Your business can have a professional address without you working there every day. Before choosing one, decide what you need it to do: receive company notices, handle everyday business post, provide a public contact address for directors, or cover all three.
A registered office is your company’s official address at Companies House. A business correspondence address is where you receive everyday business mail. They can be the same place, provided the address meets the relevant rules and your service includes both uses.
Which address serves which purpose? Check these three roles when choosing your service.
What it does: The company’s official address on the public Companies House register.
What to check: Permission to use it, the correct UK jurisdiction and reliable receipt of company correspondence.
What it does: A contact address for post from customers, suppliers and other business contacts.
What to check: Whether the package handles your ordinary business mail and how you receive it.
What it does: An individual director’s public correspondence address at Companies House.
What to check: Whether use by the subscribing company’s directors is included.
A director’s service address is separate from their usual residential address. Companies House still requires the home address, but does not normally display it publicly in that residential-address field.
A registered office must be a physical UK address where company documents can reach someone acting for the company and delivery can be acknowledged. You must have permission to use it. These requirements also apply when an address is supplied by a virtual office provider. See the GOV.UK registered-office rules.
The company’s registration jurisdiction matters. A London address falls within England and Wales; it cannot replace a Scottish or Northern Irish registered office. A company registered specifically in Wales must keep its registered office in Wales unless it completes the relevant change to England and Wales. Check the Companies House location requirements and, if applicable, its Wales change-of-situation process.
A PO Box is not a substitute. Companies House no longer permits a Royal Mail PO Box or a similar service as a registered office. Choose an address that satisfies the requirements, not simply a package labelled “business address”.
If you work from home, using a separate registered office and director’s service address lets you avoid listing your home for those public roles. Check both: choosing a company registered office does not automatically change the address recorded for each director.
A director’s service address can match the company’s registered office or be somewhere different. Their usual residential address must still be supplied accurately to Companies House. It is held privately, with disclosure possible to specified authorities and credit reference agencies. The Companies House privacy guidance explains the distinction.
Changing addresses does not erase previous disclosures. If your home already appears on filed documents, check the separate process for removing personal details. Copies held elsewhere may also need separate attention.
“Business address” is a broad description, so check what the person asking for it means. You might want a correspondence address for customers while doing your work from home or another location.
If a bank, payment provider or other organisation asks where you actually operate, answer that question accurately. Permission to receive post at a virtual office does not make it your physical workplace or guarantee that another organisation will accept it for every purpose.
For a founder working from home, the useful combination may be a separate public address plus access to business mail. An established company may already have a registered office through its accountant and want a different correspondence service.
Before signing up, confirm:
If the mail-handling choice is your next decision, see our guide to mail scanning versus forwarding.
Give your business a London W1 presence at 49 Greek Street, Soho, while you work wherever suits you. Keep a consistent address for company correspondence and get access to your business mail without needing to be there to receive it.
Every CVH mail package includes a business address, registered-office address service for your company, and director service address use at Companies House for the subscribing company’s directors, at no extra fee.
Choose Mail Scanning for emailed copies of your business-letter contents, Mail Forwarding for physical originals, or Combo for both. That gives you a choice of how your post reaches you, alongside the address services your company needs.
Address use starts after signup, our identity checks and activation confirmation. If you are forming a company, arrange this before using CVH’s address in your registration. The registered-office jurisdiction rules above still apply.
Explore our London virtual office service or compare CVH’s mail packages to choose the service that fits how you work.
