(1) A company shall, at all times, have a registered office in the State to which all communications and notices may be addressed.
(2) Particulars of the situation of the company’s registered office shall be specified in the statement delivered pursuant to section 21(1)(a) prior to the incorporation of the company.
(3) Notice of any change in the situation of the registered office of a company shall be given in the prescribed form, within 14 days after the date of the change, to the Registrar who shall record that change.
(4) A company’s registered office may be constituted by a statement (contained in the statement or notice referred to in subsection (2) or (3)) to the effect that the office is care of a specified agent, being a company formed and registered under this Act, or an existing company, and which is approved for this purpose by the Registrar; where a registered office is constituted by those means, references in this Act to the situation of the company’s registered office shall be read accordingly.
(5) The notification to the Registrar by the agent approved for that purpose of any change in the situation of the agent’s registered office shall, if made in the form prescribed for the purpose of subsection (3) and within the period there mentioned, be regarded as constituting compliance by the company concerned with subsection (3).
(6) If default is made in complying with this section, the company concerned and any officer of it who is in default shall be guilty of a category 4 offence.
DJEI Commentary
Section 50 requires a company to have a registered office within the State, to which all communications may be addressed. Under subsection (4), a company may have its registered office as care of a specified agent who has been approved by the Registrar for that purpose. Where a company is availing of an agent for the purposes of the company’s registered office, such an agent must be a company that is registered in Ireland. Subsections (3) and (5) require notification to be given to the Registrar within 14 days of any change in either the company’s registered office or the office of the specified agent, as the case may be. Subsection (6) makes a breach of these requirements by the company or an officer of the company a category 4 offence. This section derives from section 113 of the Companies Act 1963.