Yes. Plenty of small companies use the director’s home as the registered office. It’s legal and it’s free. The catch is privacy: your registered office is on a public register, and it’s where legal documents can be served.
What the law needs
- A street address in Australia. A registered office can’t be a PO Box (ASIC).
- The occupier’s written consent if your company doesn’t occupy the premises (section 143 of the Corporations Act). At home, the occupier is usually you rather than your company, so keep a signed consent on file. If you rent, check your lease as well.
- Updates within 28 days whenever the address changes. Every move means a notice to ASIC.
What becomes public
ASIC says people can see your registered office if they buy information from the companies register, and your principal place of business when they search it. So a home registered office means your home address is on public company records, and anyone can find it with your company name.
Two more things follow:
- Legal documents come to your door. A document can be served on a company by leaving it at, or posting it to, the registered office (section 109X). Demands, court papers and process servers go to your home.
- Old addresses don’t disappear. Lodged documents stay on the register, so an address you used years ago can still be found in them.
What a separate address does, and doesn’t, hide
A separate registered office takes your home out of the registered office field. If your principal place of business is somewhere else too, your home can be out of both. But be clear on the limits:
- Your residential address as a director is still lodged. Companies must give ASIC each officeholder’s residential address. Since 2 February 2026, ASIC no longer shows residential addresses in company extracts from its website, but it says they might still appear in other documents the public can buy (ASIC).
- Full suppression is for safety cases. ASIC will only hide your residential address completely if you believe your safety, or your family’s, is at risk.
- Your principal place of business has to be true. If you run the business from home, home may be the honest answer. You can use a MailStreet address as your principal place of business. It’s up to you to make sure that’s accurate for your business.
Business names work differently. On the business names register, the service of documents address is always public. ASIC suggests not using your home for it if you don't want it online (ASIC).
Home or a separate address?
Home works if you’re comfortable with the address being public and you don’t plan to move. A separate registered office makes sense if:
- you don’t want customers or strangers finding where you live
- you rent, or expect to move
- you’d rather legal documents went somewhere checked every business day
- you want the same address on ASIC, the ABR, your invoices and your website
With MailStreet, your registered office is a street address in Preston VIC 3072. You get a signed occupier’s consent letter in your dashboard when your ID checks pass, and we photograph official mail the day it arrives. Sole trader? See a business address for your ABN.
Already on the register with your home address? Here’s how to change your registered office with ASIC.