Remove a company from an account

BACKGROUND Some customers inform us they no longer manage a company that is associated with their customer profile on eFiling. This is problematic if the customer has ongoing services (e.g. address services) with our company as it can create additional work for our staff when they are due to renew. In the past we used to ‘dump’ companies where the customer stated they no longer had anything to do with the company into a customer named ‘James Howell’. This is now prohibited, as it causes a lot of confusion and issues with our maintenance of data on eFiling. INSTRUCTIONS If a customer states they no longer manage a company on our system and that they no longer wish to receive contact about that company: 1. Check if the company has ongoing services with us, such as an address service. 2. Check if the company is using our address at Companies House for either its Registered Office or for a Service Address. If the company has an Address Service and the address is still being used at Companies House: 1. Ensure the customer has emailed in using an email address we hold on file for the customer. We require this for verification, due to the significance of the change being made to the customer’s account. 2. Politely inform the customer that because they are responsible for the management of the company on our system, and the company is using our address on Companies House, they will need to change the company’s address(es) away from ours at Companies House prior to us making their company inactive. 3. Provide the customer with instructions informing them how they can change their address(es) away from ours on Companies House and ask them to inform you once these changes have been made. 4. Once the company has changed all its publicly listed addresses away from ours, cancel any ‘Active/Paused services’ on the account (see ‘How to cancel Active/Paused ongoing services on eFiling’ section). 5. Change the company to ‘Inactive’ on eFiling (see ‘How to make a company ‘Inactive’ on eFiling’ section). 6. Inform the customer that you have actioned the necessary changes and the company is now set to inactive on their customer account. 7. If the customer states the company cannot or will not change its publicly listed addresses away from ours, escalate the matter to your line manager. If the company does not have an Address Service and is not using our address at Companies House: 1. Ensure the customer has emailed in using an email address we hold on file for the customer. We require this for verification, due to the significance of the change being made to the customer’s account. 2. Cancel any ‘Active/Paused services’ on the account (see ‘How to cancel Active/Paused ongoing services on eFiling’ section). 3. Change the company to ‘Inactive’ on eFiling (see ‘How to make a company ‘Inactive’ on eFiling’ section). 4. Inform the customer that you have actioned the necessary changes and the company is now set to inactive on their customer account. What do I do if a customer is unhappy that the company is still visible (even though it is inactive) on their account? For anti-money laundering purposes, we are required to keep the company tied to the account of the original customer, unless another customer comes forward. Apologise for any inconvenience caused.