Community Co-op - constitutional concerns

Hi Ian. It's highly likely that they are a company limited by guarantee and a co-operative. I was a member of several co-operative companies established by Nottingham CDA. A quick look at the articles will reveal all.

It should be pretty straightforward, assuming that you have the correct name of the society, to find your on-line file on the Mutual Societies Register at the FCA which says you are a Society and the stub on the Companies House website which refers people to the Mutual Societies Register because it is not a company.

You can also check when was the last time that the accounts and Annual Return were properly submitted to the FCA. Either they sent them there if recent accounts are on line (in which case why did they not send them to Companies House) or you should raise this with the accountants (who are meant to be the watchdog for the members) if there are no recent accounts submitted. You can also point out that if the accounts and annual returns are not submitted to the FCA for a number of years then the FCA will cancel their registration and they will no longer be incorporated.

A helpful suggestion is also to make sure that you get your own language right. A Society does not have memorandum and articles of association (only companies have those). A Society has Rules. Using the wrong terms yourself helps them maintain their confusion.

Thanks

Dave

Hi Ian, long time no see, I would support what Dave says, hope Nottingham is still treating you well

It'll also be worth checking here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/

This is the online version of the Companies House register.

The Mutuals register at the FCA can be found here: https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/

One issue that may also crop up, is that mutuals can own other legal structures, in the same way that charities can have a main legal structure that is the charity, but has a trading subsidiary that is wholly-owned by the charity. As charities are not allowed to perform commercial trading, this is one method used to allow trading at arms length.

It might be that someone from the co-operative set this up, so you'll need to check the dates of incorporation for all of these structures, as well as checking whether the rules of the co-operative were followed in setting this up. ( If anything like this was done, of course... :D )

I heard about some of this behaviour during the New Labour years, when people from co-op's were told that they weren't really the sort of organisation that New Labour were interested in.

This is also something that some of the Co-operative Party MP's would be interested in.

While they are part of the Labour Party alliance, some members are more equal than others... :D

Luck to you. :D

What they said. It may be a CLG with co-op articles, in which case you can check them at companies house.