New company - registered business address not home address? Advice please

[monstermuch]

Hello, am trying to setup a new Limited company with a business partner. We will need a registered company address that's not our home address.

i see you can get some cheap ones online that scan and email post to you for about £20 a year. Is there any downside to this?

I note it says something about not scanning bank statements and other types of important docs though so not sure it would be helpful?

If anyone has any advice on this it would be welcome. Do we need to pay more for a full company address? The accountant fee would be about £200 a year for the full address and scanning service, but as a startup we are trying to minimise costs.

I'd be happy to use my home address for bank statements, tax docs etc, if that is allowed instead of the registered address? Not sure if you're allowed to do this.

Would welcome any advice on best cheapest way without causing any headaches!

Is your home address definitely a no-go? That'd be easiest and cheapest initially.

We did home address for a few years - I was nervous about having it 'available' but it will be anyway, if you'll be directors - and then accountants address.

I'm not sure the online ones are worthwhile. Lots of organisations won't use them, and there's usually 1000s of businesses registered to the same address, which looks sketchy to future customers and clients.

I don’t see the issue with virtual office addresses. It’s just for companies house and correspondence etc, you can always get it changed. If you live in a leasehold you might not be able to register a business to your home address it might be fine with freehold though, although I haven’t checked. Good luck

Do you have an accountant? They'll usually add on the service for a reasonable cost.

You can use your home address or accountants. If you are selling online you will have to show your trading address.

We use a local Business Centre around 10 minutes from our house so I can pop in to collect post once a week or so. Costs around £20 per month (tax deductible)

Home address doesn’t need to be shown for directors anymore on public record, they can use registered office address as a service address

Check out your local business centres - they’ll normally offer this service for £20/£30 a month.

You can use registered address just for the public companies house address and put it on your invoices, then only ask for official mail (companies house info) to be forwarded. I pay £70 a year for this. Then put your home address for the bank account or if you order supplies.

Trouble with using address firms is that they often have hundreds/thousands of firms using the same address so it can look dodgy, especially if some of those firms are fraudulent and end up on Rogue Traders or similar programmes as your company ends up linked to them, if only via trial by social media.

You can also hit problems if some official documentation requiring a signature is delivered there as some don't actually have a human to sign for things, so official paperwork, from say Companies House, can be returned to sender which can cause legal issues, strike off proceedings or Co House changing the registered office address to their office.

You can use your home address as a registered office - your only problem is your customers knowing where you live. Whilst you don't need your home address to be published by Co House if you can provide a different address, if you use it for registered office, then it WILL be openly available to everyone searching companies house records so no anonymity nor protection which you may not want.

If you want to use a service address, then use a reputable one, preferably a local one where you can see it's genuine, see that there is a receptionist to sign for mail, etc., and also do your own google search of the address to check it's not been compromised by dodgy firms using it.

I had the same concern about keeping my home address private when setting up my business. I ended up using Clyde Offices for my registered business address, and it’s been great. They forward my mail, and I don’t have to worry about my personal address being out there.

Just use your accountant's address.

Either use your accountant's address or just use your own.