Hi there,


Since I made a webpage for my gaming team (I did the coding and some design) and showing it at http://84.30.130.64/ I started to receive messages from companies who where looking for a coder...

A few hours ago a guy/boy contacted me who said he was forming up a team of coders/designers to start designing and coding webpages for clans (teams that game online). Since I myself am still a gamer and like to make scripts for clans I'd figured i would rather work for a guy like this then for a company that makes sites for professional companies.

Only 'problem' was that he said he was 16 years old. This is offcourse no problem to me as long as he runs everything as it should be run and no problems occur but when I asked him if the company was already registred in the UK (where he lives, I myself live in the Netherlands) he said that in the UK as soon as you start a webdesign company you are automaticly registred. Now I am still a student myself (I am 19 years old) and I have little to no knowledge about legal stuff like this in foreign countries but in the Netherlands you would have to register yourself (which costs money) and you'd have to follow some sort of legal prosedure before you can call yourself an official company. Also all companies registered can be searched for at the site www.kvk.nl so you can check if you can trust a company you are about to pay for their services.

Does anyone know how this works in the UK as this boy is sure it's all done automaticly and it doesn't cost him any money...

I am not a UK legal expert, but I would ask this person one question. "If you're automatically registered, how does the administration handling this find out about you?"

that's exactly my point, but by saying 'we are automaticly registered' I think he could mean that there isn't such thing as registering your company as a legit company, but this sounds very unlikely...

You are not automatically registered, what a weird lie. You have to apply for a company number and trade name from companies house. You then have to assign a secretary and apoint a director to the company. You would then have to choose how many shares your company would be formed of, for a limited company the normal amount is 100 with 1 being worth £1. I am going into detail for no reason again oh dear lol!

I wont put forward comment on the lie side of this, but recommend you head over to www.StartupTalk.com (also a member of Artashes' group) and ask around for some help there if you are interested in 'doing this'...

Regards,
~Equinox

I told him I din't trust it and explained to him why, thanks for the information everyone, without it I might have started something with a person who for all I know might have just ignored me after my coding and not pay me.

Be carefull, there is no country on Earth that automaticly register companies. Somewhere you can do it for 1€, but not automaticly :-)

How it works : you fill in the forms, you pay Companies House who maintain the register of all the business who can *legally* call themselves a *company* and you wait for the certificate with your company number.

(or you see your chosen formations business/legal firm and get them to all the paperwork)

Either way its not automatic and it's not free and it's not something to take lightly.

Within the UK its *ILLEGAL* to call yourself a company and not be registered.