Hello,
For background, I run a one-person Ltd company for IT contracting, and I've used the same accounting services provider since setting up the company in 2017. This accountant is a mid-sized company with around 200 employees that will be familiar to other people on this site. I have a basic accounting package with them where they run everything through quickbooks, file my accounts every year, provide me with someone I can email questions to, and that’s about it. I’ve considered doing this accounting work myself, but it’s just about felt worth it to pay someone else to do it and not have to think about it.
Earlier this year, I tried to open a phone contract in the name of my Ltd company, but my application for the contract failed a credit check. I then tried to register with a credit ratings agency to try to work out what had happened, and I couldn't even sign up to the agency using my company details.
After looking at my account with Companies House, I found out that the details Companies House held on my business were more than 2 years out of date (and, perhaps crucially, were different from what I'd used to sign up for the phone contract, and apply to the Credit Ratings Agency). My accountant is responsible for filing a Confirmation Statement(CS01) with Companies House every year that should have updated these details at least twice in that time. I have emails showing that I’ve sent my accountant my updated information specifically so that they can do this. They’ve either not filed, or incorrectly filed, my confirmation statements.
They have since acknowledged via email that this is their error. They’ve also acknowledged that it could have *slightly* affected my credit score, but they have said that it's unlikely to be the main reason why my business was declined for a phone contract. I can’t think why else this could be though. As soon as I found out that my details were out of date with Companies House, I updated them myself, and a week or two later, I was able to sign up to the credit agency and got a report. My business is “classed as below average risk” and the only negative point on it seems to be that “your business has low captial employed” (not totally sure what that means, but I presume that it’s either linked to it being a one-person ltd company where I take most of the revenue out as salary expenses, or alternatively, that the volume of business I run through the company has been quite low over the last 2 years). I haven’t tried to re-apply for a phone contract in the time since, but based on being "classed as below average risk", I would again be surprised if I was declined based on a credit check.
I think most people would advise me to change accountant and it’s likely that I will, but my main concern is that my existing accountant has failed to fulfill some of the most basic elements of what I've been paying them to do, and I feel like I should be entitled to compensation for that. Their are several other things I could point to in describing their services as "patchy" - they've had a very significant data breach earlier this year, and over the 5 years I've been with them, I’ve been passed between several junior accountants and more than once I've had to remind them about basic services that they're supposed to cover for me. However, if they haven’t filed a correct confirmation statement with Companies House in over 2 years, that feels like a significant issue, and quite likely negligent.
Basically, how serious is this, and what compensation should I be entitled to?
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