Anja Pich is a commercial lawyer and the Managing Lawyer at Lawpath. She practises across all areas of commercial law and advises businesses of every size, from first-time founders to established companies, on their legal, regulatory and commercial needs.
A registered office address is the official Australian street address your company gives ASIC. It’s where legal documents, ASIC letters and court papers can be sent. And yes, it can be your home, as long as it’s a physical street address (not a PO box) and the occupier has agreed in writing.
Here’s the catch. Most founders fill in this field in about four seconds while registering. Then they move house two years later, forget the company still “lives” at the old place, and miss the one letter that actually mattered.
- Your home can be your registered office. Any physical street address in Australia works if the occupier consents in writing, and renters can use their home too.
- PO boxes are not allowed. ASIC rejects them as a registered office, but you can nominate a PO box as a separate contact address with Form 486.
- Your registered office address is public. ASIC’s February 2026 change hid directors’ home addresses from website extracts. It did not hide your registered office.
- You have 28 days to report a move. Miss it and ASIC charges a late fee, and documents posted to the old address can still count as served.
- You can keep your home off the register. An accountant’s office or a virtual office address works, as long as the occupier agrees.
Can I use my home address as my registered office address?
Yes. ASIC accepts a residential address as a company’s registered office address. Plenty of new companies start this way, because it costs nothing and you’re already there.
ASIC wants an address in Australia, a real street address, and somewhere documents can actually be delivered. A unit, a granny flat or a farmhouse all qualify. A PO box, a parcel locker or an overseas address won’t.
The more useful question is whether you want your home linked to your company on a public register for as long as the company exists. That’s the trade-off nobody mentions on the registration form.
What if I’m renting?
Renting doesn’t stop you. You just need to answer one question on the application correctly.
When you register a company, the form asks whether the company occupies the address. For a home address, the honest answer is usually “No”. You live there. The company doesn’t. You’ll then name the occupier and confirm they’ve consented in writing to the address being used as the registered office.
As the tenant, you’re the occupier, so the consent comes from you. In a share house, it’s sensible to get everyone on the lease to sign as well. Keep the signed consent with your company records, because producing one years after the fact is awkward.
Read your lease before you tick the box. Some residential leases and strata by-laws restrict business use of a property. Listing a registered office is a paperwork arrangement rather than trading, but a nervous landlord may not see the difference. A short email to your agent now beats an argument at inspection time.
If your landlord says no, or you’d rather not ask at all, a virtual office address gets around the problem completely.
Will my home address be publicly listed?
Yes. Your registered office address appears on the companies register, and anyone can find it with a quick search. That includes customers, suppliers, competitors and the occasional over-keen debt collector.
A recent change has confused a lot of people here. On 2 February 2026, ASIC stopped showing officeholders‘ residential addresses in the company extracts it sells through its website. Good news for directors. But that change covers your address as a director only. Put the same house down as the registered office and it stays on the register, under the company’s name.
ASIC also lets you suppress a director’s residential address if your safety or your family’s safety is at risk. Again, that protects you personally as an officeholder. It does nothing for the registered office. If privacy matters to you, the real fix is choosing a different registered office address.
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What are the rules for a registered office address in Australia?
The rules fit on a sticky note. Your registered office address must:
- Be in Australia. Companies with directors overseas still need an Australian registered office.
- Be a physical street address. No PO boxes, private bags or locked bag addresses.
- Have the occupier’s written consent if the company doesn’t occupy the premises. Keep that consent with your company records.
- Stay current. Tell ASIC within 28 days of any change.
- Be somewhere mail actually reaches a person who opens it.
That last rule bites hardest. Under section 109X of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), a document can be served on a company by posting it to, or leaving it at, the registered office. Nobody has to prove you read it. They only need to show it went to the address on the register.
So a court claim can land at a house you sold last year, and the clock starts anyway. That’s how small businesses end up facing default judgments for disputes they never knew existed.
