Plenty of businesses that need consumer credit authorisation — brokers, small dealers, sole directors — run from a spare room. The good news is that the FCA has no problem with that. The parts worth understanding are what “principal place of business” actually means, and which of your addresses end up on public registers.
An FCA application asks for your firm's principal place of business — the place from which the business is actually directed and run day to day. It must be a real UK location where the work genuinely happens. For a small firm, a home office meets that test perfectly well, and home-based firms are authorised routinely.
The address that can't be a fiction
What the principal place of business cannot be is a convenience: a mail-forwarding suite or a virtual-office address where nobody from the firm actually works. The FCA wants to know where it — and its post, and if necessary its supervisors — can find the people running the firm. If the honest answer is “the director's home in Manchester”, then that's the right answer on the form, and it's a perfectly good one. Describing your premises accurately, however modest, always beats dressing them up; consistency between the form and reality is part of what the assessment checks.
Registered office vs principal place of business
Limited companies have a second address in play: the registered office at Companies House. The two don't have to match. A common, sensible arrangement for a home-based firm is a professional registered-office service for the Companies House record — keeping statutory mail and the fully public register away from your front door — while the FCA application gives your home as the genuine principal place of business. (If you're weighing company structures more broadly, see sole trader vs limited company for FCA authorisation.)
What actually becomes public
Two registers matter. Companies House publishes your registered office — which is why the service-address arrangement above exists. And once authorised, your firm appears on the Financial Services Register with its contact details, so the address you give the FCA as your firm's contact point is visible to anyone who looks your firm up. If that visibility matters to you, think about the arrangement before you apply rather than after.
Do you need a lease or business rates?
The FCA is not your landlord. There's no requirement to hold a commercial lease, and working from a home you own or rent is fine — the application is interested in where and how the business runs, not in the tenure of the building. Whether home-working triggers anything with your mortgage provider, landlord or council is a separate, non-FCA question worth a quick check.
When you move
Your principal place of business is a detail the FCA holds about your firm, so when it changes — the classic case being a home-based firm moving into premises as it grows — you tell the FCA through Connect. Address changes sit alongside the other standing notifications covered in our guide to ongoing obligations after authorisation. Apply from where you genuinely are today; update when reality changes.
The bottom line
A home address is a perfectly good principal place of business for a small firm, and it will not count against your application. Answer the premises questions with plain accuracy, use a registered-office service if Companies House visibility bothers you, and remember the address you give the FCA becomes your firm's public contact point. The rest of the application — the business plan, the policies, the people — is where approval is actually decided.
Frequently asked questions
- Will the FCA authorise a business run from home?
Yes, routinely. The principal place of business must be a real UK location where the firm is genuinely directed day to day — and for a small firm, a home office meets that test.
- Can I use a virtual office as my principal place of business?
No. A mail-forwarding or virtual-office address where nobody from the firm actually works isn't a principal place of business. Give the real location and use address services for the roles they legitimately serve, like a Companies House registered office.
- Does my home address become public if I'm FCA authorised?
Your Companies House registered office is public, and your authorised firm's contact details appear on the Financial Services Register. A registered-office service keeps the Companies House side private; the address you give the FCA as your contact point is the one people can find.
- Do I need a lease or commercial premises to apply?
No. The FCA doesn't require a commercial lease — it requires an accurate description of where and how the business operates. Working from a home you own or rent is fine.
- What happens when I move to bigger premises later?
You notify the FCA of the change through Connect, as with other standing details about your firm. Apply from where the business genuinely runs today and update when that changes.
This article is general information to help you understand the process, and is not legal or regulatory advice. CreditLicence is a regulatory consultancy; nothing it provides is regulated advice, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the FCA. FCA rules can change; always check the FCA's website for the current position.