdue accounts or confirmation statement combined with other changes.

Weaker signals

• A single late filing. There are innocent explanations, such as a change of accountant.
• A new charge on its own.
• A change of registered office or of accountant.
• A single director resignation.
• Slower payment with a plausible explanation.

The more independent signals point the same way, the more seriously you should take them. One weak signal alone is a reason to look closer, not to stop trading.

A short checklist

1. Check the company page for status, overdue markers and recent filing history.
2. Search The Gazette by name and number for insolvency notices.
3. Decide whether a paid judgment check is worth it for the size of the account.
4. Ask the customer directly and note the reply.
5. If signals stack up, cut credit limits, shorten terms or move to payment upfront, and take advice.
6. Set a date to check again.

Making it routine

Manual checks go stale quickly. Try our free Company check for a fast look-up. If you would rather be told when something changes, you can watch up to five companies for free. FilingPing watches the Companies House register only, not The Gazette, so keep searching The Gazette for petitions and insolvency adverts separately.

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice.

Sources

• Searching the Companies House register (GOV.UK)
• Using the Find and update company information service (Companies House blog)
• Liquidation and insolvency (GOV.UK)
• Register as a creditor in a bankruptcy or liquidation (GOV.UK)
• Insolvency notices (The Gazette)
• How to search The Gazette
• Terms and conditions for using The Gazette website
• How can I find out if someone has entered bankruptcy? (The Gazette)
• Issuing and serving petitions: a guide (The Gazette)
• TrustOnline (Registry Trust)
• TrustOnline register search

Updated 30 September 2026 · All guides