Can somebody recommend a good reliable company ?

[Hobosapien]

Your dad? As a shareholder as well?

Not a shareholder. He was only company secretary due to the old rules where there had to be one and if the owner (shareholder, me) was sole director then company secretary had to be someone else, so minimum of two people in charge of a company. No longer applies and 'one man bands' can be just one person in control of a ltd these days, so even simpler.

Back then I think the only legal duty he had was to be co-signer on the company accounts.

There were other benefits to using parents (or close relative) as permanent address, which may be more relevant to this thread, such as being able to rent the property near the client and claim 'working away from home' expenses as it was easy to prove the rental was only needed due to location of the client. Claimed travel expenses to client site from rented address during week and for going back home at weekends.

Rules have changes since then so not sure what current benefits there would be, but there may be more than meets the eye.

So it's not just the legal aspects to consider when deciding where you're officially based.

[Hobosapien]

That's ludicrous. If you rent somewhere it's your home; the landlord doesn't have control of what you get up to and certainly isn't liable for anything you do there beyond how it concerns his physical property.

This is why you shouldn't tell the landlord: they're likely to be completely ignorant of the true situation.

Many have restrictions on running a business from their property. Usually to avoid people selling stuff from there and having loads of customers causing chaos in the neighbourhood and the landlord being done for commercial property/business rates, or it invalidating their buildings insurance.

As a tenant you might not care about all that, until you're turfed out for breaching the rules/tenancy agreement.

[northernladuk]

That's ludicrous. If you rent somewhere it's your home; the landlord doesn't have control of what you get up to and certainly isn't liable for anything you do there beyond how it concerns his physical property.

This is why you shouldn't tell the landlord: they're likely to be completely ignorant of the true situation.

He has all the control afforded to him in the tenancy agreement you both signed. In general what you do in the house he has no control over but you are now talking about registering and possibly running a business which isn't anything to do with you living in a residential let property so he can control it. It's explicitly laid out in the agreement and I am sure its explicitly laid out in the landlords and potentially the tenants insurance. I think you are wrong about the liability as well but I don't fully know so that's why you don't allow it.

Like contracting I guess the thing to do is to negotiate and check. Some landlords may be ok, some won't but I don't think not telling him is the best option IMO.

'Likely' being the keyword but if he becomes aware of it you could be looking at a swift(ish) enforced move.

[thunderlizard]

I used these, and would recommend:
Office Space & Virtual Office Services | Your City Office


I used to use Regus but would not recommend them at all. Mainly for their small print that requires effectively 15 months notice to terminate the contract, but also for the time they started answering my phone number in another company's name for I don't know how long (and they refused to tell me) until I noticed.

I have also had that thing in my rental contracts sometimes, but the landlords were always OK once I pointed out I wasn't running a chip shop or anything like that, and wouldn't be seeing customers there, and the fewer barriers he put in the way of my business the easier it would be for me to afford the rent. You must have been unlucky.

tl

[SueEllen]

I used these, and would recommend:
Office Space & Virtual Office Services | Your City Office

I used to use Regus but would not recommend them at all. Mainly for their small print that requires effectively 15 months notice to terminate the contract, but also for the time they started answering my phone number in another company's name for I don't know how long (and they refused to tell me) until I noticed.

I have also had that thing in my rental contracts sometimes, but the landlords were always OK once I pointed out I wasn't running a chip shop or anything like that, and wouldn't be seeing customers there, and the fewer barriers he put in the way of my business the easier it would be for me to afford the rent. You must have been unlucky.

tl

I've been told off cheaper companies. I have no idea how reliable they are as I've personally not used them myself but they are easily found through Google.

[Einstein Jnr]

I started using MadeSimple about 5 months ago - I use their basic service which only forwards government mail which works for me as I don't receive packages etc so the only other mail would be junk mail. The only thing I find abit strange is every once in a while I see someone else with the same business address - I guess it's bound to happen if you use a shared address.

[CompulsiveArsonist]

Neighbour renting in the building I live in has his company registered at the address. Landlord doesn't care as long as the rent gets paid.
My registered address is at my accountants, and my place of business/personal address is my parents house.