New protection against identity fraud for company directors

New laws have come into effect from 26 April 2018 to help tackle the problem of identity fraud and personal harm for company directors. This change has been prompted by research that showed company directors were twice as likely to be the victims of identity fraud as other members of the public partly due to the fact that their home address was publicly available.

The new laws allow company directors and others such as secretaries, people with significant control (PSC) and LLP members, to remove their home addresses from the Companies House register.

Prior to the new laws, directors could only request their home address to be hidden if they could demonstrate that they were at a serious personal risk of violence or intimidation.

There is a charge of £55 per document where a director wants to suppress the home address. The option is not available if the home address is the same as the company’s registered office address. Under the new laws, company directors and others will be required to provide an alternative correspondence address if they are appointed to a live company. If they are no longer appointed to a company, then an alternative correspondence address is not required and only the first half of their postcode will be made public.

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