When is a home address published on the Companies House register?

When you set up a UK limited company certain information is made public on the Companies House register. Some of this information is generic, the sort that you would expect to appear there, such as the company name and company number. 

But the availability of other information may be a little alarming, such as the residential address of your company officers. Here’s what you need to know.

When a home address will be published on the Companies House register

If you use a residential address as any of the below, it will appear on the public register:

• Registered office
• Service address (for directors and people with significant control)
• Shareholder address

Here’s how simple it is for someone to find an address on the register

Using the Companies House search tool, addresses can be located in the following ways:

Registered office address – immediately made available on the search results page and also on the dedicated company page

Director’s service address – appears under ‘Officers’ in the ‘People’ tab, on the dedicated company page

Person with significant control’s service address – appears under ‘Persons with significant control’ in the ‘People’ tab, on the dedicated company page

Shareholder’s address – appears in the ‘Incorporation’ documents, under ‘Filing history’, on the dedicated company page

When a home address won’t be published on the Companies House register

A residential address is required when appointing a director and person with significant control. However, whilst you must provide the actual home address for the person in question, this information is only passed on to government and credit reference agencies. 

As long as you don’t use a residential address as the registered office, service address (for directors and people with significant control), and shareholder address – it will not appear on the Companies House public register.

Protect your address with an address service

Any address that you have permission to use can be used as the addresses mentioned above – provided that the registered office is in the UK, and that any government mail that arrives at the address, is seen by the company officers.

We offer address services that allow you to use our address as the registered office and service address, thereby shielding your home address from the Companies House register. See the below links for more information:

If you’ve not yet formed your company, these services are also included as part of our Privacy, Professional, Prestige, All Inclusive, Non-Residents and eSeller limited company formation packages.

There you have it. You should now know when an address is made public on the Companies House register. If you do still have any questions, leave a comment and we’ll be happy to help.