Understanding Company Charges and Mortgages in the UK

When you see that a UK company has "charges" registered at Companies House, it means a lender has secured a loan against the company's assets. This is public information and tells you a lot about a company's financial structure. Here's what you need to know.

What Is a Company Charge?

A charge is a form of security that a lender registers against a company's assets when providing a loan. If the company defaults, the lender has a legal claim on those assets. Common types include: fixed charges (secured against specific assets like property or equipment), floating charges (secured against a class of assets like stock or receivables that change over time), and debentures (which can include both fixed and floating charges).

Why Charges Must Be Registered

Under UK company law, most charges must be registered at Companies House within 21 days of creation. Unregistered charges are void against a liquidator or creditor — meaning the lender loses their priority claim. This requirement makes the charges register a reliable source of information about a company's secured borrowing.

Outstanding vs Satisfied Charges

An outstanding charge means the debt is still active. A satisfied charge means the loan has been repaid and the lender has confirmed this to Companies House. When assessing a company, pay attention to the ratio — a company with 10 charges and 9 satisfied suggests healthy debt management. A company with 10 outstanding charges and none satisfied warrants closer scrutiny.

What Charges Reveal About a Company

Charges data can tell you: which banks or lenders the company works with, the approximate scale of their borrowing, whether they've been taking on new debt recently, and whether they're managing their obligations (by satisfying old charges). A sudden increase in charge registrations, particularly with non-mainstream lenders, can be an early warning sign of financial stress.

How to Check a Company's Charges

On UK Business Finder, every company listing shows the number of outstanding charges, satisfied charges, and total charges. You can also filter any industry/region page to show only companies with charges, sort by most charges, and use the "Has charges" quick filter to narrow your research. Our data covers over 260,000 companies with registered charges.

Charges and Insolvency

When a company enters insolvency, secured creditors (those with registered charges) are paid before unsecured creditors. This is why charge registrations matter — they establish the priority of claims. If you're a supplier considering extending credit to a company, knowing their charge position helps you understand where you'd sit in the queue if things went wrong.

Industry Patterns

Charges are normal and expected in certain industries. Property companies and construction firms routinely have multiple charges as part of their financing structure. A cleaning company or IT consultancy with multiple charges would be more unusual. Context matters.