Your Home Address Is on Companies House — Here's Why That's a Problem

When you incorporate a UK limited company, Companies House asks for a registered office address. It takes about three seconds to type in your home address, click next, and move on with your life. Roughly two out of every three new incorporations in England and Wales do exactly that. And for a while, nothing bad happens — which is precisely why so many founders never think about it again.

But here is what most people don't realise until it's too late: your registered office address is published on the Companies House public register. That means anyone — customers, competitors, journalists, debt collectors, marketing firms, or just someone bored enough to look you up — can see exactly where you live. It is not hidden. It is not redacted. It is searchable, scrapable, and permanent. And once the junk mail, the cold calls, and the occasional unsolicited visit start, the only way to make it stop is to change the address and wait for the old records to age out of the scrapers' databases.

This guide covers everything you need to know about why your home address on the public register is a bigger deal than it sounds, what the real risks are, and how to fix it properly — without spending a fortune or changing your company structure.

What a registered office address actually does

Your registered office is not your trading address. It is not where you meet clients. It is the legal address of your company — the place where official correspondence from Companies House, HMRC, courts, and other statutory bodies is sent. Under the Companies Act 2006, every UK limited company must have one, and it must be a physical address in the same jurisdiction where the company is registered (England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland). PO boxes are not accepted.

The registered office address appears on:

• The Companies House public register — viewable by anyone, for free, forever
• Your annual confirmation statement (CS01)
• All official company letters and invoices — you are legally required to display your registered office on business correspondence
• The London Gazette, if any statutory notices are published about your company

In other words, this is not a detail that hides in the small print. It is the single most visible piece of information about your company, right after the company name itself.

The real risks of using your home address

Founders tend to assume the worst-case scenario is "a bit of junk mail." It is not. Here are the actual risks, ranked roughly by how often we see them at Filing HQ:

1. Privacy — your personal details are permanently public

The Companies House API serves millions of data requests every month. Commercial data scrapers pull the entire register and resell it. Once your home address is on the register, it appears in third-party company databases, credit reference agencies, marketing lists, and Google search results. Even after you change to a different registered office, the historical filings — which show your old address — remain on the public record indefinitely.

For sole directors who are also the sole shareholder and PSC, this is particularly acute. Your full name, date of birth (month and year), nationality, and home address can all be cross-referenced from public filings. That is a significant identity theft risk, and one that has only grown as data scraping tools have become cheaper and more sophisticated.

2. Unwanted contact — from junk mail to doorstep visits

Directors whose home addresses are on the register routinely report:

• Daily junk mail from accountancy firms, insurance brokers, SEO agencies, and virtual office providers (ironic, that one)
• Cold calls from lead-generation companies who have scraped their phone number alongside the address
• Doorstep visits from courier companies delivering legal documents, from HMRC enforcement agents, or — in rare but real cases — from disgruntled former clients or employees

If you have a family, a flatmate, or simply value not having strangers know where you sleep, this is not a theoretical risk. It happens every week to founders across the UK.

3. Missed statutory post — the silent company killer

This is the risk that actually costs money. Companies House, HMRC, and the courts send statutory notices to your registered office. If you move house and forget to update your registered office — or if letters get lost in a busy household — you can miss:

• Confirmation statement reminders — miss these and Companies House starts the process of striking your company off the register
• HMRC penalty notices — which escalate automatically if not responded to within deadlines
• Court documents — if a claim is served at your registered office and you don't respond, a default judgment can be entered against your company
• Gazette notices — including compulsory strike-off warnings that can dissolve your company in as little as two months

We see this pattern constantly: a founder moves flat, updates their personal address with the bank and DVLA, but forgets Companies House. Six months later, they discover their company has been struck off — and their business bank account has been frozen — because the warning letters went to their old address and were returned undelivered.

4. Professional credibility — first impressions matter

Clients, investors, and partners routinely look up companies on Companies House before signing contracts or sending money. A registered office at a residential flat in Zone 4 sends a very different signal than a business address in central London. Fair or not, perception matters — especially when you are competing for contracts against established firms with corporate addresses.

Banks and payment processors also check your registered office during onboarding. Some challenger banks have flagged applications where the registered office is clearly a residential address, adding friction to what should be a straightforward account opening.

5. Landlord and mortgage issues — the one nobody warns you about

If you rent your home, using it as a registered office may breach your tenancy agreement. Most assured shorthold tenancies contain a clause restricting the use of the property to residential purposes only. Registering a company at the address can be interpreted as business use — and some landlords have used it as grounds to serve a Section 21 notice.

Homeowners are not immune either. Some mortgage lenders include covenants against using the property for business purposes. While registering a company at a home address does not in itself constitute "running a business from home," it can complicate remortgage applications or insurance claims if the lender decides to take a strict view.

What about the new identity verification requirements?

Since November 2025, identity verification has become a legal requirement for all directors and PSCs under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA). Directors must verify their identity either through GOV.UK One Login or via an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP).

This is relevant to the registered office question because ECCTA also gave Companies House stronger powers to query and reject registered office addresses. The registrar can now require evidence that a company has a genuine connection to its registered office. While enforcement is still evolving, the direction of travel is clear: Companies House wants to know that your registered office is a real, monitored address where post will actually be received and acted upon. A home address you moved out of three years ago does not meet that bar.

Filing HQ is an authorised agent — we can handle both your identity verification and your registered office change in a single process, ensuring everything stays compliant under the new rules.

How to change your registered office (it takes 10 minutes)

Changing your registered office is one of the simplest filings you can make with Companies House. You file a form AD01 (change of registered office address), and the new address takes effect as soon as Companies House processes it — usually within 24 hours for online filings.

There are three options for your new address:

1. Your accountant's office — many accountants offer this as part of their service. The downside is that if you switch accountants, you need to change your registered office again, and your old accountant may not forward post promptly (or at all) during the transition.
2. A serviced office or co-working space — works well if you already have a membership. The catch is that if you leave, you are back to square one. And most co-working spaces charge significantly more for registered office services than a dedicated provider.
3. A dedicated registered office service — purpose-built for exactly this problem. The address stays consistent regardless of where you work or who your accountant is. Post is received, scanned, and forwarded digitally. And because the provider's entire business depends on monitoring that address, nothing gets lost.

What Filing HQ's registered office service includes

Our registered office address service is designed for founders who want to set this up once and never think about it again:

• A central London business address — a credible, professional address that looks right on your company filings, invoices, and website
• Same-day digital mail scanning — every letter that arrives is scanned and sent to you as a PDF, so you never miss a Companies House reminder or HMRC notice, no matter where in the world you are
• We file the AD01 for you — we handle the registered office change with Companies House as part of the setup, so you don't even need to log in
• Ongoing compliance monitoring — if we spot a confirmation statement reminder or a penalty notice in your post, we flag it to you immediately rather than letting it sit in a pile

For founders who want the complete package, our annual packages bundle the registered office with confirmation statement filing, PSC verification, and identity verification support — so your entire Companies House compliance runs in the background while you focus on the business.