Virtual office guide
How to keep your home address off Companies House
Keep your front door off the register.
Give Companies House a business address for two things: your company's registered office and your director's service address. New filings then show the business address, not your home. Older documents keep the address they were filed with. But you can apply to have your home address removed from some of them.
Why is my home address on Companies House?
The Companies House register is public. Anyone can search it online, for free. They can see the addresses your company has filed. Many directors set up their company from home. They used their home address because it was the easiest thing to put on the form.
Your home address can appear on the register in three places:
- The registered office. Your company's official address. It's shown on the register and on your company's documents.
- Your service address as a director. The address Companies House and others use to write to you as a director.
- Your service address as a person with significant control (PSC). If you own or control the company, you'll be listed as a PSC too.
Companies House also collects your usual residential address. It isn't shown on the public register, as long as you've given a separate service address. Only the month and year of your date of birth are shown to the public.
How do I take my home address off Companies House?
It takes two changes, and you can make both online with Companies House.
- Change your registered office address. Move it to a business address you're allowed to use, such as a virtual office in Liverpool. It becomes your registered office once Companies House registers the change. For 14 days after that, documents can still be validly delivered to the old address.
- Change your service address as a director and as a PSC. Swap your home for a director's service address. Your residential address then stays private on the register.
Changing only the registered office isn't enough. If your home is still your service address, it stays on the public register. You have to change the two separately.
What happens to my old filings?
Documents filed before the change keep the address they were filed with. That includes your incorporation documents and earlier confirmation statements. Changing your address doesn't rewrite them.
Companies House lets you apply to remove your home address from some older documents on the register. There's a fee for each document. You'll need to give a service address to use instead. See the Companies House guidance on gov.uk. It has the form, the current fee and which documents qualify. Look for removing your home address from the register.
What counts as a business address for Companies House?
Your registered office has to be an appropriate address. That means post sent to your company would reach someone acting for it, and they could acknowledge it. A PO box doesn't count.
A virtual office is a real address in a building with staff, so it meets that test. At the Maggie O'Neill Centre, our team handles virtual office post ourselves. We do it here at 433 Liverpool Road, Huyton, Liverpool, L36 8HT, and keep it securely stored.
Which option do I need?
| Your situation | What to change | At Maggie's |
|---|---|---|
| Only your registered office is your home (your service address is already somewhere else) | The registered office | Address Only, £20 a month |
| Your home is the registered office and your director's service address | Both | Address Only + Director's Cover, £30 a month |
| Both, and you want your post scanned and meeting rooms for clients | Both | Virtual Office + Director's Cover, £50 a month |
No lock-in. Cancel any time with one month's notice.
Do I need to tell anyone else?
Companies House doesn't pass your new address on to anyone else. Once the change is registered, update your address on:
- your website
- invoices and letterheads
- your Google Business Profile
- anywhere else your home address was published for the business
Not sure which addresses to change? Call us and we'll talk it through. Maybe you'd like a business address on your invoices as well as your registered office. Every virtual office plan at the Maggie O'Neill Centre covers both.