Using your home address as your registered office address, should you or shouldn’t you?
When setting up a new business not everyone wants to use their home address as their registered office address.
Before you think about registering your business with Companies House to form a Limited Company, you will have to know what your registered business address will be. Often the easy option is to use your accountant’s address or your solicitor’s address, but you can also use a business centre that provides business address services.
Why not to use your home address as your registered office address
If you are going to run your business from home, why should you not register your home address as your official registered office address?
The main reason is that your private home address will be now be public. It will be listed on the public register of companies at Companies House, which is open to anyone using an Internet search. Any company who wants to can now easily add your home address to their prospect database and that means:
Junk Mail: Using your home address as your business address enables other businesses to send you junk mail, catalogues and flyers to your home.
Cold callers: Sales people can turn up unannounced at any time of the day when you may not be at home but your family may be.
And that’s what is key, what effect will using your home address as your registered office address have on your family? How important is your family privacy?
What’s the official requirement for a registered office?
If you’re registering your business in England or Wales, officially your company’s registered office address can be anywhere you choose in that country – it does not need to be the actual address from where you conduct your business. You can run your business from home and use a different registered office address, keeping your home address private.
By law your registered office must have a physical location so if you use a PO Box you also have to have a bricks and mortar address that can receive statutory mail ie official correspondence from Companies House and HMRC.
One option is to use a business address service. Hexagon Business Centres offers their business address service users the option to use Hexagon as a registered business address for a one off £25 fee, keeping home address separate from business address.
Taking a business address service makes your business look more professional rather than a residential address, as the saying goes, first impressions count! Our team will take in your deliveries and post that you can collect 24/7/365 or you can arrange a post forwarding service.
So while it is perfectly legal to use your home address as your registered office address when you first register your company, it can make sense to choose a non-residential address and keep your home and your business separate.
To find out more about Hexagon Business Centres business address service and using us as your registered office address, contact us on 01993 848770 or
