Before you go ahead and change company address details, you need to be clear about which address is really required to be changed. “Company address” actually refers to three different things, and that is the most common cause of updating the incorrect record. 

• Registered office: The address on the public record, which is the official address of the company. 
• Service address: Where directors, PSCs, and shareholders receive personal statutory correspondence. 
• Trading address: The location where the business is actually conducting day-to-day activities, and no filing procedure is required. 

The greatest confusion is associated with home addresses. Many first-time directors register their home address for convenience, only to find out later on that it remains on a public database forever, to be seen by anyone who searches for it. 

Action: Determine which address should be updated next. In case of a change of registered office, file the change of registered office only. Update the service address of a director if this information changes.

2. Check Your New Address Meets Companies House Rules

Not all addresses are eligible. The official legislation under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act states that a registered office must now be an ‘appropriate address’, which means that post must be sent to someone who acts for the company and that delivery must be formally acknowledged. 

This means that a few common shortcuts are not allowed in practice: 

• PO Boxes are no longer accepted at all.
• Address out of the company’s original area (registered office must remain in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). 
• Unstaffed or unmonitored addresses, since uncollected post fails the “appropriate address” standard.

Service addresses are more flexible and can be located anywhere in the world, except that there must be someone there to receive the mail. 

Before continuing, check that your new address:

• It is located within your company’s registered jurisdiction.
• Can receive official mail during business hours.
• Includes a complete postcode.
• It is not a PO Box.

Once you’ve confirmed these points, you’re ready to file the change.

3. File the Correct Form With Companies House

The filing process depends on what’s changing:

• AD01, for the registered office address. 
• CH01, for a director’s service address.
• The relevant PSC form for a person with significant control.

The guidance is currently available on the government’s publication page for the AD01 form. Filing online through WebFiling costs nothing and only needs a company’s authentication code; postal filing takes longer to process. If you are unable to find the authentication code, ask for a new one prior to filing. Companies House has updated its guidance to say that postcode is now a mandatory field in digital submissions of AD01, so please check the postcode before submitting.

To update your registered office online:

• Sign in to your Companies House WebFiling account.
• Select the company you want to update.
• Choose the option to change the registered office address.
• Complete Form AD01 with the new address as it should appear.
• Review the information carefully.
• Submit your company’s authentication code.
• Save confirmation of your records.

4. Confirm the Change Has Gone Through

Once the form has been submitted, await the confirmation email from Companies House. The online filings usually take 24-48 hours, and then you can check the address change in the public register. 

Please ensure that spelling and postcode are correct as per the email submitted and keep the confirmation email for your records. This only takes a moment and can save the hassle of repeating the process from scratch. If the address doesn’t appear correctly, review the submission and file a correction if necessary.

5. Notify Everyone Else Who Needs to Know

Updating Companies House is only part of the process — other organizations that use the address also need to be notified.

• HMRC: Don’t rely on updating Companies House to update your HMRC records — consider if separate submissions are required for HMRC tax registrations. 
• Banks, insurers and suppliers: You need to update all these individually. 
• Clients and business contacts: Inform them in advance so that old information does not begin to bounce. 
• Company records: Revise any records or documents that use the previous address.

6. Keep Your Address Compliant Going Forward

When the dust has settled, don’t update it and forget. Companies’ House must be notified of any change within 14 days, and this is a legal requirement and not a suggestion. Failure to keep an address current in “appropriate” status (e.g. via a lapsed tenancy or an inactive mail-forwarding service) can also lead the registrar to replace it with a default, and if the “address” status is not rectified, the domain may be struck off. 

Good practice includes:

• Check the registered office information on an annual basis. 
• Keeping Companies House up to date following all changes to the address.
• Ensuring someone is available to receive official correspondence.

Conclusion 

Changing a company address doesn’t have to be like a bureaucratic red tape circus if you follow the steps in the correct order: Identify the correct address, ensure the address is compatible with the rules, file the appropriate application, wait for the change to be processed, notify all non-automatic parties and post change follow-up. 

Then it becomes normal business maintenance, and no one has to worry about lost mail or compliance letters. 

A few minutes of administration now can save a lot of hassle down the road, and that is a trade that’s really worth it every time a business changes its address.

The post A Step-by-Step Guide To Updating Your Company Address appeared first on The Hype Magazine.