My practice is based within a large business centre with a communal reception. We regularly set up limited companies with the registered office as our address. The landlord is looking to change his terms and conditions and charge my firm for each client with the business centre as the registered office. Currently I have a list of clients registered at the address available for inspection at any time. Assuming the registered office includes the Suite number of our internal reception will that satisfy the Companies Act? Guidance has been a little hazy from company house.
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That is not the question
Assuming the registered office includes the Suite number of our internal reception will that satisfy the Companies Act?
Companies House is satisfied with any physical address in the appropriate part of the UK, even including PO Boxes provided that the physical address is is spelled out in full. It will be as satisfied with your suite number within the building's address as it would be with the building's address without your suite number.
The problem seems to be your arrangements with your landlord.
Yes
I agree. Your landlord seems to be looking for extra income and I doubt if the arrangement you suggest will satisfy him.
Landlords Viewpoint
From the landlord's viewpoint this seems quite sensible. If you suddenly disappeared, he would be left with dealing with post, etc for a number of companies with which he never had any sort of contract. He is looking to mitigate his position.
I think you should agree a share of the registered office fees with the landlord. If he wants to display the list in his reception area then he can pay for that out of his share of the registered office fees, as I agree that if you use the full suite address for the registered office address then the board should be in your reception not his.
Opportunity
There is, of course, the opportunity to charge the clients a fee for this service which,may or may not be the same as the fee you are charged.
How much is involved here ?
Registered Office
Clients who have there registered office as my address are charged an annual fee for the privilege.
This is a serious matter
One may imagine in his or her professional nightmares what it would cost us if other landlords of accountants' office caught on to this idea.
Using our address as registered office is not a privilege for the client, it is a mutual convenience. The reality is in most cases this is the only way we may ensure that we receive all the mail and stuff we need to expeditiously carry out our work. What percentage of your clients can you trust to timely pass on Co Hse and or tax correspondence?
1)
Companies house will accept your reception or unit number as the proper address. As will the post office.
Some years ago I started losing mail because thew postman did not understand that Joe Blogs Ltd and others, were also names at my address. So what I did was prefix the address of all my reg.offices with a trade name, which is on my front door.
"XYZ services"- any registered office mail therefore comes to ABC at "XYZ Services" Ltd
I believe, in law, one's rented unit in a multi-occupation building is one's official address. So, by taking the action noted above, the list of registered offices should be in your reception not in the main reception of the block. The post office has by law to deliver to your unit except and unless it is physically impossible. As per apartment blocks. the landlord cannot insist that the registered office list is in his reception area. What he can do, if it is becoming a nuisance for him, is make a service charge for handling mail, or for providing a postbox.
It also depends on your lease agreement. The business of accountant in public practice inevitable includes registered offices. This attempt is a serious change in terms of use. It is similar to charging a carpenter for use of his saw. You should speak to ICAEW or ACCA.
This cunning idea is not just a matter of a few pounds fees. If it catches on it could seriously inconvenience very many firms of accountants. Besides why should we, in effect tell our landlords who our clients are?
Not quite comparable
The fact is that it is perfectly possible for an accountant to operate without having any of their clients' use their address as the registered office. That it is convenient and helpful to both client and accountant to do so does not make it automatic. After all, the "saw" in this context does actually belong to the landlord. This attempt is a serious change in terms of use. It is similar to charging a carpenter for use of his saw.
To take a different analogy, say you were hiring a car. If you simply hired it as an ordinary customer, but then decided to use it for stunt work, I think that the car hire firm would not be unjustified in asking for more, assuming they let you keep using the car at all. If an accountant leaves with a load of companies still registered at that address, it is the landlord that will have to deal with any subsequent problems that arise. This may be as simple as Companies House notice or it may be as severe as bailiffs turning up to seize company property.
So the question is really whether being a registered office is so tied into being an accountant that the landlord should have expected it from the start. If so, then attempting to charge for it now is a change of the agreement. If not, then it is the accountant that is changing the agreement by making use of the office that was not part of the original agreement. That would be one for the lawyers. Coming to a sensible agreement, billing clients and sharing the proceeds as suggested possibly, is likely to be cheaper.
To be honest, I get very little post addressed to companies for whom my address is their registered office.
The only mail I get for them is junk mail.
The real stuff is done by email and the monitoring service these days - almost exclusively.
that is not the point
that is not the point
The registered office address is of legal significance.
Solicitors do not accept service of legal documents except by hard copy.
There are good reasons for this - see principles of insurance-
Neither should accountants.
HMRC does not use email.
The trouble is that some contemporary professionals treat anything not involving computers as being of no significance.
As I have said before we prudently insure ourselves because sometimes, God forbid, airplanes do fall out of the sky.
We should not behave like certain banks. They kept reducing services to their customers in order to save costs, and the result is that, in fact mostly there is no service to customers.
Our friends HMRC have done exactly that.
Computer and electronic services are similar to oil in the professional engine that powers the van that delivers the goods. They are not the reason for the engine's existence. The quality of our business ought not to be judged by the amount of time we spend at the keyboard. My five year old grandson can also work a computer keyboard, but I doubt he yet understands the concept of professional service.
Lawyers
that is not the point
The registered office address is of legal significance.
Solicitors do not accept service of legal documents except by hard copy.
With all due respect, if you're expecting service of legal documents, perhaps the company should have its registered office address with its lawyers.
For the record
We have negiotitaed a modest fee with our landlord just as the poster's landlord has. This provides for up to 20 pieces of mail per year.
We have always charged for registered office but I am comming round to the idea that we should offer it for free and include it in the annual accounts cost along with Annual Return etc..
I would suggest that the poster makes an agreement with his Landlord sooner rather than later to keep the costs down.