Persons with significant control are not a box you tick once at registration. The record has to move every time control actually shifts.
Significant control can change long after registration
A company's significant-control picture rarely stays fixed. An investor buying a majority stake in a funding round can trigger it. So can a shareholder quietly building up a stake over several small purchases, years after incorporation.
The trigger is the change in control itself, not any one kind of transaction. A sale, an inheritance, or a change in voting arrangements can all qualify.
Deal teams often focus on the commercial paperwork and forget this separate duty entirely. Build a PSC check into your closing checklist for any transaction that shifts real control.
The deadline for the person to tell the company
Once someone gains significant control, they must tell the company within 7 days of gaining significant control. This duty sits with the person gaining control. It does not sit with the company chasing them for it.
Build this into any deal that shifts real control. Add it next to the commercial paperwork. A fast-moving deal can close without anyone thinking about this separate duty at all.
The deadline for the company to tell CAC
Once the company has that information, it has within one month of receiving the information to pass it on to CAC. Think of the two deadlines as one chain, not two separate dates.
The first clock starts once control actually changes. The second starts only once the company knows about it.
A company that hears about a change informally should still treat that as the moment its own clock starts. Waiting for a formal letter is not required.
Why this record affects filings that have nothing to do with PSC
Up-to-date annual returns and PSC information before CAC processes most other post-incorporation filings. That covers a change of directors and a registered address update alike.
A company can be fully current on its annual returns and still get stuck. Its significant-control record may be the part that has gone stale. Check both records, not just the more familiar one.
Keeping a simple log of both dates
A short internal log, noting who gained significant control, when they told the company, and when the company told CAC, costs little to keep and saves a scramble later.
Review it whenever you are about to make an unrelated CAC filing, since a gap here can block something that looks completely unconnected on the surface. Director and shareholder details CAC needs covers the related record you are already keeping for other filings.
You can start a CAC company registration if you have not yet incorporated. The CAC registration hub links the rest of this series on post-incorporation changes, including PSC disclosures when you register a company for how this record starts out.