Overseas entities can now apply to be removed from UK register

UK Companies House announced, on 17 April, that it has set up a procedure to enable foreign companies that are no longer the registered owners of relevant property or land in the UK to apply to be removed from the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE).

Under the Economic Crime (Transparency & Enforcement) Act 2022, overseas entities (OEs) that own relevant UK property or land are obliged to disclose their beneficial owners to Companies House. In-scope OEs must also update the information every year. Information on the ROE is generally publicly available.

This requirement applies to property or land in the UK that was bought on or after: 1 January 1999 in England and Wales, 8 December 2014 in Scotland, and 5 September 2022 in Northern Ireland.

Under the removal procedure, an OE that has disposed of all its UK property or land must wait until the change of ownership has been updated on the relevant land registry records before it can apply to Companies House for removal. Companies House will carry out checks with all UK land registries for every application.

As part of the removal application, an OE must check and confirm that all the information on the ROE is correct at the date of the application. Companies House requires information on all the current beneficial owners, and all individuals and entities that have been a registrable beneficial owner since the entity’s information was last updated.

Any information that has changed must be updated on the ROE and will be subject to verification checks by a UK-regulated agent. This must have been done no more than three months before the date of the removal application.

Companies House will charge a fee of £706 for each application to remove an OE. This fee, which includes the charges paid to the land registries for carrying out checks, will not be refunded if the application is rejected.

After an OE has been removed, the OEID number will no longer be valid, which means that the OE will not be able to buy, sell, transfer, lease or charge its property or land in the UK, unless it re-registers. However, information about the OE and its beneficial owners will still be available to view on the public register.

Sovereign Corporate & Trustee Services (SCATS) is a UK-regulated agent for the purposes of the ROE and is an ‘Assured Agent’ with Companies House to undertake verification of information before it’s submitted when filing the removal application for the OE or, after an application has been filed, when submitting an OE verification checks’ statement.

Please contact SCATS if you have any enquiries about registering an OE on the ROE, verifying any changes being submitted on an annual update statement, or applying to remove your OE from the ROE and we will be happy to assist.