2 Limited Companies registered to the same office (home) address?

[JSP]

Good Afternoon All,

Firstly I’d just like to say what a fantastic forum this is, and what a knowledgeable and helpful bunch you all are. I am soon to attempt to embark on the road to IT contracting and have found most of my queries have been answered via the First Timers guide, the other informative links and posts from other folk.

However I have a perhaps more unique situation that I hope someone can help clarify for me.

As a small group of Leaseholders we were offered the opportunity to buy our Freehold from the existing Landlord and are soon to complete this transaction. During the process we set up a Private Limited Company (by shares). This has been registered with Companies House, and although it’s not-for-profit (only service charge payments and sinking fund will exist in the business account), we’ll still have to do end-of-year returns, etc. Please note that at this point I am the Secretary and Director of the new company and the registered office address is my home address. The only time the address will be used (other than business correspondence) is to have a quarterly or half-yearly meeting to discuss the estate, maintenance, responsibilities, etc.

I have looked at the pros and cons of contracting for a number of weeks now and with my personal circumstances decided now would be the best time to give it a go. With all things considered my plan was to go down the limited company route, myself as Director and my wife as company secretary.

So essentially what I wanted to know is - whether there were issues with having two limited companies registered to the same office address, bearing the above in mind? Are there any tax or legislative implications of doing so, either business or personal? This is our home, mortgaged.

Obviously both companies will be run as completely separate entities, but just wanted to get some advice, tips or potential pitfalls from you all. My place of work is likely to be on client sites as an IT contractor. I’ve heard about having the registered office address at the accountants address, but would prefer not to go down this route and be as independent as possible!

Thanking you in advance,

JSP

[Craig@Clarity]

Firstly, welcome JSP.

There's no issue having 2 companies at the same registered office. As you probably know, the registered office is in the public domain so anyone with internet can see where the company is registered for free. Some people prefer to have the registered office and service address at their accountants or independent premises so that their home address doesn't appear. It's where companies house send there correspondence, junk mail etc etc. Some accountant's and companies who provide registered office facilities charge for the service some don't.

From a business point of view, there should be no issues or conflicts between both companies. From a personal point of view, I'm not sure. One for the mortgage lenders perhaps.

P.S. if you have a management company dealing with your property (non-profit) company, you can always switch it over to them if there ever was a conflict created. You may also need an audit on your accounts for this.

[xoggoth]

Hope not, we have 3 at ours.

[JSP]

Firstly, welcome JSP.

There's no issue having 2 companies at the same registered office. As you probably know, the registered office is in the public domain so anyone with internet can see where the company is registered for free. Some people prefer to have the registered office and service address at their accountants or independent premises so that their home address doesn't appear. It's where companies house send there correspondence, junk mail etc etc. Some accountant's and companies who provide registered office facilities charge for the service some don't.

From a business point of view, there should be no issues or conflicts between both companies. From a personal point of view, I'm not sure. One for the mortgage lenders perhaps.

P.S. if you have a management company dealing with your property (non-profit) company, you can always switch it over to them if there ever was a conflict created. You may also need an audit on your accounts for this.

Hi Craig,

Thank you for the response and clarifying that for me.

I guess I should check the agreement we had with our lender prior to taking out the mortgage, just to ensure that aspect has been covered off.

We've decided as Leaseholders to manage the estate ourselves, so no managing agent or company involved. Assuming there are no issues from the lender's point-of-view I may register it here. We will arrange to have our Freehold accounts audited for HMRC. What I could also maybe look at is changing the registered office to another of the flats in the block, and have them drop any related post down to me. And worst comes to worst, always have the registered address with any prospective accountant.

Thanks Again,

JSP