A change of registered office is filed at CIPC on a CoR21.1. The change generally takes effect five business days after filing, or on a later date stated in the notice. Filing at CIPC does not update SARS, your bank, CSD, COIDA or any other registration — each is separate. A registered address you no longer occupy is one of the most common reasons companies are deregistered without ever seeing the warning.
The filing takes ten minutes. The damage from not doing it takes years to undo.
What the registered address actually is
It is the legal service address of the company. Not necessarily where you trade, and not necessarily where the directors live.
Every official notice goes there. CIPC compliance notices. Deregistration warnings. Legal process. Statutory notices under the Companies Act.
Delivery to the registered address is effective delivery, whether or not anyone was there to receive it. That is the whole point of having one, and it is why a stale address is dangerous rather than merely untidy.
The most common failure pattern: a company moves out of a serviced office or an accountant's premises, never files the change, CIPC posts a deregistration notice to the old address, nobody sees it, and the company is deregistered. The first anyone knows is when the bank freezes the account or a tender rejects the company. See what happens if CIPC deregisters your company.
The filing
1. Confirm what your MOI says. Most standard MOIs leave the registered office to the board. Some customised MOIs specify it or require a particular process. Check before you resolve.
2. Pass a board resolution recording the new registered office and the effective date.
3. File the CoR21.1 through CIPC e-Services or BizPortal, with the resolution.
4. Note when it takes effect. The change generally becomes effective five business days after filing, or on a later date if you state one in the notice. It is not effective on the day you file, which matters if you are moving out on a specific date.
5. Confirm it reflects on the CIPC record once processed.
Practical point: file the change before you vacate, with a future effective date, rather than after you have moved and post has started going to the wrong place.
The six places you also have to update
Filing at CIPC updates CIPC. Nothing else.
1. SARS
The company's registered address, postal address and physical trading address are held separately by SARS and are updated through the RAV01 on eFiling.
This matters more than people expect. SARS correspondence — verification requests, assessments, final demands — is driven off the details SARS holds, not off CIPC.
2. The bank
Banks hold your address for FICA purposes and generally require proof — a lease, utility bill or municipal account in the company's name. Expect to be asked for documents rather than just a phone call.
3. CSD, if you tender
Central Supplier Database records must match your CIPC and SARS records. A mismatch between the three is a standard reason for tender disqualification, and it is entirely avoidable.
4. COIDA and UIF
Employer registrations carry an address. Where you have moved provinces, this can also affect which office administers your file.
5. Industry registrations and licences
CIDB, liquor licences, health authorities, professional bodies, and any sector regulator. Each has its own process and its own timeline.
6. Contracts, insurance and customers
Leases, supplier accounts, insurance policies — particularly where the policy covers a specific premises — and the notice clauses in your customer contracts, which usually specify a physical address for service.
Do not overlook your own documents. Invoices, letterheads, quotes, email signatures, website footer and Google Business Profile. An invoice showing an address you left two years ago undermines every other signal of professionalism.
Registered address vs the other addresses
These get conflated constantly.
| Address | What it is |
|---|---|
| Registered office | The legal service address on the CIPC register |
| Postal address | Where post goes, which may differ |
| Business or trading address | Where you actually operate |
| Directors' residential addresses | Held separately at CIPC, and separately at SARS |
They can all be different. Where a director changes their home address, that is a separate update from a change of registered office.
Can you use your accountant's address?
Yes, and many small companies do. Where the accountant offers it as a registered office service, it means statutory notices land somewhere they will actually be read and acted on rather than at a home address where post gets lost.
Two things to be clear on if you do:
It must be a genuine arrangement. The address must be one where documents can actually be served and where someone will pass them to you.
You must file a change when the relationship ends. This is the failure that catches people — a company leaves its accountant, the accountant reasonably stops accepting post, and nobody files a CoR21.1. Statutory notices then go nowhere.
Where you work from home, using a home address is entirely lawful. Be aware that the registered office appears on the public CIPC record, so it is not private.
What to do if your address has been wrong for years
Assume something has been sent that you did not see.
1. Check your CIPC compliance status. Are annual returns up to date? Has beneficial ownership been filed? Is the company in deregistration process? See how to check if your company is CIPC compliant.
2. Check your SARS position through eFiling — outstanding returns, assessments raised, any penalties accumulating quietly.
3. Confirm the registered representative at SARS is a person who still exists in your business and still receives the correspondence.
4. Then file the change, and update everything downstream.
5. Diarise a check for six weeks later, to confirm correspondence is now arriving.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change my company's registered address at CIPC? Pass a board resolution recording the new registered office, then file a CoR21.1 through CIPC e-Services or BizPortal with the resolution attached. The change generally takes effect five business days after filing, or on a later date stated in the notice.
How long does a CIPC address change take? The change generally becomes effective five business days after filing, or on a later date if one is specified in the notice. Processing time at CIPC varies with volumes, so file before you vacate rather than after.
Does changing my address at CIPC update SARS? No. SARS holds its own address details, updated through the RAV01 process on eFiling. CIPC and SARS do not update each other, and SARS correspondence is driven off the details SARS holds.
Can I use my accountant's address as my registered office? Yes, and many small companies do, provided it is a genuine arrangement where documents can be served and passed on. File a change as soon as the relationship ends — an unmaintained registered address is how companies get deregistered without seeing the warning.
What happens if my registered address is out of date? Statutory notices, CIPC compliance notices, deregistration warnings and legal process are still validly delivered there. Companies are regularly deregistered because the warning went to an address they left years earlier.
Is the registered address the same as my business address? Not necessarily. The registered office is the legal service address on the public CIPC record. Your trading address, postal address and directors' residential addresses are all held separately and updated separately.
Does the registered address appear publicly? Yes. It forms part of the public CIPC record, which is worth knowing before using a home address.
File it before you move, not after
The cost of getting this wrong is not the filing fee. It is a deregistration notice delivered to an empty office.
Smartbook files CIPC address changes, updates the SARS record at the same time, and acts as registered office for clients who would rather statutory notices went somewhere they will actually be read.
Last reviewed: 28 July 2026. Written by the Smartbook team — SAIPA and SAICA accredited, SARS registered tax practitioners. CIPC form numbers, timelines and processes change from time to time — confirm current requirements at cipc.co.za. General guidance, not legal advice.
Primary sources: CIPC · CIPC e-Services · BizPortal · Companies Act 71 of 2008 · SARS