Last updated Mar 19, 2024 and written by Tom Richardson

4 steps to requesting a lost or expired Companies House Authentication Code

To carry out any online maintenance of your limited company (resign a director, add shares, file an annual return, etc) you’ll need a Companies House webfiling authentication code – a 6 character long password allocated by Companies House upon incorporation. Unfortunately these codes can expire or be misplaced (although our company admin portal stores this for you if your company was formed with us). If your code has expired or been misplaced you can request that a new one be posted to the registered office. To do this:

  1. Login (or register if you haven’t yet done so) to Companies House WebFiling
  2. Select “request authentication code”
  3. Select where the company was formed and type the company number – hit “continue”
  4. Check the company name, number and address on the following page – if all is correct select “request code”

The code should then be delivered to the registered office within 5 working days.