Commentary Part 16: Audit Chapter 4: Removal, Resignation, Etc of Auditors Section 514: Failure to re-appoint auditor: special procedure required for written resolution
781.This section sets out the procedure for changing auditor from one financial year to the next by written resolution (a procedure only available to private companies). This may be done (i) during the term of office of the outgoing auditor, or (ii) afterwards, if no replacement has been appointed. But case (ii) will arise only if there is no automatic deemed reappointment for one of the five reasons in section 487(2).
782.Subsection (3) provides that the company must send a copy of the proposed resolution both to the outgoing auditor and to his proposed replacement; and subsection (4) provides that the former then has 14 days to make a statement setting out his views. Subsection (5) then provides that the company must send, to its shareholders, the resolution together with any statement from the outgoing auditor. Subsection (6) specifies how the general rules on written resolutions are to apply in this case.
783.Subsection (7) provides protection if the outgoing auditor is using the provision to have a statement circulated to secure needless publicity for defamatory material. It enables the company, or anyone else who is aggrieved by the statement, to apply to the court, and the court can then determine whether the auditor is using the provision in that way, in which case the company is not obliged to circulate the auditor’s representations. The court can order the auditor to pay some or all of the costs of the proceedings.
784.Subsection (8) provides that failure to comply with the rules in this section will make the resolution ineffective.