Your Company’s Registered Office: More Than Just an Address
Every Australian company must have a registered office. It is the company’s official address for ASIC correspondence, formal notices and legal documents.
The address must be a physical street address in Australia. It does not need to be where the business actually operates, which is why many companies use the office of their accountant or registered agent.
Extrado acts as the registered office for many of our clients. This keeps important company correspondence and records in one place, provides continuity when directors move and avoids unnecessarily connecting a director’s home address with the company.
What does the service involve?
Acting as a registered office is more than providing an address for occasional mail.
Depending on the services included in your engagement, Extrado may:
- receive ASIC and other official correspondence;
- bring important notices to your attention;
- assist with annual statements and company changes;
- maintain the company’s statutory register; and
- retain company and associated trust documents.
Directors remain responsible for the company’s legal obligations, but having the records and correspondence managed in one place can reduce the risk of notices being missed, documents being misplaced or company records becoming incomplete.
Can you use your home instead?
A proprietary company can generally use a residential address as its registered office.
However, this makes the home the company’s formal legal address, not simply its preferred mailing address.
The address may appear on ASIC company searches. Official correspondence and legal documents may be delivered there, and other members of the household may see company-related mail.
If you move, the company must notify ASIC within 28 days. If several companies use the address, each company may need to be updated separately.
Where Extrado currently holds the company or trust register, moving the registered office may also mean taking responsibility for the secure storage and ongoing maintenance of those records.
Moving can also leave an outdated address recorded in existing loans, leases and other agreements, creating a risk that important notices will continue to be sent there even after the company’s ASIC address has been changed.
Why does AML verification now apply?
From 1 July 2026, providing a registered office or principal place of business address in the course of operating a business is a designated service under Australia’s expanded Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regime.
This means we must complete prescribed identification and verification procedures before providing or continuing the service.
The verification fee is not simply a charge for using our address. It reflects the identity checks, entity verification, record keeping, risk assessment and ongoing compliance work that we are now legally required to undertake.
You can read more about the new requirements, the verification process and the applicable fees in our guide to the AML/CTF changes for accountants and their clients.
Consider more than the immediate cost
Clients are not required to use Extrado as their registered office. A home address may be suitable where the legal requirements are met and the directors are comfortable managing the responsibilities themselves.
However, the decision should not be based solely on avoiding the verification fee.
For many clients, continuing to use Extrado provides privacy, continuity and professional oversight while keeping important company correspondence and records with advisers already familiar with the company’s affairs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a registered office?
A registered office is the company’s official address for receiving ASIC correspondence, formal notices and legal documents.
It must be a physical street address in Australia and cannot be a post office box.
No.
The registered office is the company’s official legal address.
The principal place of business is the main location from which the company conducts its business.
The two addresses can be different.
Yes. A proprietary company can generally use a residential address as its registered office.
However, the address becomes connected with the company’s ASIC record and may appear on purchased company searches.
Official notices and legal documents may also be delivered to the property.
No. A proprietary company is not required to keep its registered office open to the public during prescribed business hours.
Those opening-hour requirements apply to public companies.
However, the home remains the company’s formal address. Documents may be delivered or legally served there, and arrangements may sometimes be required where a person has a valid right to inspect a company record kept at that address.
If the company does not occupy the property, the occupier must provide written consent for the address to be used as the registered office.
This may apply where the property is rented, owned by a family member or occupied by someone other than the company
The company must notify ASIC of its new registered office within 28 days. Late fees may apply if the change is not lodged on time.
However, updating ASIC may not update every address connected with the company.
Loan agreements, leases, guarantees and other contracts may contain a notices clause stating where formal notices and documents can be sent. In some cases, the address shown in the original agreement continues to apply until the other party is formally notified of a replacement address.
This means that notices could continue to be sent to a former home even after the company’s registered office has been updated with ASIC. You may not receive the documents, but they could still be treated as having been delivered under the agreement.
Missing a default notice, demand or court document can have serious consequences. A legal proceeding could continue without your knowledge and, where no response is filed, a default judgment may potentially be entered against the company.
If you use your home as the registered office and later move, you should therefore:
- update ASIC within 28 days;
- review existing loans, leases and other agreements;
- formally notify relevant lenders, landlords and other parties; and
- confirm that all nominated addresses for service have been updated.
Using Extrado as the company’s registered office provides a stable professional address that is not affected when you move home. Where our address is also used as the nominated address in an agreement, your personal move will not leave important documents being sent to your former residence.
A trust itself does not generally have a registered office recorded with ASIC.
However, if the trust has a corporate trustee, that company must have a registered office.
The trust will also have important records that must be retained, including the trust deed, variations, trustee appointment documents and resolutions.
Yes.
However, the directors are responsible for ensuring that the company register is complete, accurate, securely stored and updated when changes occur.
This may include maintaining shareholder records, share certificates, company resolutions, the constitution and other statutory documents.
Yes. The registered office and the ASIC registered agent are separate arrangements.
It may be possible to use your home as the registered office while retaining Extrado as the company’s registered agent.
The location of the company records, responsibility for correspondence and the services that continue would need to be clearly agreed.
Yes.
Documents may generally be served on a company by leaving them at, or posting them to, its registered office. If your home is the company’s registered office, formal and legal documents may therefore be delivered there.
There is also a separate risk under existing loans, leases, guarantees and other agreements. These documents may nominate a particular address for notices and may allow notices to continue being sent to that address until a formal change is provided.
Simply changing the company’s registered office with ASIC may not change the address nominated under an existing agreement. If an old home address remains recorded, important notices or demands may continue to be sent there after you move.
Whether a particular document has been validly served depends on the agreement, the type of document and the applicable court rules. However, failing to receive a document does not necessarily mean that it has not been effectively served.
This is one reason a stable professional registered office can be valuable. It reduces the risk of important documents being sent to an outdated residential address each time a director moves.
Changing the registered office may mean that Extrado is no longer providing this particular designated service.
However, AML verification may still be required if we provide another designated service involving the company or trust.
The decision to use a home address should therefore be based on whether the arrangement is suitable, not solely on whether it avoids the registered office verification.
Our AML/CTF guide explains the other services that may be covered and what the verification process involves.