Public companies carry extra duties, like keeping the registered office open to the public during set hours. Pty Ltd companies don’t. Nobody needs to sit at a desk waiting for the postie.
Registered office address vs principal place of business: what’s the difference?
You give ASIC both addresses when you register, and many founders assume they have to match. They don’t.
Your registered office is where official documents go. Your principal place of business is where you actually run the company day to day. Both must be physical addresses in Australia, both appear on the public register, and they can sit in different states.
| Registered office | Principal place of business | |
|---|---|---|
| What it’s for | Receiving legal documents and official letters | Where the company mainly operates |
| Can it be someone else’s premises? | Yes, with the occupier’s written consent | It should reflect where you really work |
| Can it be a PO box? | No | No |
| Is it public? | Yes | Yes |
| Deadline to report a change | 28 days | 28 days |
Our guide to the difference between a registered office and a principal place of business covers the edge cases, like what to list when you work from three different places.
Home, accountant or virtual office: which registered office address should you use?
There’s no prize for picking the fanciest option. Pick the one where mail will reliably reach someone who opens it.
| Your home | Accountant or lawyer’s office | Virtual office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Sometimes included in their fees, sometimes charged separately | Monthly or annual plan |
| Privacy | Home address on the public register | Home stays off the register | Home stays off the register |
| Mail handling | You check your own letterbox | Forwarded or scanned on their timeline | Scanned and sent to you, depending on the provider |
| Main risk | Moving and forgetting to update ASIC | They move, merge or stop acting for you | Plan lapses or the provider closes |
| Best for | Owners who plan to stay put and don’t mind visibility | Companies with a long-term accountant | Renters, frequent movers and privacy-minded founders |
Our view? Home works well if you own it, plan to stay a while, and don’t mind people finding it. If you rent, move often, or run a business where an unhappy customer might turn up at the door, use a separate address from day one. Then you never have to remember the 28-day rule on moving day.
Yes, you can register a company at a virtual address. Lawpath’s Virtual Office gives you a central Sydney street address to use as your registered office address. Mail is uploaded to your Lawpath account, and you get an email when something arrives. Your principal place of business stays wherever you actually work, even interstate.
One detail worth knowing before you sign up anywhere. Your company must always have a registered office, so Lawpath can’t cancel a Virtual Office plan until you’ve provided proof of a new registered office address. It sounds fussy. In practice it stops your company being left with an address that no longer accepts its mail. Each plan covers one company, so a second company needs its own plan.
Does a home registered office mean I’m running a business from home?
No. These are separate questions, and mixing them up causes a lot of needless worry.
Listing your home as a registered office address is an ASIC paperwork arrangement. Your local council cares about what physically happens at the property: customers visiting, signage, staff, deliveries, parking and noise.
If you also trade from home, check your council’s home business rules. Thresholds differ between councils and between states. A consultant on a laptop sits in a very different category from a dog groomer with clients arriving every hour.
Can a PO box be a registered office address?
No. ASIC rejects a PO box as a registered office address, and as a principal place of business too.
You can, however, nominate a PO box as a separate company contact address by lodging Form 486. ASIC then sends its letters there instead. Courts and other parties can still serve documents at your registered office, so both addresses need to work.
Worth knowing: a contact address helps with mail and does nothing for privacy. Your registered office stays on the public register either way.
Where registered office addresses go wrong
None of these mistakes are dramatic on the day. They just turn a free address into an expensive one later.
Selling or leaving the house
Your company doesn’t move when you do. Sell up, end a lease or relocate interstate, and the registered office stays at the old address until you lodge the change. The new owner gets your company’s mail. Anything served there can still count as served on you.
Put “update ASIC” on the same moving checklist as redirecting your mail and switching over the electricity.
Ticking the consent box without consent
Using a parent’s house or a mate’s office? You need their written consent before you lodge. Ticking the declaration without it means declaring something to ASIC that isn’t true. A one-paragraph signed letter fixes this in five minutes.
