Registered address

A question about : Registered address

I'm thinking about setting a ltd company up. I work full time and want to start doing bits and bobs in my spare time. Hopefully the business will grow and allow me to leave my full time job. I found a couple of sites on line that will file all the forms with companies house for around Ј45. Some of them allow you to use their address as the companie's registered office for a fee of Ј50 per annum (plus postage forwarding fees). Are there any implications to using my home address as the registered address for the business? Is it better to use a registered address other than my home address?
TIA
Bob

Best answers:

• I don't know a huge amount about this, but maybe some general pointers to start you thinking will help.
  If you expect to move house in the foreseeable future, then NOT using your home address for the business might make sense. Business addresses tend to hang around for a long time ....
  How 'professional' does your home address look? How 'professional' does it need to look?
  Does it matter if your business looks 'local' to where you live or not? A florist, a hairdresser, a caterer, all get their business locally, and not looking local will work against you.
  How likely is it that disgruntled customers - no, surely you won't have any, but if you did - will seek out your home address to discuss their grievances in person? Does that put anyone other than you 'at risk'? How do you feel about that risk?
  How bulky is your business post going to be? Will it often need to be signed for? Will you be there to receive it?
  You can get a PO Box from the Royal Mail for a fee, I think quarterly. Don't know how this would compare with mail being forwarded from your company's registered office, and you have to go and collect your mail from the PO - possibly your local sorting office. Obviously if you can't get to the PO during the day, then picking up the post is a pain in the neck. But if you're never in and it's going to be bulky, then collecting it is a better option. And if your business is not 'time-critical', you can get the post and deal with it when it suits you.
  If you're relying on others to forward mail from your registered address, you might want to check they're not 'flaky' or fly-by-night.
  You can also get a Freepost address from Royal Mail. Again, there's a fee, and you pay a little bit over the odds for whatever's delivered in this way. But it can be a better alternative than sending out saes, if you'd have to do that, because you only pay for the freepost which is actually delivered, whereas if you send out 50 saes and only 20 people use them, you have wasted 30 lots of postage, not to mention the envelopes.
  The legal implications of running a business from home have been raised elsewhere in this part of the forum - tax liability, council tax, planning restrictions etc - so check them out as well.
  Hope this all makes sense! Best of luck!
• In the eyes of the law, there is no difference between a "registered address" or your personal home address. So long as it is an address which actually exists i.e. not PO Box or other forms of accommodation address, and is recognised by the GPO as an address.
  However, Savvy Sue has helpfully pointed out some of the possible pitfalls of using a personal home address. A registered address is good for continuity. Some companies use their solicitors' address as their registered address. Of course, there are costs associated with this arrangement. So much depends on the scope of your business. If you think your turnover is really not so much, say, less than Ј5K annually, in the first few years, then using your personal address will help to keep running costs of the business down. It is possible to change a company's registered address after it has been incorporated. The info and forms required are at www.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  Turning to founding the actual company itself, I think most incorporation services actually sell you an already incorporated company "off the shelf". All they do is to change company name, directors' and company secretary's details etc. The actual process of starting a company from scratch etc is a little daunting so most people just buy an "off the shelf" company. The company I work for did exactly that. Once the purchase is made, one then holds a board meeting to settle all the new details and make appropriate decisions as to the general running of the business. Do bear in mind that a company must have at least one director and one company secretary, and these two people cannot be the same person. However, a director can also be the company secretary, so long as there is another director on the board. The Companies House website has a lot of useful info. There is no specific qualification required for directors or company secretaries, so long as they can show they have "the skill and care" to perform and discharge their duties. For small businesses, for the sake of example, if a couple runs a small company, the wife can be a director and the husband a company secretary. You will most likely need advice from your accountant or professional advisers as to what to do, particularly in relation to board formalia.
  Anyway, it is beyond the scope of a chat thread to give all the info. So I will stop here. However, Bob, have you considered whether your business will need to be incorporated initially? Would it be possible to start as a sole trader? There are costs and, frankly, hassle associated with incorporation and the running of a limited company. I suppose that's the price one pays for limited liability.
  Oh, one last thing. When buying a company "off the shelf", check the Articles of Association to see if they have adopted Table A. The last I recall, it is now possible to have only one shareholder and previously, a company must have at least 2 shareholders. The old Table A will say 2 minimum. If that suits your needs, great. If not, it can be changed to sole member by passing a member's written resolution.
  Best of luck!
• Your registered address does not have to be the same as your trading address.
  Many companies I deal with have registered addresses at their lawyers or accountants, becasue they deal with all the official paperwork but use their office as a trading address. Only Companies House, the INland Revenue and people who buy data off COmpanies HOuse to send you junk mail (expect one monthly from Dell!) will be sending to your registered address. Anyone else will just use the trading address you give,
  Only disadvantage of it not being the same is that you may have to put 2 addresses on your invoices.
• Wow! Thanks for all the feedback. I've had a quick chat with a nice man from the local business link office and he recommended starting off as a sole trader and then incorporating at a later date if the business takes off as expected.
  Cheers
  Bob
• Cool! Sounds like the best way forward.
  All the best for your business venture!
• Bob. Don't forget VAT. You don't have to register until you are turning over (not earning) the threshold which I think is about Ј50k now.
  Good luck.
• Threshold for VAT is currently Ј58k
  Good luck with your new business venture