Failure to do so could result in your company being a guinea pig for the registrar’s initial testing of its newly acquired powers.
Set up your new registered email address
Companies are now required to supply a registered email address to Companies House. This email will be the address to which Companies House will send all official communications and notices and may even be used by other regulatory bodies to contact a company. Currently, only new companies are required to provide a registered email address on incorporation, but existing companies will need to provide this on their next confirmation statement.
While it is possible to provide any email address you so choose to be your company's registered email address, there are some issues to bear in mind.
It is not recommended that this email belong or be tied to an individual or employee.
Not only can that individual leave the company, resulting in the inconvenience of having to file a change of registered email address, if this address is made visible on your company profile at Companies House, the individual may not want their email address made publicly available and/or it may not be commercially desirable to have an individual’s address as the company’s official email address.
It is recommended that a new email address is created specifically for the purpose of being the registered email address. This should be monitored by the directors/employees who oversee the company’s secretarial affairs.
Do you use a PO Box as your registered office?
If your company currently uses a PO Box as its registered office address, it is urgently recommended that an alternative registered office address is identified as companies will no longer be allowed to use a PO Box as their registered office address.
This change needed to be made by 4 March and companies that do not have an appropriate registered office address could be struck off the register.
Once Companies House identifies an inappropriate registered office address, it will change it to a default address held at Companies House. The company must then provide an appropriate address, with evidence of a link to that address, within 28 days. If the registrar does not receive this evidence, it will start the process to strike the company off the register.
Fortunately, this is a relatively easy change to make and if the procedure set out above has not been initiated, you still have time to change your company’s registered office address and ensure its compliance.
Ongoing compliance
When the ECCTA is fully implemented, we will see Companies House’s authority expanded further, enhanced verification requirements introduced and the institution of criminal sanctions and civil penalties for non-compliance by directors and owners.
