Should I use my Home Address as my Registered Office Address?

Last Updated: Mar 22, 2021

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Address ServicesCompanies HouseCompany FormationHMRCLimited Companies

As one of the leading Company Formations specialists in the UK, one of the most common questions we are asked by new business owners is: “To what address should I register my business?”

This is actually a very good question to ask us before you go down the route of registering your business with Companies House to form your own Limited Company.

There is a good reason not to want to register your private home address as your official Registered Office Address, even when you fully intend to use your home office as your base to run your own business from.

Why it can be a bad idea to use your own address

Solo entrepreneurs running micro-businesses from home have become a key driver that is fuelling the UK economy in recent years. But just because the vast majority of micro-businesses owners are based at home doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to use your private residential address to register your business with.

The main reason why you should think twice before using your home address is that your address will be made public. This means that your private residential address will be listed on the public register of companies with Companies House. This register is fully open to be scrutinised by any member of the public.

But it is not only the fact that just about anyone can do an internet search of the register to find your home address details, but it is also about opening up your private home address to other businesses that want to spam your home with junk mail and cold calls.

Putting your family privacy first

Depending on your family situation, you may not want your home address made public for security reasons.

Let’s say that you are single and live on your own. You may not think twice about using your home address to register your business with. However, should you have a partner and young children too, then you have to consider their feelings about making your home address public and how doing so may affect them.

Making your home address public can mean opening up your home to salespeople and cold callers that will add your address to their list of sales opportunities. This could involve a large national company trawling the Public Register of Companies for addresses and then filtering them down to their local agents that work on the ground in regions across the UK.

An increasing number of cold callers

You can expect to find the number of cold callers turning up on your doorstep to greatly increase in number, as well as waking up each morning to find an ever-growing pile of junk mail, flyers, catalogues and sales letters sitting under your letterbox.

Here are some other worries to think about:

• Would your partner and family be very happy to have people knocking on your door at all hours of the day and evening?
• Would they welcome family dinners being interrupted by a constant stream of cold callers?
• Would your partner be happy to open your front door to complete strangers wanting to sell them everything under the sun?

Probably not!

Where does my Registered Office address need to be?

Officially your company Registered Office address can be anywhere you choose within England or Wales – as long as this is where your company is registered. Your registered office does not need to be the actual address from where you conduct your business.

For someone running a business from home, this can mean they can register their office address elsewhere and keep their private residential address off the public record. This can be very reassuring for you as well as your family members.

By registering your office address away from your home, you will be helping to protect your own privacy as well as that of your family.

Can’t I use a P.O. Box address for my Registered Office?

It may sound like a simple solution to use a P.O. Box address for your business. Many businesses actually do use P.O. Box addresses to help sort out their incoming business post, especially if they are sole trader working from home or out in the field where they don’t have a permanent address.

However, when you form a Limited Company you cannot use a P.O. Box for your Registered Office Address. This is because by law your Registered Office must have a physical location, so a bricks and mortar address that can receive your official correspondence from Companies House and HMRC.

Your Registered Office address must also be a place that is active so that your statutory mail will be received and dealt with in a timely manner. It wouldn’t be wise for example to use an empty warehouse building or an unmanned office where your official government correspondence could get lost, ignored or neglected.

What are my best address options?

If you want to protect your private home address and keep it off the public record, then it would be a wise move to use a professional Registered Office Address provider such as us at Your Company Formation in London.

With our comprehensive Registered Office Address service, you can greatly benefit by not having your private home address displayed on the public record so you can keep your business and family life completely separate from each other.

While you will still need to supply Companies House with your home address when you register your company with them, this will be kept private and off the public record.

Incorporating your company with an address service

If you are already running a successful business and are looking to make it official by forming your own Limited Company, then you can save yourself a lot of time and effort by using our Registered Office Address services at the same time as forming your company through us.

While it is perfectly legal to use your home address as your Registered Office Address at the time of your company formation, you may decide at some point in the future to change your registered address or any of your other business-related official addresses, such as your Service Address. This could be because you are moving house and will need to re-register your new Registered Office Address to your new home address. Or it could be because you are getting fed up of sorting through piles of junk mail and constantly dealing with cold callers to your home.

This is why it makes sense to use a professional Address Service Provider for all of your official business addresses when going through the company formation process.

You can save yourself a lot of time and hassle by using a permanent and stable solution such as our range of business address services right from the beginning. If you chose to move house, then you will have no need to make any changes to your registered business addresses.

It makes so much sense to choose a non-residential address for your Registered Office as well as your Service Address.

Boost your professional image

It is not only the many benefits of keeping your home address private and off the public record that makes using an address service a sensible move. Doing this can also greatly boost your professional business image with your customers or clients.

By using our Central-London based business address services, your company will be able to use a very prestigious London EC1 business address that sits in the heart of the London business district.

You will be able to use the following high-profile business address on all of your correspondence:

• Your Company Name
• Kemp House
• 160 City Road
• London
• EC1V 2NX

Your Limited Company will immediately create a very professional first impression and look like a more credible outfit to deal with simply because of the combination of your incorporated status and prestigious London business address.

In the business world your status and professional image count for a lot. It will be far easier to create and maintain a high-profile status when you use a Registered Office Address that isn’t your residential address.

Using a professional Registered Office Address service such as ours will mean your business address will be based in a prime location, while you can safely keep your home address off the public record.

You don’t need to worry about losing any of your important statutory mail coming from Companies House, HMRC and other UK government departments. Our fully trained and highly experienced staff at our London offices will sign for your mail and then deal with it according to your specifications.

Our team will be able to forward your statutory mail to an address of your choosing, which can be UK based or overseas. We will forward your mail in a timely manner as agreed by yourself so that you are not left waiting around for your important business correspondence.

Our professional business address services are suitable for any Limited Companies or LLP (Limited Liability Partnerships) that have been incorporated in either England or Wales.

Find out more about our professional Registered Office Address services and how cost-effective our services are when compared to other address providers. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to talk to one of our friendly team about your business address options.

Article by

Michelle