Service Address

The introduction of director’s service addresses in the Companies Act 2006 has provided company directors with a level of protection not previously available. The new measures will afford company directors some anonymity and protection of their personal details from public scrutiny.

The register at Companies House has always been deemed to be a public register. Any member of the public can access the details held at Companies House. Whilst in some circumstances this may incur a small fee, it meant that anyone could find the residential address for any company director held on the register.

From 1 October 2009 company directors can declare two addresses at Companies House. The first will be the director’s residential address. This address is only accessible to a select group of organisations and businesses. It can only be accessed by-

  • government organisations conducting public functions,
  • credit reference agencies for conducting credit applications and completing Money Laundering Regulation checks.

The second address supplied to Companies House is a service address. This address will be added to the public register and can be accessed by the general public. Whilst many company directors may choose to declare their residential address as the service address some people may wish to keep their home address ‘out of sight’.

If you would like to keep your residential address away from the public register it is recommend that you find a suitable service provider that can supply a director’s service address.

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More