UK company charges: three figures from the Companies House register

Registration

How long new charges take to reach Companies House

Of 38,649 newly created charges delivered to Companies House from 1 September to 31 October 2026, the median gap between the date the charge was created and the date it was delivered was 3 days. This base is smaller than the 38,678 charges used in the all-property section because it leaves out charges a company took on when it bought property (form MR02) and charges without both dates (method). Source: the Companies House charges stream, captured by us.

The share delivered within each number of days is below.

The law sets the limit. A charge must be delivered within "21 days beginning with the day after the date of creation of the charge" (Companies Act 2006, section 859A). Registering later needs a court order extending the period (Companies Act 2006, section 859F). So the 99.7% within 21 days mostly reflects the deadline, and the median of 3 days says more about how quickly charges are actually filed.

Definition: days from the charge's creation date to the date Companies House received it, for filings that create a new charge. Charges a company took on when it bought property that was already charged (form MR02) are left out. Date range: charges delivered 1 September to 31 October 2026. Limits: we only see charges that were filed, so this is time to file among charges that were filed. A charge never registered, or still inside its 21 days at the end of October, is not in the count. Two months only, so it says nothing about seasonal change.

What a registered charge means and what the 21-day rule does: company charges explained.

Satisfaction

How many charges are recorded as satisfied

Fewer than half of registered charges are recorded as satisfied. Of 3,560,414 charges at companies on the Companies House register on 1 November 2026, 1,613,526 (45.3%) were recorded as satisfied in full. 54.6% were outstanding on the register, and 2,072 were recorded as part satisfied. Source: Companies House bulk company file, 1 November 2026.

Filing a statement of satisfaction (form MR04) is optional. Companies House says "You do not have to tell us when a charge is satisfied" (gov.uk, register a charge), so a charge that is outstanding on the register may still have been repaid. These figures count what has been filed, not what has been paid.

Older charges are more often recorded as satisfied. In our scan of company charge records from the Companies House charges data (method), the share recorded as satisfied by the year on the charge:

Definition: charges recorded as satisfied in full, over all charges, from the charge counts in the Companies House bulk company file. Date range: register at 1 November 2026; the by-year shares use the status in our scan of each charge, read between August and November 2026. Limits: dissolved companies are not in the register file or the scan, so the older years count only companies that still exist. The file's satisfied, part satisfied and outstanding counts add up to 1,886 fewer than the total, and we cannot explain the gap.

How to file one, and why it matters before you apply for new finance: how to mark a repaid charge as satisfied.

Scope

How many new charges cover all of a company's property

About three in ten new charges cover all the company's property. Of 38,678 charges delivered to Companies House from 1 September to 31 October 2026, 11,570 (29.9%) had a floating charge marked as covering all the property or undertaking of the company. 9,833 of all charges (25.4%) had that and a fixed charge as well. 12,983 (33.6%) had a floating charge of any kind. Source: the Companies House charges stream, captured by us.

The filer states this when registering a charge: the statement of particulars must say whether a floating charge covers all the property and undertaking of the company (Companies Act 2006, section 859D).

Definition: charges where the Companies House "floating charge covers all" field is true. "All-assets debenture" is our wording; Companies House has no field with that name. Date range: charges delivered 1 September to 31 October 2026. Limits: the figure depends on the filer ticking the box. A blank field is counted as no. The total includes charges over a single property. Two months only. As a check, charges filed in 2025 in our scan (method) gave 31.1% (17,361 of 55,741), but that set leans towards companies that use invoice finance.

What all-assets security includes and what can be carved out: what "all assets" covers in a debenture.

Method

How we counted

• Sources. The Companies House bulk company file dated 1 November 2026, which gives each company's number of charges and how many are satisfied, part satisfied and outstanding. And the Companies House charges stream, which sends each charge filing as it happens; we keep the last event for each charge.
• Two bases from the stream. 38,678 charges were delivered from 1 September to 31 October 2026. The all-property figures use all of them. The registration-time figures use the 38,649 that were new charges with both a creation and a delivery date, so charges taken on with bought property (form MR02) are left out.
• Charge scan. We also read the charge records of companies with charges between August and November 2026. The satisfied shares by year and the 2025 check on all-property floating charges come from this scan, using each charge's status on the day it was read.
• Coverage of the stream. For September and October 2026 our stream copy held 97.8% of the 39,544 charges we know were delivered in those months.
• What we publish. Counts and shares only. We do not publish charge-level records, name companies or show amounts.
• What the figures are not. Not an official statistic. "Outstanding" means no satisfaction has been filed, not that money is still owed. A charge recorded as satisfied says nothing about a company's other borrowing.
• Downloads. Every charge figure on this site, as CSV or JSON, under CC BY 4.0.
• Corrections. If a figure changes, the fix goes in the methodology changelog.

More counts from the same register: charges at companies in liquidation or administration and invoice finance charges by year, sector and region. Other figures on this site come from named outside sources, listed on data sources.