Company Directors – Protect your home address

1^st October 2009 saw a number of major changes within the Companies Act. One such change was the introduction of a Service Address for Directors.

Effectively, for every directorship held, a Director must provide Companies House with details of their usual residential address, as well as details for their, recently introduced, ‘service address’.

If a Director doesn’t supply a ‘service address’ then the director’s residential address automatically defaults to become the address on public record.  So in essence – don’t supply a ‘service address’ and your home address becomes publically accessible by absolutely anyone.

Remember – anyone can access the public records at Companies House – so if an alternative Service Address isn’t provided – the residential address is on show.

A Director can choose any address as their service address – it can be a home address or perhaps the registered office of the company – or an alternative address.  However, it must be an address where documents can be delivered and an acknowledgement or receipt provided if required.  It cannot be a PO Box or a DX number.

As mentioned earlier, this new legislation only came into effect on the 1^st October 2009 – and so many company directors may not yet be aware of it – but it’s a reality that’s already in place.  There are services available – and a few company registration agents are now offering services to their customers to assist them with the process of protecting their home address.  Some services are costing hundreds of pounds – so our advice is to shop around to ensure you find a cost effective way to protect your address.