Third Party Registered Offices

There are many third party registered office facilities on offer whereby they allow a limited company to make use of their address. They then promise to forward all post from Companies House and Revenue and Customs to the director’s home residence, usually at no additional cost.

There are both advantages and disadvantages of using third party registered offices both at the time of the formation of a company or at a later date when the business has been in existence for some time.

One of the much talked about benefits of not using a home residence for this purpose is that of protecting the location of where the director or owner lives. This is not really an effective mechanism for hiding the owner’s residential address as currently, they are required by law to disclose this location when they are appointed as director, secretary or shareholder.

Thus, their residence can be found by this means and the fact that the registered office may be housed in another location will not disguise this fact.

Until the Companies Act 2006 provision takes effect, which allows company officers to hide their residential addresses, the protection afforded by third party facilities purporting to keep home location secret is a thin argument.

Prestige and impression is another commonly mentioned advantage of subscribing to outside registered office services. This benefit is a little more substantial as a company registered office located in say Central London and displayed on the business’ website and letterheads is likely to be viewed as more graceful than if 14 Fraser Close was shown instead.

One potential disadvantage of using a third party registered office address is that it adds one more cog in the company’s chain of receiving their Companies House and Revenue and Customs post. Instead of going straight from the Government department to the director, it goes firstly to the third party who then hopefully accurately dispatches it to its intended recipient.

Another factor which can influence the likelihood of mail being received at it final destination is the forwarding strategy adopted by the registered office providers. Most such facilities are offered by company formation agents, some of whom have differing policies toward the forwarding of statutory mail.

The Royal Mail states that when an item of post has been sent and received at its intended destination, i.e. the third party registered office, any further redirecting of that item must carry the required postage to the eventual recipient.

So the mere placing of a new address label on the letter and re-posting it without applying additional stamps may result in a charge (the proper postage plus a penalty) being levied on the director when it is delivered.

Some company formation providers do apply additional postage for the journey from their offices to the director’s home address whereas others do not. The service offered by this latter category may not be as effective as that which is provided by the first.

The good aspects of statutory post are that many of the tasks which traditionally used to be completed via paper forms are now available online. Hence the transfer of communications from Companies House and Revenue and Customs by means of physical mail is becoming less crucial in business operations.

Whilst the transition from paper to online correspondence is becoming more commonplace, it should also be noted that any letters sent by these two government departments can be re-requested. Also, given the timely nature at which most communications are despatched, there is usually sufficient time for copies of documents to be resent without the deadline of their submission passing.

Using third party registered office facilities can benefit those who wish to register a company by elevating there perceived status to a well known address location. An awareness of when certain post is due to be received from the Government departments may help both the tracking and the eventual receipt of all post which forms part of the relaying service.