What is the difference – Registered office, service address, and business address?

If you’re setting up a UK limited company for the first time, it is important to understand the differences between the various addresses that you’ll be asked to provide, including a registered office, service address, and business address.

Each address serves a different purpose, and you must adhere to strict company address rules regarding the location, use, and disclosure of some of these addresses.

A brief overview of the company addresses

Registered office address

This is the legal correspondence address of a company, required by Companies House and disclosed on the public register of companies. All official government mail will be sent and received there. A company may or may not be based at this address, but it must be in the same UK country (legal jurisdiction) where the company is registered.

Service or Correspondence address

This is the legal correspondence address of a company director, secretary, shareholder or guarantor (who joins a company during its incorporation and subscribes to the memorandum of association), Person with significant control (PSC), or an LLP member.

A service address is used as the official, legal correspondence address where the named individual will receive statutory communications relating to their role in a company.It is required by Companies House and will be disclosed on the public record, but it can be located anywhere in the world.

Business address

This is usually where a company is based and/or where the business chooses to receive non-statutory mail from clients and customers, suppliers, banks, etc. It does not have to be provided to Companies House and will not be disclosed on the public record unless it is also the registered office or service address. It can be anywhere in the world.