How to Change Your Registered Office Address (AD01)

Your registered office is the official address Companies House and HMRC use to contact your company, and it's the address shown on the public register. Plenty of small companies need to change it — moving premises, switching from a home address to an accountant's office, or coming off a service address. The filing is simple and free, but there are a couple of rules worth getting right.

What the Registered Office Has to Be

Since the ECCTA reforms, your registered office must be an "appropriate address." In practice that means an address where:

• a document delivered there would be expected to come to the attention of someone acting for the company, and
• delivery can be acknowledged.

A PO box on its own no longer satisfies this. The address also has to be in the same part of the UK where the company is registered — a company registered in England and Wales can't move its registered office to Scotland, and vice versa. If Companies House decides an address isn't appropriate, it can change your registered office to a default address and, ultimately, take action against the company — so don't use an address you don't have a real connection to.

The registered office is publicly visible on the register, which is why many sole directors working from home use an accountant's address or a commercial service address instead of their home.

Step 1: Confirm the New Address Qualifies

Before you file, make sure the new address is appropriate (per the rules above) and in the correct UK jurisdiction. If you're using a third party's address — an accountant or a registered-office service — get their permission in writing; mail will land there and they need to forward it.

Step 2: File the AD01

You change the registered office by filing form AD01 — Change of registered office address with Companies House. The fastest route is online through Companies House WebFiling, and there is no filing fee for changing your registered office.

You're required to notify Companies House of the change, and the filing is what does it. There's no separate resolution needed — changing the registered office is an administrative filing, not a members' decision (unless your articles unusually say otherwise).

Step 3: Understand When the Change Takes Effect

Under section 87 of the Companies Act 2006, the change of registered office takes effect when the registrar registers it — not on the date you decide to move.

There's an important transitional rule attached. For 14 days beginning with the date the change is registered, a person can still validly serve a document on the company at the previous registered office. So don't stop checking mail at the old address the moment you file — keep an eye on it for at least a fortnight after the change is registered.

Step 4: Update Everything That Shows the Address

The registered office appears in several places, and you'll want them consistent:

• Business stationery, invoices, and your website, where you display company details under the trading-disclosure rules.
• HMRC, your bank, insurers, and key contracts.
• Any agreements that specify a notice address.

Note that changing the registered office is separate from changing where you keep your statutory records, and separate again from a company name change or a director appointment — each is its own filing. Your company number never changes through any of them.

A Quick Worked Example

A consultancy moves from the sole director's home to a serviced office:

1. The director confirms the new office is an appropriate address, in England and Wales (where the company is registered), and that mail will be handled there.
2. They file the AD01 online — no fee.
3. Companies House registers the change; from that point the new address is the official registered office.
4. The director keeps checking the old home address for 14 days, because documents served there in that window are still valid.
5. They update the website footer, invoices, HMRC, and the bank.

Common Mistakes

Using an address that isn't "appropriate." A bare PO box or an address with no real connection to the company can be rejected — and Companies House can change it to a default address if it decides yours doesn't qualify.

Moving to the wrong jurisdiction. An England-and-Wales company can't register its office in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Stopping mail at the old address too soon. The 14-day service window means documents can still land validly at the previous address after you've filed.

Forgetting the downstream updates. The Companies House change doesn't update HMRC, your bank, or your trading-disclosure displays automatically.

How CompanyMinder Will Help

CompanyMinder is being built to handle routine company changes like this — checking the new address against the appropriate-address rules, pre-populating the AD01, and prompting the downstream updates (trading disclosures, the 14-day old-address watch) once the change is registered. The aim is to make an address change a quick, guided task rather than something you do once and forget the follow-ups.

A Note on Scope

This is general guidance based on the published Companies Act 2006 (as amended by ECCTA) and current Companies House procedure. The appropriate-address rules can be nuanced if you're using third-party or service addresses — confirm your specifics with Companies House or your accountant. It is not legal advice.

Sources

• Companies Act 2006, s.86 — Requirements as to registered office (appropriate address rule, as substituted by ECCTA 2023 s.28)
• Companies Act 2006, s.87 — Change of address of registered office
• GOV.UK — Change a registered office address (AD01)
• GOV.UK — Company changes you must report