Articles of association

[stoat]

Hi,

Looking to incorporate a new company and am concerned about the articles of association. Will be a freelance developer also writing my own product software. Initially the company will be single directory & share holder but would hopefully expand as things progress.

Would be interested in examples of articles of association, feedback of work works well and what to avoid within them as well as things I should look out for. e.g. When someone leaves the company ensuring that the shares are offered for sale internally or defining how the shares would be values.

Thanks.

[Sockpuppet]

Get an accountant / solicitor on this.

You seriously shouldn't think about writing your own if you are asking "what works well".

[oraclesmith]

You really shouldn't do this yourself or use one of those self-help packs unless (a) you are really skint or (b) you are really experienced at company formation and want something very specific. If you leave them open, you can use your company for all kinds of trading in the future. You don't really want to have to revisit them later.

You can get standard articles of association by using a company formation agent like Hanover. It costs about £100 max to do the whole job including first shares, articles, registration at Company House etc. It can be completed within 1-2 days or same-day if you pay a bit more. http://www.hanovercompanyservices.com/

In the old days, articles typically specified the exact type of trading that the company was going to do, but in todays more agile world they are much less specific and pretty much cover any kind of business activity.