New rules for registered office addresses

New rules for registered office addresses have been introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act. 

Companies are now obliged to have a registered office at an “appropriate address”.

An appropriate address is defined as where any documents sent to the:

• registered office should come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company; and
  

• address can be recorded by an acknowledgement of delivery.

This means that it is no longer possible to use a PO Box or unattended/rarely attended premises as a registered office address.

Companies House will monitor registered addresses and, when it identifies a company that is in breach of the new rules, it will change the registered office address to one at Companies House. The affected company will then have 28 days to register an appropriate address with Companies House, failing which, Companies House will commence the process to strike the company off the register of companies at Companies House.