Recommended registered/service address providers for new company?
ericthelobster
Posts: 133 Forumite
I work from home as a freelancer with sole trader status, and my accountant has just recommended that I change to a limited company. I can see there will be a worthwhile financial benefit according to the figures he's run for me and I'm happy to go ahead.
Now, my business address will continue to be my home one but I will need to provide separate registered and service addresses, as I have no intention of having my home address splashed across the internet. I need an absolutely minimum service, as this address only needs to fulfil the government legislation; my clients will never even need to know it. My accountant has offered me use of his firm's address at £216/year, which would be the easy solution (guess what - that wasn't included in his figures!), but it seems like a lot of wasted money to me, so I've been looking online. Can anyone recommend a suitable, well-established and cheap service which does what it says on the tin? I'm guessing that if I was to pick a cheapskate outfit which promptly went bust, that would cause me plenty of hassle and expense...
I've found a couple of services so far, which charge as follows (for a registered company address and single director's service address):
Small Firms Services £48/year
1st Formations £78/year
Does anyone have experience of either of these or can they recommend an alternative? Thanks for any tips!
Now, my business address will continue to be my home one but I will need to provide separate registered and service addresses, as I have no intention of having my home address splashed across the internet. I need an absolutely minimum service, as this address only needs to fulfil the government legislation; my clients will never even need to know it. My accountant has offered me use of his firm's address at £216/year, which would be the easy solution (guess what - that wasn't included in his figures!), but it seems like a lot of wasted money to me, so I've been looking online. Can anyone recommend a suitable, well-established and cheap service which does what it says on the tin? I'm guessing that if I was to pick a cheapskate outfit which promptly went bust, that would cause me plenty of hassle and expense...
I've found a couple of services so far, which charge as follows (for a registered company address and single director's service address):
Small Firms Services £48/year
1st Formations £78/year
Does anyone have experience of either of these or can they recommend an alternative? Thanks for any tips!
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ericthelobster wrote: »I work from home as a freelancer with sole trader status, and my accountant has just recommended that I change to a limited company. I can see there will be a worthwhile financial benefit according to the figures he's run for me and I'm happy to go ahead.
Now, my business address will continue to be my home one but I will need to provide separate registered and service addresses, as I have no intention of having my home address splashed across the internet. I need an absolutely minimum service, as this address only needs to fulfil the government legislation; my clients will never even need to know it. My accountant has offered me use of his firm's address at £216/year, which would be the easy solution (guess what - that wasn't included in his figures!), but it seems like a lot of wasted money to me, so I've been looking online. Can anyone recommend a suitable, well-established and cheap service which does what it says on the tin? I'm guessing that if I was to pick a cheapskate outfit which promptly went bust, that would cause me plenty of hassle and expense...
I've found a couple of services so far, which charge as follows (for a registered company address and single director's service address):
Small Firms Services £48/year
1st Formations £78/year
Does anyone have experience of either of these or can they recommend an alternative? Thanks for any tips!
Agreed, lots of hassle if you don't want to use your own address
Agreed, don't go for the cheapskate offers.
We will happily provide this service to you for £10k per year and £100 per item of mail forwarded. Our premium price is our demonstration to you of quality.
No liability will be accepted for an any loss of trade due to you hiding behind us as a forwarding address.0 -
No, but ... you might get different answers depending on what kind of business you are?ericthelobster wrote: »Does anyone have experience of either of these or can they recommend an alternative? Thanks for any tips!
for example, if you are selling 'things' I know a lot of people don't want their address 'plastered all over the internet', but when researching a seller they haven't used before, some people will look at the address supplied on Streetview, and consider how trustworthy that address looks.
Even if you're not selling 'things', an actual accountant's office address is always going to look more 'solid' than an address with multiple businesses registered, and no apparent 'regular' activity.
May be worth seeing if you can negotiate for the first year at least? Or a low price UNLESS you receive more than X pieces of post per year? I don't know, but I'd have thought worth asking.Signature removed for peace of mind0 -
That side of it really doesn't matter one iota, trust me. My business has been running successfully for 15 years; I've never advertised and have absolutely no internet presence other than my LinkedIn profile (which doesn't include any bricks and mortar address at all!)some people will look at the address supplied on Streetview, and consider how trustworthy that address looks.
Even if you're not selling 'things', an actual accountant's office address is always going to look more 'solid' than an address with multiple businesses registered, and no apparent 'regular' activity.
I already have a solid reputation and always have more work on offer than I can handle, purely via word of mouth and personal recommendations. I don't have any plans to use the company name for anything promotional. And I certainly don't need any form of 'forwarding' address other than the regulatory company stuff that HMRC will want to send me - in fact, since the days of being paid by cheque ended, years ago, I literally cannot remember ever receiving any business correspondence through the post at all.0 -
I'd stay away from the "cheap" ones as many of my clients have found them to be unreliable, i.e. not forwarding the "official" paperwork from HMRC and/or Companies House resulting in late filing penalties or even your company being struck off etc. (Yes, I know if you and your accountant are on top of things, there'd be no need for paper reminders, but in reality, mistakes happen! and yes, in the new internet world, you should have e-reminders set up from Co House but they're not infallible and can get caught in spam filters etc).0
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So, back to my original question...
ericthelobster wrote: »I've found a couple of services so far, which charge as follows (for a registered company address and single director's service address):
Small Firms Services £48/year
1st Formations £78/year
Does anyone have experience of either of these or can they recommend an alternative? Thanks for any tips!0 -
Most accountants offer a registered facility for their clients at no or very little cost. Its only an address to serve official papers on.Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide.0
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Most accountants offer a registered facility for their clients at no or very little cost.ericthelobster wrote: »My accountant has offered me use of his firm's address at £216/year
Oh well. Decided just to go with Small Firms Services. I set up my company today through them for £10, and they also provided registered and service address for £48/year. They've been around for 21 years, and it all seemed very efficient - time will tell, I suppose...;)0
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