[andyking]

I'm not looking to set myself up as a company, but just out of interest, what's the difference between registering yourself and buying an off-the-shelf limited company? I've known people do it both ways.

If getting yourself registered as a brand new company is so easy, what are the advantages of buying an empty limited company and changing its name? There must be some, or people wouldn't do it.

[jmaskell]

There are two main advantages to buying an off the shelf company:

1. Having a company that appears to have been around for longer than it actually has (although it's pretty easy to find out it's history - e.g. when directors changed).

2. Getting the company name that you want. There are a number of people that form companies and register them as dormant just to squat on the name - just like people do with domain names.

Edit: forgot to add:

I'd recommend registering a fresh company. It's quick and easy. Buying a company, changing directors, making sure there's no awful legal history with it etc probably isn't worth the extra cost or effort. It's nice to have a clean slate to start with.

[zg]

The advantage of off-the-shelf companies used to be much greater when the company registration process was slower and all done off-line. These days it's less relevant.