Every director gives Companies House two addresses: a service address, which is published, and a usual residential address, which is kept off the public register. If a home address has already appeared on public filings, the director can apply on form SR01 to have it suppressed, and a director at serious risk of violence or intimidation can separately apply to stop it being passed to credit reference agencies.

Which addresses does a director have to give Companies House?

Under section 167J of the Companies Act 2006, the required information about an individual director includes a service address, which may simply be stated as “The company’s registered office”, and the director’s usual residential address. The company must notify Companies House of a new director under section 167G, and of any change to a director’s details under section 167H, in each case within 14 days. Where a company notifies a new service address but not a new home address, section 167H(4) requires the notice to state that the residential address is unchanged.

Since 18 November 2025 companies no longer keep their own register of directors or register of directors’ residential addresses: sections 161A to 167F were omitted by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, and the information now sits only with Companies House. The background is covered in our guide to statutory registers.

What is a service address and what should it be?

The service address is the address shown publicly against the director’s name. It can be the registered office or any other address where post will reliably reach the director. It is not a formality. Section 1140 allows any document to be served on a director by leaving it at, or posting it to, the address currently shown for them on the public register, and section 1140(3) makes clear this applies whatever the purpose of the document, not only for company business. A service address that nobody checks can mean missing court papers that are treated as validly served.

Companies House’s own guidance is blunt: if you do not want your home address to be public, choose a different address as your service address and as the company’s registered office. The same applies to a company secretary, who gives only a public service address, and to a person with significant control. See registered office address rules and persons with significant control.

Who can see a director’s home address?

Section 240 defines “protected information” as the director’s usual residential address and the fact that their service address is their home address. It stays protected after the person stops being a director (section 240(3)).

  • The company must not use or disclose it except to communicate with the director, to make filings required by the Companies Acts, under a court order, or with the director’s consent (section 241). Breach is an offence by the company and every officer in default (section 241(3)).
  • Companies House must omit it from the public register where it appears in the part of a document that requires it (section 242(1)). It may disclose it to credit reference agencies (section 243(2)) and, according to its guidance, to specified public authorities such as the police.
  • The court can order disclosure where service at the service address is not effective, or where it is needed to enforce a court order (section 244). An order against Companies House is only made if the company does not have the address or has been dissolved, and an application can come from a liquidator, creditor, member or anyone else with a sufficient interest.

Note the limit in section 242(2): Companies House is not obliged to check other documents for protected information. If a home address is typed into a section of a form where it was not required, or used as the registered office, it will be public.

Can Companies House publish the home address anyway?

Yes, in two situations under section 245: where Companies House writes to the director requiring a reply within a set period and gets none, or where there is evidence that documents sent to the service address are not reaching the director. It must first give notice to the director and to each company they are a director of, state its grounds and allow a period for representations.

If it goes ahead, section 246 treats the home address as the director’s new service address. For five years from the decision, no other service address can be registered for that director, other than through the rectification regulations. A dead service address therefore carries a real cost.

How do you remove a home address that is already on the public register?

Many directors used their home as the registered office or service address when they first incorporated. An individual can apply on form SR01 to remove from listed documents:

  • their home address, or part of it;
  • their signature;
  • the day of their date of birth, for documents filed before 10 October 2015;
  • their business occupation.

The fee is £34 for each document listed. Companies House’s publication page says to pay through GOV.UK Pay and email the form with the payment reference to its secure registers team, or to post it with a cheque or postal order, which is usually slower.

The conditions that trip people up:

  • If the address is still the company’s registered office or single alternative inspection location, change that first. For a dissolved company, wait six months before applying to remove an address used as the registered office.
  • A serving officer whose home is their current service address must give a replacement service address on the form.
  • Where the home address was the registered office, list the original filing that gave it (for example the incorporation documents), not the later filing that moved the office away.
  • Companies House has no power to remove an address that is the subject of a mortgage charge, that forms part of a company’s name, or that is a current registered office.

Where the person is no longer an officer, the company is dissolved, or the address was a previous registered office, Companies House hides part of the address rather than replacing it; for a UK address only the first half of the postcode remains visible. A company, or a person who registers a charge, can apply on forms SR02 or SR03, but only on grounds of serious risk of violence or intimidation arising from the company’s activities.

Can you stop credit reference agencies seeing the address?

Section 243(4) allows regulations under which Companies House, on application, will not pass a director’s home address to credit reference agencies. Companies House accepts these applications where the director, or someone living with them, is at serious risk of violence or intimidation because of the company’s activities. Its examples include people targeted by activists because of work licensed under the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and people in the defence industry.

  • The fee is £100, or £15 for an abbreviated application where protection is already in place for the same type of corporate body.
  • Applications are made by post on forms supplied by the secure registers team, ideally before the director is appointed, and can be made by the individual, by the company, or by a subscriber before incorporation.
  • Processing takes at least 30 days and complex cases can take up to a year, with the information protected meanwhile. A decision notice is sent within 7 days of the decision.
  • A refusal can be appealed to the High Court, or the Court of Session in Scotland, within 28 days of the notice date.
  • Protection is not available where the home address is the registered office. Making a false statement is an offence, and protection can be withdrawn on conviction under section 1112.

How does this work for a typical small company?

Illustration only. Priya incorporated a consultancy in 2019 from home, using her home as both the registered office and her service address. She now wants the address off the register.

  1. She moves the registered office to her accountant’s address and files the change.
  2. She changes her service address to the same address and notifies Companies House within 14 days.
  3. She searches the company’s filing history and finds her home address on two documents: the incorporation application and a later change of details form.
  4. She files an SR01 listing both documents and pays 2 × £34 = £68.

Her home address stays on the private part of the register. Unless she qualifies for, and obtains, section 243 protection, it can still be shared with credit reference agencies.

What mistakes do directors make?

  • Assuming the home address is hidden when it has been used as the registered office, which is always public.
  • Asking Companies House to erase data under UK GDPR. Companies House relies on an exemption in Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 5 of the Data Protection Act 2018 because the Companies Act requires it to publish the register.
  • Choosing a service address that does not forward post, which risks missed legal documents and a section 245 decision.
  • Forgetting that copies already taken by third party websites are outside Companies House’s control.
  • Allowing the company to reveal a director’s home address, for example on its website, which can be an offence under section 241.

Identity verification is a separate requirement; see Companies House identity verification.

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Sources

Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.