Why your name stays on Companies House after resigning

Q: How does this work in practice?

Illustration only. Tom was a director of a small company from 2012 to 2018. He resigned, the company filed TM01, and it was struck off in 2020. Searching his name today still shows the company, his appointment in 2012 and his resignation in 2018. Looking through the filing history, his 2012 appointment form shows his full date of birth and his occupation, and an early annual return shows his home address, which he had used as his service address. Tom can apply on SR01 to remove his home address, the day of his birth and his occupation from those documents, paying £34 per document. His name and the appointment dates will remain. The most common mistakes are assuming resignation deletes the record, not checking that the company filed the termination, and using a home address on filings in the first place. Company directors can protect the business against the cost of an HMRC check with tax investigation insurance, which pays up to £100,000 of accountant's fees with Solar Protect. Read how our cover works or get a quote. See also: TM01: telling Companies House a director has left.

Your name stays on the Companies House record after you resign because the register is a history of the company, not just a list of who runs it today. Companies House keeps details of all current and resigned officers for as long as the company exists and for 20 years after it is dissolved. You cannot have your name or appointment history removed, but you can apply to remove your home address, the day of your birth on pre October 2015 filings, your signature and an occupation from documents already on the register.

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Why is my name still showing after I resigned?

Companies House guidance says information about a company’s officers remains on the public register for the lifetime of the company, and that this includes details of all resigned officers and applies to dormant companies as well. The register exists so that anyone dealing with a company can see who has been responsible for it and when. Find and update company information lists current and resigned officers side by side, and lets anyone search for an officer by name and see the companies they have been linked to.

So the question to ask is not whether your name appears, but whether it appears correctly. A former director should show as resigned, with a resignation date.

Has the company actually told Companies House that I left?

If the register still shows you as a current director, the likely problem is that the company has not filed the notice. Under section 167G of the Companies Act 2006 the company, not the departing director, must notify Companies House within 14 days beginning with the day you ceased to be a director, stating the date. Companies House’s form for this is TM01, and it can also be done online. Failing to notify is an offence by the company and every officer in default under section 167L.

A late filing does not change the date you actually left, but until it is filed anyone checking the register will see you as a director. Keep your resignation letter and evidence of when the company received it, and chase the remaining directors in writing. Our guide to resigning as a director covers how resignation takes effect.

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What does the register show about a former director?

The officer entry for a resigned director typically shows the same public details it showed while you were in office: your name, nationality, the month and year of your birth, your service address, and your appointment and resignation dates. See what Companies House shows about a director for the full list.

Two protections continue after you leave:

Section 240(3) says information does not stop being protected information when you cease to be a director, so your usual residential address stays off the public register.
Section 1087A(4) says the day of your birth remains protected after you stop being a director, so only the month and year are shown on documents covered by that section.

The filing history is where older details tend to surface. Scanned documents filed while you were a director stay on the record, and may show a signature, an occupation, a home address you used as a service address, or your full date of birth if the document was registered before 10 October 2015. Section 1087B means the day of birth protection does not apply to documents registered before that date.

What happens to the record if the company is dissolved?

Dissolution does not remove the record. Companies House guidance says the officer information stays on the public register for 20 years after dissolution, after which a selection of records is transferred to The National Archives and the rest are destroyed. Companies House used to remove dissolved companies from Find and update company information after six years. It has stopped doing that and has added the records of all companies dissolved since January 2010 to the free service.

In May 2026 Companies House announced a review of the 20 year retention period, following concerns that records should be held for longer, and paused the destruction and transfer of dissolved company records while the review takes place. It says any future change will go to public consultation. For now, a former director of a company dissolved in 2015 should expect that company’s record, including their appointment, to remain searchable.

What can I ask Companies House to remove?

An individual can apply on form SR01 to remove certain personal details from documents already on the register:

Your home address, where it was used as your service address or as the company’s registered office. If you still hold an active position and the address is your current address, you must give a replacement address. If it was used as a registered office, the company must change its registered office first, or if the company is dissolved you must wait six months before applying.
The day of your date of birth, on documents filed before 10 October 2015.
Your signature, on certain documents, though not a printed name and not parts of charge documents.
Your business occupation, but only where giving it was a legal requirement, such as on an appointment form AP01.

The fee is £34 for each document listed, and applications are made by post. Removing the day of birth, signatures and occupations has been possible since 21 July 2025. The detailed process is in removing personal information from the public register, and address protection more generally is in protecting a director’s home address.

What cannot be removed?

Your name, nationality, birth month and year, and the dates of your appointment and resignation stay on the record. Companies House also says it has no legal power to remove a home address used as an address that is subject to a mortgage charge, as part of a company’s name (for example a flat management company), or as a current registered office.

A data protection request will not get further. Companies House says it does not have to comply with UK GDPR requests for erasure or rectification, because it relies on the exemption in Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 5 of the Data Protection Act 2018 for information it must publish under the Companies Act 2006. It also points out that other organisations may have copied the register, and that you must take up their use of your data with them directly.

What if I was never a director, or was added without my consent?

That is a different situation. If a company has named you as a director, secretary or PSC, or used your address, without your permission, Companies House asks you to report it using its online form, with evidence. Its guidance says it can usually remove the information if there is enough evidence, and its statement of the registrar’s powers says it will remove your details if satisfied you were falsely named as an officer. It also suggests reporting to the police through Report Fraud where a crime has been committed.

How does this work in practice?

Illustration only. Tom was a director of a small company from 2012 to 2018. He resigned, the company filed TM01, and it was struck off in 2020. Searching his name today still shows the company, his appointment in 2012 and his resignation in 2018. Looking through the filing history, his 2012 appointment form shows his full date of birth and his occupation, and an early annual return shows his home address, which he had used as his service address. Tom can apply on SR01 to remove his home address, the day of his birth and his occupation from those documents, paying £34 per document. His name and the appointment dates will remain.

The most common mistakes are assuming resignation deletes the record, not checking that the company filed the termination, and using a home address on filings in the first place.

Company directors can protect the business against the cost of an HMRC check with tax investigation insurance, which pays up to £100,000 of accountant’s fees with Solar Protect. Read how our cover works or get a quote.

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Sources

Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 19 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.