Companies House has changed your registered office to its default address: the appropriate address rules

If Companies House has changed your registered office to its default address, it has decided your previous address was not an "appropriate address" and it has started a 28-day clock. Since 4 March 2024 every company must have a registered office where a document would be expected to reach someone acting for the company and where delivery can be acknowledged. From the day of the change you have 28 days to file a new address that passes that test, with evidence that the company owns it or has the right to use it. If you do, the matter ends there. If you do not, the registrar may begin strike-off, and GOV.UK says the company and its officers may be committing an offence in the meantime. This guide explains the rules, why the change happened and how to put it right.

The appropriate address test

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 added a requirement that a company's registered office must be an appropriate address at all times. GOV.UK sets out the two conditions, and both must be met:

• a document addressed to the company and delivered there would, in the ordinary course of events, be expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company
• delivery of a document there is capable of being recorded by obtaining an acknowledgement of delivery

A Royal Mail PO Box cannot be used, and neither can an equivalent service offered by another provider. If you use an agent's address, GOV.UK says it is your responsibility to make sure the agent's service meets the test.

The test is about what happens to a letter, not what the address looks like. A smart office where company mail sits unopened fails it. A terraced house where the director opens the mail every morning passes it.

Why Companies House moved your address

The registrar does not inspect addresses at random. The change usually follows one of three things: mail sent to the company has come back undelivered, the occupier of the address has told Companies House that the company has no right to be there, or the address has been matched against data that suggests it cannot work, for example a PO Box or a building that no longer exists.

The Registered Office Address (Rectification of Register) Regulations 2024 give the registrar two routes. It can write to the company first, proposing the change and inviting an objection with evidence that the address is appropriate. Or, where it is satisfied the address is not appropriate, it can change the address to a default address without notice and tell the company afterwards. In both cases the company is written to, but if the only address it holds is the one that just failed, that letter may never be seen.

The default address is an address held at Companies House, nominated by the registrar. It appears on the public register in place of your old address. It is a holding position, not a mail forwarding service. Letters sent to the company there are not passed on.

The 28-day window and what sits behind it

Regulation 20 gives the company 28 days, beginning with the day on which the change was made, to deliver a notice changing its registered office to an appropriate address. GOV.UK adds that you must provide evidence that the new address is appropriate and that the company owns it or has the right to use it. The company can instead appeal to the court, but for most small companies the practical route is simply to file a proper address.

If the 28 days pass with nothing filed, regulation 22 lets the registrar strike the company off. A notice is published in the Gazette and the company can be struck off not less than two months after it. On dissolution, assets pass to the Crown as bona vacantia and the bank account is frozen.

There is a second cost that runs the whole time. While the registered office is not appropriate, GOV.UK says the company and its officers may be committing an offence. And every document that would have gone to the registered office, from HMRC letters to court claims, is now going to an address where nobody is acting for you.

How to fix it

1. Choose an address that passes the test today. It needs a person acting for the company present to receive documents, and it needs to be able to acknowledge delivery. Your home qualifies if you live there and will open company mail. A registered office service qualifies if the provider does that for you.
2. Gather the evidence. For your own property, something showing ownership or tenancy. For a registered office service, the agreement with the provider. GOV.UK asks for evidence of the right to use the address, so have it ready when you file.
3. File form AD01, the change of registered office address, online through the Companies House filing service, within the 28 days. Attach the evidence as requested. Keep the acknowledgement.
4. Check the public register the next working day to confirm the new address shows.
5. Tell everyone who writes to the registered office: HMRC, the bank, your insurer, suppliers and customers. Nothing sent to the default address will reach you.
6. Collect anything that bounced. Request a replacement authentication code if yours was posted to the old address, and sign up for Companies House email reminders.

If the 28 days have already passed and a Gazette notice has been published, the same filing stops the action provided it is delivered before the strike-off date. If the company has already been dissolved under regulation 22, a former director or member can apply for administrative restoration within six years, and the application must include a notice changing the registered office together with evidence of the right to use the new address.

Passing the test for good

The appropriate address rule is why the registered office at Vaulex Group is a staffed building rather than a line on a form. Vaulex House, Woodland Place, Penarth is three Royal Mail PAF-listed buildings with people present on working days to receive and sign for every delivery, which is the acknowledgement the test requires. Every letter is scanned into the Mailroom the day it arrives and sorted into folders, with Companies House and HMRC mail kept apart from the rest, and your accountant can be given gated access to just those folders. A letter from the registrar proposing to change your address is read the day it lands, not discovered after the 28 days have gone.

This guide is general information about the registered office rules, not legal advice. If the registrar has questioned your address and you believe it is appropriate, take advice on objecting before the change is made.

Start when you are ready

Move your registered office to Vaulex House through the Switch at https://vaulex.co.uk/switch/, file the AD01 within the 28 days, and every Companies House letter from then on is scanned the day it arrives. While you are correcting the register, run the free checker at https://guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected ("Check my company") to see whether any director or PSC still needs to verify their identity before the next confirmation statement.