Some additional guidance has been issued by Companies House in respect of what is and isn't an 'appropriate address' for a company registered office.
An address is an ‘appropriate address’ if, in the ordinary course of events:
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
Examples of services that are not appropriate include:
Only forwarding Court documents and mail from certain UK government departments to the company
Not forwarding general business correspondence addressed to the company
There could be serious consequences for companies using an address service that does not meet the requirements for an appropriate address.
The company and its officers may be committing an offence if their registered office address is not an appropriate address. Companies House may change the registered office of all companies registered at that address to the Companies House default address, which may lead to beginning the process to strike those companies off the register.
There may also be reputational consequences for agents who have marketed and sold registered office services to their customers when those services do not meet the requirements for an appropriate address.
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