What you get back and when, including the parts we cannot refund because the money has gone to the government.
If you are a consumer, you normally have 14 days from placing an order to cancel a distance contract and receive a refund. There is an important exception which applies to most of what we do.
If you ask us to start immediately, and we complete the service within the 14 days, you lose the right to cancel that service. Company formation is the clearest example: once your company exists at Companies House it cannot be un-formed, and the statutory fee has been paid to the government. An identity check, once run, is the same. When you order on my.vaulex.co.uk we ask you to confirm this with a tick-box, because it is fairer than burying it here. For a company formation ordered on vaulex.co.uk, you make the same request when you accept our terms at checkout.
If you are a consumer and cancel within 14 days after asking us to start, we refund what you paid less a proportionate charge for what we have already done.
Subscriptions are different. You can cancel a subscription at any time, including inside the first 14 days, and we will refund it as set out below. Where the law gives you more than this table, you get more.
| Service | If you cancel, or we cannot proceed |
|---|---|
| Formation, Virtual Office or Switch declined at our checks | Full refund to the card you paid with, unless the law requires us to hold the funds |
| Company formation, not yet submitted | Full refund, including the Companies House fee |
| Company formation, submitted or incorporated | No refund. The statutory fee has been paid and the work is done |
| Formation rejected by Companies House | Full refund and we refile at our cost – see the Guarantee |
| Formation plan, after incorporation | Cancel any time. The service runs to the end of the paid month |
| Same-day formation filed on a later working day | The Companies House same-day supplement (currently £56) is refunded, because it has not been used. Our same-day fee is refunded too if the delay was ours |
| Virtual Office, before your address goes live | Full refund of your first payment |
| Virtual Office, after your address goes live | Cancel any time. The service runs to the end of the paid month. The setup part of your first payment (£59.01 of the £99) is not refundable |
| Switch, before we file the change of registered office | Full refund of your first payment |
| Switch, after we have filed | Cancel any time. The service runs to the end of the paid month. No pro-rata refund of that month |
| Identity verification, before any check has been run | Full refund |
| Identity verification, if we cannot act for you (see our AML & Identity Checks policy) | Full refund, before any check is run |
| Identity verification, once a check has been run | No refund. The check has been run and paid for, whatever its outcome |
| Fast-track identity verification, timescale missed for a reason within our control | The difference between the fast-track and standard price |
| 2-Hour Priority Scanning, two-hour window missed for a reason within our control | That month's Priority fee refunded |
| VAT or PAYE registration, not yet submitted | Full refund |
| VAT or PAYE registration, submitted to HMRC | No refund |
| Any statutory fee already paid to Companies House or HMRC | Not refundable by us. We never mark these up, and we never keep them |
| Monthly add-ons | Cancel any time. Runs to the end of the paid month |
| Any plan paid yearly | Cancel any time. The unused full months are refunded; the months you used are charged at the monthly price |
If your plan includes a registered office or a director's service address, you must move them away from our address before your subscription ends. If you have not, we will normally file the change of registered office for you as part of leaving – that is included, not charged. But the legal duty to hold an appropriate registered office is the company's, not ours, and a company left without one can be struck off.
After your subscription ends we return post to sender. We do not forward post indefinitely. If our address is still on the register without a live service, we may apply to Companies House to have it changed to Companies House's default address.
A Virtual Office is never a registered office, so there is nothing to change at Companies House – but you should update anyone who writes to you at our address.
When you cancel in your portal we ask what you want done with your scanned post and files: delete them as soon as your service ends, or keep them available to download for 12 months and then delete them. If you do not choose, we keep them for 12 months. Download anything you need before you cancel.
Physical mail held at the time of cancellation is available for 30 days for collection or forwarding at our published rates, then securely destroyed. Identity and anti-money laundering records are kept for the periods the law requires – see our Privacy Policy.
If we end your service other than because of a serious breach of our terms, we refund the unused part pro rata to the card that paid, unless the law requires us to hold the funds. If we end it because of a serious breach, we do not refund the rest of the month you have paid for. Where the law requires it, we may be prohibited from explaining why.
If you think something is wrong, tell us first. We would rather refund you than argue with a bank. Once a chargeback is raised, the money is dealt with through the bank's process and we cannot refund it separately, and we may suspend the service while the chargeback is open.
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