Companies House

Usual Residential Addresses (URA) FAQs

Q. What is a usual residential address?

A. A usual residential address is the usual home address of the person concerned. It still has to be filed with the Registrar but it will not be available on the public record for everyone to see and will be held on a private register only available to predetermined organisations.

Q. What is a service address?

A. A service address is one that can be used by a director to receive communications from third parties about the company. The service address can be the same as the person’s residential address, or the registered office address of the company, or it can be somewhere different. A service address is also known as a correspondence address.

Q. Will my address be visible on the public register?

A. The Companies Act 2006 requires directors to provide a service address for the public record which may be different to their usual residential address (URA). Their URA is kept on a separate record to which access is restricted. This has replaced the old system, where only officers at serious risk of violence and intimidation could have their residential addresses kept off the public record.

Q. Will my service address still appear on the public register if it is the same as my URA?

A. If a director chooses to use his URA as his service address, the service address will still appear on the public record, but the fact that the two addresses are the same will be protected information. Companies House will not confirm whether the addresses are the same if there is an enquiry which asks this.

Q. Are there any organisations to which Companies House will disclose my URA, even though it is protected information?

A. A director’s URA will only be made available to specified public authorities for carrying out their public functions, and to credit reference agencies for vetting applications for credit and associated work and to meet the obligations in the Money Laundering Regulations.

Both specified public authorities and credit reference agencies need to apply to Companies House to be granted access to this information. Their applications are thoroughly vetted and the information is only disclosed if they meet all the criteria specified in the Companies (Disclosure of Address) Regulations 2009 (SI2009/214).

A list of the specified public authorities that can apply for access to protected information is given is schedule 1 of these regulations.

Q. Can I remove my address from the register?

A. Generally once information has been placed on the public record it remains there is perpetuity. However, the Companies Act 2006 allows applications to be made to the Registrar to expunge an address from the public record where the availability of the address on the public record creates a risk of violence or intimidation. Applications may be made by a person who is or proposes to be a director; a person who was a director, secretary or permanent representative; a company in respect of its shareholders on an annual return or allotment of shares, or subscribers to the memorandum; and by a person who has registered a charge but is not the chargee.

Please note that we can only remove addresses that have been provided to the registrar since 2003.

Q. My address appears on a third party website, how can I have it removed?

A. The Register of Companies is public information and Companies House has very little control over the way information purchased from it is used. You may consider applying to Companies House to have you address removed from our register (see the answer to the question above), however even if you succeed in having your address expunged from the register, you will still need to contact any third party websites directly in order to discuss removing your information from them; Companies House has no powers to compel a third party to remove your information.