A registered office address isn't an add-on for later. It's part of company formation itself, since Companies House won't incorporate a UK limited company without one on the application. Every company director named at formation is tied to that address for official correspondence unless a separate director's address is given.

That's why so many people set up their registered office address service at the same time they form the company. Having a registered office is legally required from the moment your company exists, and keeping your company's registered office address accurate is legally required too. You'll also need to give your company's registered office address on invoices and contracts, not just at Companies House.

Companies House records are public. Anyone can search the register and pull up a company's registered office, its directors, and its correspondence address. If you've used your home address for any of these, it's on the public record for anyone to find.

That's why home-based directors move to a proper address service. It keeps your residential address private, gives you an official address that isn't your own address, and lets clients see a business address that looks the part. It stays the same if you move house, and it helps protect your home address from turning up in a search. If anything does arrive there by mistake, we forward it on for you.

How a Registered Office Differs From a Trading Address

Your registered office is your legal address for official correspondence. Your trading address is wherever you do business, whether that's a shop, a warehouse, or your spare room. They don't have to match.

How a Registered Office Differs From a Directors Service Address

A registered office belongs to the company. A director's service address belongs to a named person and covers where their correspondence appears on the register. Plenty of clients take a director's service address so their own name never appears next to their company's registered office.

It's not only Companies House. HMRC, and occasionally other government bodies, use whatever address is listed as your registered office for official government mail. Business mail from the registrar and HMRC lands the same way, and everyday business mail from suppliers tends to follow the same address once it's on file. It functions as your correspondence address for every government letter.

We treat anything from Companies House and HMRC as priority, opened, scanned and sent to you the same working day, free of charge, whether it's official mail with a government stamp on it or ordinary mail. We scan it and forward the physical copy too if you'd rather sign for something in person. Statutory mail is the part that matters most, so it never sits in a pile.

This service suits a wide range of company owners:

• Home-based directors who want their address off the public register
• Remote or multi-location teams with no single office to register instead
• Overseas entrepreneurs forming a UK limited company who need a genuine UK address in the correct jurisdiction
• Dormant companies, which still have to keep a registered office while not trading

Wherever your business is based, we forward what matters and leave junk mail behind. The address still has to sit in the same country and jurisdiction as your company. Companies registered in England and Wales need an England or Wales address, companies registered in Scotland need a Scottish one, and companies registered in Northern Ireland need one there too. Check any company's current details on the Companies House website any time.

Changing your registered office address is free to file with Companies House, any time after incorporation. The new registered office address has to be appropriate and stay in the right jurisdiction.

A common time this comes up is when a company changes accountants. If your old accountant's address was your company's registered office address, you'll need to move it before that relationship ends, or your official mail could end up going somewhere you can no longer reach. We handle this switch often, updating your company's registered office and any correspondence address, directors' service address, or service address on file at the same time. We'll also forward anything that arrives at the old address for a while after you move.

Standalone registered office address services across the UK generally run between £20 and £90 a year, with most landing around £40 to £60. Prices sit higher for prestige locations such as central London, and lower for regional locations with no mail forwarding included.

Budget for around £45 to £60 a year for a registered office address with same-day mail scanning and free forwarding of statutory post included. Most providers quote before VAT, so check whether the figure on the page you're comparing includes it.

This is a rough guide and the actual cost varies with location and whether you bundle it with other services, such as company secretarial support or your annual accounts. For example, adding a directors service address to your purchase usually costs less than buying the two separately, and there's nothing extra to purchase once you're set up.

Prices for a business address service and a registered office service tend to sit close together, so it's rarely worth shopping between the two on cost alone. Sign up through your account, and we'll confirm everything by email the same day, ready to forward to Companies House if the address needs updating there too. A small business and a larger company both get the same forward-the-same-day promise, whatever service level they're on, and every company we support gets that.

If you're ready to get your home address off the public register, or you're forming a new UK limited company and need somewhere for statutory mail to land, whatever stage your business is at, get in touch with Vexo Accounting. Visit our website, tell us where your company is registered and what you need handled, and we'll put together a free quote for your registered office address service, whichever service suits you best. There's nothing to sign until you're happy, and once you are, we'll have your new registered office service ready to use within a day or two.