Companies House documents inexplicably 'lost in the post'?

Question

Recently Companies House denied receiving a statutory return from my company which I know was posted. When I contacted them to enquire as to what had happened to the correspondence, I was shocked at the unwarranted defensive attitude but presumed that this must have been just a rare failing of the Post Office.

However, I have now discovered from other business colleagues that this was not an isolated incident. We concluded that Companies House may have blundered in balancing resources between manual and online filing which is pressurised staff into 'losing' documents to decrease workloads.

Is it fair to level this criticism at Companies House and is there other evidence to substantiate or refute these findings?

Answer 1

I had exactly the same problem a couple of years ago.

I sent three sets of signed account to them which they claimed not to have received. I had to get another three sets signed, and sent them off only to have them returned as they had by then found the first ones.

All the same they were insistant that they were received one day late (which they weren't!) and fined me £300. They argued they showed as received on the 31st of the month when they were due on the 30th. How could they be so sure when they lost them for 10 days to start with??????

I agree with the above poster, send everything recorded.

Answer 2

I can confirm that resources in the document centre are stretched beyond capacity. I was working there as a contractor and anything that could not be easily read into the Kofax document capture system was set aside for collection and never seen again.

Answer 3

You probabily would have been better off sending the documents by recorded delivery or by courier to get a signature to prove they had been delivered. Although I don't think it's an issolated incident at all. Where I work things have gone missing before and we've been fined. Not good at all.