Losing track of a third-party address
Accountants move offices, merge and retire. If yours stops acting for you, check whether their address is still your registered office. Otherwise your annual statement and fee reminders keep going to an office you no longer deal with.
Missing the company TFN letter
Your registered office receives more than ASIC mail. When you register through Lawpath with TFN registration included, the company’s TFN is posted to the registered office address within 28 days. If that’s a house you’ve just left, someone else opens it. With a Lawpath Virtual Office as your registered office, the TFN letter is uploaded to your account instead.
How do I change my registered office address?
Tell ASIC within 28 days of the change, or a late fee applies. Changes are lodged online through ASIC’s company officeholder portal, which has replaced ASIC Connect for most company updates. Here’s the process, based on ASIC’s change of address guidance:
- Find your corporate key. It sits in the top right corner of your company’s most recent annual statement.
- Log in to the company officeholder portal. Sign up for online access first if you haven’t already, then log in with your ACN or ABN.
- Start Form 484. Choose “Start new form”, select Form 484 Change to Company Details, then tick “Change of address.
- Enter the date of change and the new address. Select which addresses it applies to: registered office, principal place of business, or both.
- Answer the occupier questions. Confirm whether the company occupies the new premises. If not, name the occupier and confirm they’ve agreed.
- Declare and submit. Download the document acknowledgement and file it with your company records.
The change takes effect seven days after you submit. Lodge before moving day if you can, so there’s no gap where your company’s mail goes nowhere.
Our guide to updating your registered office address walks through what else to change at the same time, like your ATO, bank and insurer records.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use my home address as my registered office address?
Yes. A residential address is fine as a registered office address if it’s a physical street address in Australia and the occupier consents in writing. Just remember it will appear on the public companies register for as long as it’s listed.
Can a registered office address be a PO box?
No. ASIC will reject an application that lists a PO box as the registered office. You can nominate a PO box as a separate company contact address using Form 486, and ASIC will send its letters there.
Do I need my landlord’s permission to use my rental as a registered office?
ASIC needs the occupier’s written consent, and as the tenant that’s you. Your lease or strata by-laws may still restrict business use, so check them first. If your landlord objects, a virtual office address avoids the issue entirely.
Is my registered office address public?
Yes. Anyone can see it on the companies register. ASIC’s February 2026 change removed directors’ residential addresses from website extracts, but a home listed as the registered office still shows under the company’s name.
Can my registered office and principal place of business be different?
Yes, and they can even be in different states. Your registered office receives official documents, while your principal place of business is where you actually operate. Both must be physical addresses in Australia.
How long do I have to update my registered office address?
28 days from the change. Miss it and ASIC charges a late fee. The update is lodged online with Form 484 and takes effect seven days after you submit, so lodge before you move if possible.
Do I need a company sign at my registered office?
Not usually for a Pty Ltd at home. A company must display its name where it carries on business and is open to the public. Public companies also have to display their name at the registered office.
Can my registered office be overseas if the directors live abroad?
No. Every Australian company needs a registered office in Australia, wherever its directors live. Overseas founders commonly use an accountant’s office or a virtual office address to meet this rule.
Do sole traders need a registered office address?
No. Only companies need one. Sole traders give a business address for their ABN and any business name instead. If you’re still weighing it up, start with choosing the right business structure.
Can I start with my home address and switch later?
Yes. Plenty of companies do exactly that. Switching takes one online form, but your old address stays visible in historical documents on the register, so switch early if privacy is the reason.
Sort your registered office address once, then forget about it
If you’ve already listed your home and now feel a bit exposed, you haven’t done anything wrong. It’s legal and common, and switching later takes one form.
Haven’t registered yet? Even better. You’re making this call at the easiest possible moment, before there’s any mail to redirect.
Register your company with Lawpath today and get your ASIC details right from the start.
