Exemptions from sharing residential addresses (section 243 and 790ZF)
What addresses are publicly available from Companies House? Companies House requires all directors and PSCs to provide residential and service addresses when being appointed and keep these up to date. However, only the service address is made publicly available on the Companies House register i.e. the record that members of the public can see online. Residential addresses are stored privately and can only be accessed by individuals with filing permission for that entity. This requires access to the authentication code.
When you use Kudocs, you must enter the authentication code so that you can access that private information in order to create complete and accurate registers.
Residential addresses are also shared by Companies House for credit reference purposes (and some public authorities such as the police).
Can I protect my residential address from being shared by Companies House? Yes, you can (up to a point). This is available under the Companies Act 2006.
- Section 243 provides exemptions for directors regarding the disclosure of their usual residential addresses by Companies House to credit reference agencies.
- Section 790ZF provides exemptions for Persons with Significant Control (PSC) regarding the disclosure of their usual residential addresses, using equivalent rules to directors.
These sections allow directors and PSCs to apply for their residential addresses to be protected from disclosure to credit reference agencies, which is intended to protect their personal safety and privacy. To be clear, the residential address is not publicly available as standard. These exemptions provide extra ‘protection’ so that the residential address is also not shared with credit reference agencies. Companies House may still share the residential address with relevant public authorities or if ordered to do so by court order. Similar rules apply to LLP members.
How do I get protection under these sections? To obtain either a s243 or s790ZF exemption, the director or PSC must apply to the Companies House demonstrating that disclosing their residential address to credit reference agencies would expose them or their family to a serious risk of violence or intimidation. The application should include evidence supporting the claim, such as police reports, court orders, or other relevant documentation.
If granted, Companies House will avoid sharing the director or PSC’s residential address with credit reference agencies. This does not affect any of the information available on the public record (because the residential address is not displayed there to start with!).
There is an extra level of protection available to PSCs under s1088 Companies Act 2006, where none of the PSC’s details will be shown on the public record. This can be combined with the s790ZF exemption above.
For more information on all of these options, please see Companies House guidance here.
Last updated: 27/01/2026 by Kudocs Admin