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What a registered company charge actually means

A registered charge on Companies House means a company has given a lender security over some or all of its assets, filed publicly within 21 days of the charge being created. It doesn't tell you the loan amount, the interest rate, whether the debt's been repaid in full, or whether the company can take on more borrowing. This page explains how to read an entry on the public register and where its limits are.

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Recognition

Seeing "1 charge registered" against a company and not knowing what that means

Anyone who's looked up a business on Companies House's free register has probably hit the "Charges" tab and found it less informative than expected. There's a lender's name, a date, sometimes a filed document. There's rarely a loan amount, and never a current balance.

Why it happens

Registration is a legal filing requirement, not a credit report

When a UK company grants security over its assets (a debenture, a fixed charge, a floating charge), the law requires the charge to be delivered to Companies House within 21 days of creation (see gov.uk's guidance on registering a charge). Miss that window and the debt itself still stands, but registering late needs a court order, and an unregistered charge is void as security against a liquidator, an administrator or a creditor of the company (see section 859H of the Companies Act 2006). That 21-day rule is why almost every company with secured lending shows something on the register early in the facility's life. It's routine, not a warning sign.

How to actually read one

What the filing shows, and what it deliberately doesn't

The charge holder's name. Usually the lender, sometimes a security trustee acting for a syndicate of them.
The date created and the date registered. Not the same thing. A gap of a few days is normal; a much longer gap is unusual and worth noticing.
Fixed or floating, or both. A fixed charge attaches to a specific, identifiable asset. A floating charge hangs over a class of assets that changes day to day (stock, debtors, cash) until it "crystallises" into a fixed charge on a triggering event such as insolvency. Most debentures include both.
Whether it's marked satisfied. Filing a satisfaction (form MR04) once a debt is repaid is common practice but not compulsory, so an unsatisfied charge on the register doesn't always mean the debt is still outstanding. It sometimes just means nobody's filed the paperwork to say otherwise.

None of this includes the loan amount, the rate, the covenants, or a running balance. That detail sits in the private agreement between the company and the lender, not in anything Companies House publishes.

A common misreading: people reading a charges page tend to treat "unsatisfied" as meaning "still owed in full," when it usually just means nobody's told the register otherwise. And a satisfied charge doesn't mean a business has no other borrowing, only that this particular one has been formally marked as paid off or released.

Specialist insight

A registered charge doesn't decide what a business can borrow next

This is the point most explainers skip. Seeing a charge on the register tells you a lender has security, not how much headroom is left, not whether the agreement blocks further borrowing, and not whether the existing lender would consent to a second facility. Usually more borrowing is possible. It depends on what's actually written into the agreement, not on the fact that a charge exists at all.

Decision helper

What you see on the registerWhat it tells youWhat it doesn't

A charge, unsatisfied→A lender holds security, filed on time or late→The balance owed, or whether it's been repaid informally

A charge, marked satisfied→That specific debt has been formally released→Whether other, unregistered or newer borrowing exists

Multiple charges, same lender→Usually a facility that's been varied or refinanced over time→That the business is in difficulty. Often the opposite: an established relationship

What actually settles the question

If a specific decision hangs on what a charge means for a specific business (whether you're that business or assessing it), read the underlying agreement, not just the register entry. A solicitor or adviser reviewing the actual document is the only reliable way to know what it permits, what it restricts, and what consent it would need. The public filing tells you a charge exists. It was never designed to tell you more than that.

Going deeper

This page covers the basics of reading one entry. These questions come up often enough to deserve their own answer:

Alternatives and limitations

If what you're really trying to work out is whether your own business can raise more finance despite an existing charge, this page is background only. Go to borrowing with an existing debenture for the practical answer, or see Data Sources for where every other figure on this site comes from.

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Adam Parker

Founder of Muswell Rose Consulting Ltd, which trades as Established Finance · former Managing Director of Penny, an invoice finance business, with 15+ years across mortgages, commercial finance and fintech lending.

Last updated: 16 September 2026

Common questions

Questions about this

What is a mortgage charge on a company?

A mortgage is one type of charge, not a separate thing. gov.uk's own guidance puts it plainly: "a 'charge' is the security a company gives for a loan. For example, a mortgage is a type of charge." So a mortgage charge against a company is simply a registered charge where the security happens to be structured as a mortgage, most often over property, rather than a general floating charge or a charge over a specific other asset.

How do you register a charge at Companies House?

The company (or the lender) files the charge with Companies House within 21 days of it being created, using the relevant MR form, and Companies House issues a certificate confirming registration. It is a legal filing obligation triggered automatically once a company grants security, not an optional step. See our section above on the 21-day rule and what happens if you miss it.

What is a charge code on Companies House?

A charge code is the unique reference number Companies House allocates to every charge created on or after 6 April 2013. It appears on the registration certificate and acts as the permanent identifier for that specific charge, the same code you'd quote if you were later filing a satisfaction (form MR04) against it.

Why would a company register a charge?

Two different questions hide inside this one. Registering is not optional: once a company grants a lender security over its assets, the law requires that charge to be filed within 21 days, regardless of whether the company would rather it stayed private. Granting the charge in the first place is a commercial choice: offering security is usually how a business accesses a facility, or better terms on one, that a lender wouldn't extend unsecured.

What is an outstanding (unsatisfied) charge on Companies House?

An unsatisfied charge just means nobody has filed the paperwork saying the debt behind it has been paid off, not that the debt is definitely still owed in full. Filing a satisfaction (form MR04) is common practice once a facility is repaid, but it isn't compulsory, so plenty of genuinely repaid facilities still show as unsatisfied simply because the filing was never made.