Home address as company registered office

Hello there. I would be happy to help you with this.

The short answer:

Yes, you completely can use your home address as your limited company's registered office. However, there are a few important things to think about before you go ahead, especially regarding your privacy and the paperwork for your home.

The legal position and recent changes:

Under company law in England and Wales, every company must have a registered office address. Following recent legal updates in early 2024 to tackle economic crime, this must now be what the law calls an appropriate address. This simply means it must be a physical location where official documents can be delivered, and where their delivery can be recorded.

Your home address fits this legal requirement perfectly. Please note that you can no longer use a standard PO Box as your registered office.

Privacy issues to consider:

When you register a company, the registered office address is published on the Companies House public register. This means absolutely anyone can look up your company online and see your home address for free.

Because of this, you will likely receive a lot of junk mail aimed at businesses. More importantly, if a customer or creditor ever has a dispute with your company, they will know exactly where you live. Even if you decide to change the registered address to somewhere else later on, your home address will still remain visible in the public filing history of the company for a very long time.

Checking your home paperwork:

If you rent your home, your tenancy agreement might contain rules that ban you from using the property as a registered business address or running a business from the property.

If you own your home, you should check your mortgage terms for similar restrictions.

It is also sensible to check your home insurance policy, as some insurers require you to tell them if you are using the property for any business purpose.

Practical alternatives:

If you decide you would rather keep your home address private, you have a couple of sensible options.

1. Use your accountant. Many accountants will allow you to use their office as your registered address, either for free as part of their package or for a small yearly fee.

2. Use a virtual office or company formation service. There are many companies that provide a registered office address service. They give you a professional sounding address to use at Companies House, and they will either forward your official mail to your home by post or scan and email it to you.

A quick note on directors addresses:

When you set up a company, you also have to provide a correspondence address for yourself as a director, which is known as a service address. You can use a virtual office or your accountant's address for this as well, which helps ensure your home address stays completely off the public register.

I hope this helps you choose the best setup for your company. Please let me know if you need help with anything else.