Private addresses and Companies House #1

14 July 2008

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Private addresses and Companies House #2 - an update - 1 October 2009

The bloodhounds of the media, whether well-principled journalists or unscrupulous paparazzi, value like gold dust a doorstep interview or photograph of an individual at home. The media will use a variety of techniques to hunt down a subject’s private address, such as engaging investigators, tailing subjects or purchasing information from neighbours, friends or even rubbish sifters. However, one of the simplest and cheapest methods of obtaining such private details is simply to search for that individual at Companies House or the Land Registry.
It therefore pays to know what is available on such public registers and what can be done under law to protect or restrict access to such information.

Companies House - the law is changing...

Under current legislation every director of a UK registered company must by law provide his or her usual residential address to Companies House. This address is available for inspection by the public.
Under s. 723B of the Companies Act 1985 an individual may apply for an order restricting the availability for inspection by the public of the individual’s residential address (a ‘Confidentiality Order’), if that individual can show that the availability for inspection by members of the public of particulars of his usual residential address creates, or is likely to create, a serious risk that they or a person who lives with them will be subjected to violence or intimidation.
Where a Confidentiality Order is made the residential address will not be available for inspection but may still be available to certain bodies such as public authorities.
In October 2009, provisions under the Companies Act 2006 come into force under which directors will be required to provide both a residential address and a service address. The service address will be on the public record, but the residential address will automatically be ‘protected information’. This means that company directors will be able to withhold their residential address from public inspection (by specifying a different address for service) without having to obtain a Confidentiality Order. Their residential address will still be available to prescribed bodies (such as credit reference agencies).
There are provisions in place to ensure that those directors who have successfully obtained Confidentiality Orders under the 1985 Act will have automatic protection under the new law. However, there are some loopholes in the legislation and it can be necessary to make a further application to ensure the Confidentiality Order is effective against bodies such as credit reference agencies.

The Land Registry

The Land Registry Rules 2003 require that if you own or have a legal right to or interest in a registered property, you provide an ‘address for service’ - where correspondence concerning the property can be sent. The address for service shows up on the Land Registry for a given property, and if it is a personal or home address for an individual, this too can cause a privacy or security risk.
There is no provision for the personal details of the owners of registered properties to be anonymised. The proprietorship entry on a register must contain the name of the owner and up to three addresses for service (one of which can be an e-mail address and another a PO Box). One address must be a postal address, and very often individuals or their lawyers unwittingly enter a private home address which is then available for inspection on the public register.
We can make an application to change the address for service which might be held by the Land Registry - it can, for example, be a ‘care of’ address.
There are other options available: owners who do not wish to be identified as the owner of a property can set up a trust or limited company that then holds the land on their behalf. In these cases, it will be the trust or corporate body (at its registered address) that appears on the register rather than the individual beneficiary.