Is a document left at the registered office served if no one reads it?

The opening hours rule goes. Until 19 October 2026, section 142(1) requires the registered office to be open and accessible to the public for not less than 3 hours during ordinary business hours on each business day. Act 24 of 2025 removes that requirement from 20 October 2026. ACRA announced the commencement on 6 October 2026.

Section 143 changes with it. Until 19 October 2026 it deals with notice of the office's situation and hours, and no notice of hours is needed if the office is open for at least 5 hours on each business day. From 20 October 2026 it deals only with a change of the office's situation.

ACRA's page on common offences, last updated 8 October 2026, describes the rule that applies before 20 October 2026, including the three-hour requirement.

The office itself and the 14-day notice. From the date of its incorporation, a company must have a registered office in Singapore to which all communications and notices may be addressed. That part of section 142(1) remains. A change of registered office address still goes to ACRA within 14 days after the change.

ACRA's announcement of 6 October 2026 states that companies continue to file any change in registered office address within 14 days after the change.

The penalty in section 142 is unchanged. Where a company defaults, the company and every officer in default commit an offence, with a fine of up to S$5,000 on conviction and a default penalty.

By leaving it at the registered office, or by sending it there by registered post. Section 387 of the Companies Act 1967 says a document may be served on a company either way. The section is about where the document goes. Nothing in it turns on whether a director opens the envelope, or when.

That is the gap between served and read. The law looks at where the document went. What happens to the envelope after it arrives is for the company to manage.

The Rules of Court 2021 take a similar approach for ordinary court documents. Under Order 7 rule 3, they may be left at or posted to an entity's registered or principal office.

No. In its second reading speech on 5 November 2025, the Ministry of Finance told Parliament that the amendment 'will not affect service of documents at the company's registered office'. The office stops having to be open to the public. It does not stop being the address at which documents are served.

The speech describes the rule in the same terms as section 387: the Companies Act allows a document to be served on a company by leaving it at, or sending it by registered post to, its registered office.

Because court deadlines run from service. Under the Rules of Court 2021, a defendant served with an originating claim in Singapore must file and serve a notice of intention to contest or not contest within 14 days after the statement of claim is served. If it does not, the claimant may apply for judgment.

A defendant served outside Singapore has 21 days instead.

An originating claim has its own rule on service. Order 6 rule 4 requires it to be served personally, subject to any written law and the Rules. How section 387 applies to an originating claim is a question for the company's own lawyers in the case at hand.

Where a deadline runs from service, it runs from service, not from the day a director first reads the papers. For anything validly served at the registered office, mail that sits unopened there for a week leaves a week less to respond.

Someone named, on a fixed routine. From 20 October 2026 the Companies Act no longer requires anyone to be at the registered office during set hours. That makes the routine more important, not less: whatever arrives there needs to be opened, logged and passed to a director without waiting for someone to notice it.

One action: check this week where your registered office mail goes, who opens it, and how fast it reaches a director.