IDENTIFICATION OF THE COMPANY IN CORRESPONDENCE, DOCUMENTS AND ELSEWHERE
Correspondence | Section 349 of the Companies Act 1985 provides as follows:
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(1) | Every company shall have its name mentioned in legible characters - |
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(a) | in all business letters of the company, | |
(b) | in all its notices and other official publications, | |
(c) | in all bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, cheques and orders for money or goods purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the company, and | |
(d) | in all its bills of parcels, invoices, receipts and letters of credit.
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The remaining three subsections of section 349 deal with the liability of the company and its officers if subsection (1) is breached.
| | Additional requirements for certain correspondence | Section 351 of the Companies Act 1985 contains some additional requirements for 'business letters and order forms'. Subsections (1) and (2) of that section are as follows:
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(1) | Every company shall have the following particulars mentioned in legible characters in all business letters and order forms of the company, that is to say - |
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(a) | the company's place of registration and the number with which it is registered, | |
(b) | the address of its registered office, | |
(c) | in the case of an investment company [i.e. a species of public company defined in section 266 of the Act] the fact that it is such a company, and | |
(d) | in the case of a limited company exempt from the obligation to use the word 'limited' as part of its name, the fact that it is a limited company. |
(2) | If in the case of a company having a share capital there is on the stationary used for any such letters, or on the company's order forms, a reference to the amount of share capital, the reference must be to paid up capital.
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A further provision which must be complied with is section 305(1) of the Companies Act 1985 which provides as follows:
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(1) | A company...shall not state, in any form, the name of any of its directors (otherwise than in the text or as a signatory) on any business letter on which the company's name appears unless it states on the letter in legible characters the name of every director of the company.
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| Company name outside premises | Section 348(1) of the Companies Act 1985 provides as follows:
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(1) | Every company shall paint or affix, and keep painted or affixed, its name on the outside of every office or place in which its business is carried on, in a conspicuous position and in letters easily legible.
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| Under section 348(2) a daily default fine applies for so long as the company continues in breach. |
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