Articles of Association

Articles of association act as the constitution of a company, outlining rules and regulations that set out how a company is run, governed, and owned.

Articles of association are required for a company formed in the UK under the Companies Act. They include basic information about a company and outline the responsibilities and powers of the directors.

A company can either adopt model articles of association or create their own.

When you are conducting company business abroad, for example when opening a bank account in a foreign country, the authorities may ask you to get your articles of association notarised and apostilled to provide legal certification of the details of your company.

If you are conducting business in a non-English speaking country, you may be asked to provide a translation of the documents, which we can also arrange for you.

Articles of association may be provided in any of the following ways:

a. The original articles signed by an official of the Companies House
b. The original articles not signed by an official of the Companies House
c. A photocopy of your articles
d. A printout of your electronic articles produced from the original PDF or other electronic document

The process to notarise and apostille your articles will depend on how it was issued.

Notary.co.uk can assist you with our fast and cost-effective services and walk you through every step of the process:

1. Contact us and tell us what you need. We will ask you to complete our online Client Registration Form and explain how we will complete the identification and verification process.

2. If the document was issued in an original physical version and signed by an official of Companies House, it does not strictly need to be notarised. If you are using it abroad, you may get an apostille on the document directly from the FCDO.

3. If the document was issued in an original physical version but not signed by an official of Companies House, it cannot be apostilled without first being notarised. We can notarise the document by checking the document is authentic and then attaching a notarial certificate to the original.

4. If the document is a photocopy of the articles, we will also need to notarise the document prior to getting an apostille. We will check the document is authentic and then attach a notarial certificate to the photocopy.

5. If the document has been issued electronically, we will also need to notarise the document prior to getting an apostille. You will need to share the original email in which the articles were attached as a PDF, and we will check the document is authentic. We will then attach a notarial certificate to the printed version.

6. We will obtain the apostille by submitting the document at the FCDO on either our Premium or Standard service. If you need Embassy legalisation, we will also complete this after the apostille process.

7. When all is complete, we will email a PDF scan of your document. We will then return the document to you by your chosen method, whether by collection, post, or courier.

Notarisation will be carried out by one of our experienced notaries. They will carry out all required checks and issue a notarial certification.

To obtain an apostille, we will submit your articles to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Legalisation Office (FCDO). There are two FCDO Legalisation Office counters – one in London (Premium Service) and one in Milton Keynes (Standard Service). We offer a Premium same-day apostille service for urgent matters and standard 3-5 working day apostille service if you are not in a rush.

If you need your articles of association notarised or either legalised with an apostille or at an embassy, we’ll be able to support you with our exceptional services.