Changes to the registered office addresses rules

Changes to the registered office addresses rules

There have been a number of changes made in recent months, one of which means that companies must have an ‘appropriate address’ as their registered office, or face fines of up to £1,000 – but what does this mean? It has to in effect pass the following tests…..

• a document addressed to the company, and delivered there by hand or by post, would be expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company; and
• the delivery of documents there is capable of being recorded, by the obtaining of an acknowledgement of delivery.

If a company’s registered office address does not meet these requirements, this means the address is not appropriate.

Companies House is able to take action against the company and its officers if they break the rules.

There are fines of up to £1,000 for failing to comply with the rules which are set out in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.

The guidance from Companies House states the following: ‘If we’re satisfied a company’s registered office is not appropriate, we’ll change the registered office address to a default address, held at Companies House.’

‘If a company’s registered office is moved to the default address, they must provide an appropriate address with evidence of proprietary ownership within 28 days, or we could start the process to strike the company off the register.’  

Any company using an agent’s (accountants) address or another third-party provider’s address as their registered office must make sure the address service provided meets the requirements for an appropriate registered office address.

It will no longer be possible to use a Royal Mail PO Box, and equivalent services offered by other parties, as a registered office address.

The Companies House registrar now has greater powers to query and challenge information that appears to be incorrect or inconsistent with information held. In future they will be able to remove information more quickly, if that information is inaccurate, incomplete, false or fraudulent.  

As part of the changes there will be stronger checks on company names which may give a ‘false or misleading impression’ to the public. This will improve the accuracy and quality of the data held and help to tackle the misuse of company names.  

If any companies are found to be abusing the rules, annotations will be added to the register to let users know about potential issues with the information that has been supplied.

While the rules affect new registrants, Companies House will also be taking steps to clean up the register, using data matching to identify and remove inaccurate information.

In the autumn a new identity verification process will be coming into effect, which there will be an update shortly.

The rules are part of a range of measures introduced in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act to improve the accuracy and quality of the data on Companies House registers in a bid to tackle economic crime.

What happens if companies don’t comply?

Companies House have announced a number of Enforcement and sanctions which outline the serious consequences if a company does not respond to a formal request from Companies House for more information. This could include: 

• a financial penalty up to £1,000;
• an annotation on the company’s record; and
• prosecution.

If you have any concerns about the address that you use for your company – please get in touch and we will be pleased to talk you through our registered office service here at Kennedys Accounting.