Company Formation Addresses Explained

This is an area that confuses most people who are dealing with company formation for the first time. There are three address terms you will encounter when considering incorporation with Companies House – Registered Office Address, Service Address, and Residential Address. You must provide each of these addresses on your application form to register a new company and they are very easy to get your head around when explained properly. Additionally, you may encounter the term ‘SAIL Address’ when looking into limited company formation. Read on for a simple but detailed explanation of each address…

Registered Office Address

• This will be your company’s official address.


• It must be a physical address, not a PO Box.


• Your registered office must be located in the country in which you choose to register your company: if you register your company in England and Wales, your registered office must in England or Wales; if you register your company in Scotland, your registered office must be in Scotland; if you register your company in Northern Ireland, your registered office must be in N. Ireland.


• The main purpose of a registered office is receiving statutory mail from Companies House and HMRC.


• This address will be placed on the public register of companies. All members of the public have access to this information. It should also be displayed at the foot of a company’s stationery and website.


• You may use your residential address as your registered office – but do remember, this information will be made public so you may wish to use a registered office service instead.


• Most companies keep statutory company records and registers at their registered office.


• You do not have to work or trade from your registered office – it is only required for statutory mailing purposes.


• You can change your registered office address at any time but it must always remain in the same country.


• Companies House must be informed immediately if you change your registered office address.

Service Address

• This is an address required by all company directors, secretaries and shareholders.


• It is used by HMRC and Companies House to send statutory mail for the attention of individual directors, secretaries and shareholders.


• The service address can be located anywhere in the world.


• It will be displayed on the public register.


• This address can be the same as the company’s registered office or you can use a residential address. Alternatively, you may prefer to use a service address from a company that provides address services.


• You can change your service address whenever you wish.


• Companies House must be informed if you change your service address.

Residential address

• Directors of a company must provide their usual residential address at the time of company incorporation.


• Your home address is for the use of Companies House only – it will not appear on the public register, unless it is also used as a registered office address or service address.


• You do not require having a usual residential address in the UK – directors of UK companies can live anywhere in the world.

SAIL Address

• SAIL stands for Single Alternative Inspection Location.


• A SAIL address is a place where companies can keep some or all of their statutory registers and documents, as opposed to storing them at their registered office address.


• It must be an address in the same country as your registered office.


• You can use your service address or residential address as a SAIL address.


• This address will be placed on the public register.


• You must make any records held at a SAIL address available for inspection for a minimum of 2 hours every working day between 9-5.


• You must notify Companies House if you have a SAIL address and tell them what company records are being stored there.

Hopefully these explanations have made things a bit clearer for you. The company formation process does seem rather mind-boggling at first but if you read through Rapid Formations FAQs section and blog topics, we’re confident that everything will make sense! A lot of the information on the Internet is quite confusing and ambiguous in the way it is written, and for this reason we try to keep our explanatory material as simple as possible to ensure you are fully informed in any decision you make.

via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/small-business/company-formation-addresses-explained-0727128?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=company-formation-addresses-explained