There is a question almost nobody asks before buying a business, and it takes five minutes to answer.
Is the person on the other side of the table banned from running a company?
Not "are they nice". Banned — by a court or by the state.
This happens more than people think
In the year 2024–25, more than 1,000 company directors were disqualified in the UK after investigations. Of those, 736 were banned over misuse of Covid support loans.
A ban runs from two years to fifteen. While it is running, that person cannot be a director, and cannot take part in forming or managing a company, without a court's permission.
If they do it anyway, that is a criminal matter — and they can be made personally liable for the company's debts.
The register is public, free and open
The UK keeps a register of disqualified directors as part of the company register. No fee, no account.
It tells you their name · why they were disqualified, in writing · when the ban started · how many disqualifications are recorded · whether a court has given permission to act anyway · address and date of birth where those are held.
The bans arrive from several places — the courts, the insolvency authority, the competition authority, the foreign office, the Treasury — and land in the same list.
🔴 What an empty result actually means
This is the part to get right, because it is easy to read backwards.
A disqualification is removed from this register once it has expired.
So a person banned for three years, five years ago, shows up today as nothing at all.
An empty result means one thing only: on the day you searched, this register held no current disqualification under that name.
It does not mean the person was never banned. It does not mean nothing ever went wrong. It means what it says, and no more.
⚠️ And a name is not a person. People share names, and the register shows a date of birth only where it holds one — usually just the month and year. Match on more than a name before you conclude anything.
How to look yourself, in five minutes
Go to find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/search/disqualified-officers and type the name. Then do it again for every other name on the paperwork — not only the person you have been speaking to.
If you find something, read the reason. It is written there in plain words.
There is a separate list for bankruptcies and insolvency, and it is worth the extra minute.
What it costs not to look
If a ban is running and the person is involved in the company anyway, that is a criminal offence and a route to personal liability for the company's debts.
Five minutes. No fee. Before anything else.
If you are not in the UK
Many countries disqualify directors, and most publish it somewhere — a company register, a court list, an insolvency authority. Two questions travel: is there a ban in force, and does an empty result mean "never" or only "not now"? Ask the register that second question directly. It changes what your search is worth.
Sources: GOV.UK, "Search for disqualified company directors" (contents of the register and where disqualifications come from); GOV.UK, "Company director disqualification" (removal of expired entries; effect of a ban); GOV.UK news, "Insolvency Service disqualified more than 1,000 directors in 2024-25". Checked 8 September 2026.
What we do. We read the public record behind one business that is for sale and write down what it shows, what it does not, and what no source shows at all — every finding with its source and the date we read it. We do not touch the seller's bookkeeping, and we do not tell you whether to buy.
Read the report before you pay for it. The samples are real reports on real listings with the names changed: €550 reads the public record; €950 also checks the documents the seller gives you against it.
Not sure the registers where you are show any of this? Send the country and a link to the listing. We will tell you what is checkable there and what is not — before anyone talks about money.