Contractors

Contractors: your home address and your limited company's Companies House record

If you run a one-person company, your contractor limited company home address may be on the public register for anyone to look up, including clients and recruiters. Here's what shows, what to change now and what to clean up from past filings.

Updated 24 Oct 2026 · 6 min read · By Rayhaan Moughal, Sidekick Accounting

Most contractors set up their company from the kitchen table. The accountant or formation agent asks for an address, and the home address goes in as the registered office, and often as the service address as well.

The practical result is that a client, a recruiter or a stranger searching your company name can see where you live. You can change that going forward, and you can usually remove the home address from older filings too.

What a contractor company puts on the public register

A personal service company is an ordinary limited company, so the register treats it like any other. Companies House shows the registered office on the overview page, and your name, month and year of birth, nationality and service address as a director. Your usual residential address is held separately and isn't shown publicly.

The trouble starts when the home address does several jobs at once. The table shows where a contractor's address typically turns up.

Where	What can show	Public?
Company overview page	Registered office	Yes
Officers list	Your service address	Yes
Incorporation and appointment filings	Address you gave at the time	Yes, in the filing
Change of registered office (AD01)	Old and new office	Yes
Old annual returns and confirmation statements	Officer and shareholder details	Yes, in the filing

Dissolved companies don't disappear either. GOV.UK says records stay on the public register for 20 years after dissolution, and Companies House is reviewing that period.

Why this matters more for contractors

Contractors get looked up more than most small company owners. Agencies run checks before placing you, end clients run supplier due diligence and procurement teams pull your company record. All of them use the same free service.

That's useful when your registered office is professional. It's less comfortable when it's your front door.

Recruiters and end clients can see the address when they check your company.
Data websites copy the register, so the address can outlive a change at source.
A closed company from a previous contract still carries the old address.

IR35 is context here and we don't give tax advice. The point is that a personal service company is often looked at closely by agencies and clients, so the public record is part of how you appear to them. Your accountant is the right person for anything about status.

Registered at home vs a separate registered office and service address

Registered at home

Free and quick to set up
Home address is the public registered office
Often doubles as your service address
Post arrives where you live
Changing it later means a filing and clean-up

Separate registered office and service address

Public record shows a business address
Registered office and service address can differ
Post is handled by whoever provides the address
Costs a fee, usually annual
Home address stays off future filings

The registered office has to be an appropriate address, which means post addressed to the company would be expected to reach someone acting for it. A PO box doesn't qualify. We cover the options in registered office address services and the wider trade-offs in whether to use your home address for your limited company.

A contractor's company history: where the address piles up

Here's a fictional example. Jamie Reid is an IT contractor in LS6 who has run two companies.

Jamie Reid's companies (fictional)

2016Reid Digital Ltd incorporatedHome address given as the registered office and as Jamie's service address.
2019New contractAnnual filings carry on with the same home address. Clients and agencies look up the company.
2022Company closedReid Digital Ltd is dissolved. Its filings stay on the register.
2023Reid Consulting Ltd incorporatedA new company, and the home address goes in again out of habit.

Jamie now has two places to deal with. The live company needs a new registered office and service address going forward. The dissolved one needs a clean-up of the old filings. Those are separate jobs, and the second only needs doing once.

What to change now: registered office and service address

For a live company, fix the future first. Companies House won't remove the address a live company currently uses as its registered office, so it has to move before you apply to remove it from old filings.

01Pick a registered officeChoose an appropriate address that can receive company post. A registered office service is the usual answer for home-based contractors.
02Change the registered officeFile form AD01 or use the online service. Check the company's overview page to confirm the new address is showing.
03Change your service addressUpdate your director details with an address you're happy to be public. It doesn't have to match the registered office.
04Check any SAIL addressIf your home is also the single alternative inspection location, GOV.UK says to change that before applying.

We can set up a registered office and service address for you as part of your application, which keeps the order of events straight. The details are on our page about removing your home address from Companies House.

What to clean up from past filings

Moving the office doesn't touch the old documents. Every earlier filing that shows your home address stays public until you apply to remove it.

The application is form SR01, with a fee of £34 per document paid through GOV.UK Pay first. A former registered office can be suppressed, and GOV.UK says to list the original filing that gave your home address, never the AD01 that moved it away.

If you're not sure which filings hold your address, run the free scan and we'll list them. The mechanics of the form are in our guides to the SR01 form and how to complete SR01. If you're hoping to keep the same office, our guide to a home address used as a registered office explains the order of events.

Questions

Is my home address public if I run a one-person contractor company?

It can be. If your home is the registered office, that address is public on the company's overview page and in its filings. A director's usual residential address is held separately by Companies House, but if you've also used your home as your service address, that one is public too.

Can I remove my home address from an old contractor company that's been closed?

Yes, in most cases. The records of a dissolved company stay on the register, and you can apply to remove your home address from them with form SR01. If your home was the registered office when the company was dissolved, we'd wait 6 months after dissolution before applying.

Do I have to keep my home as the registered office to be a personal service company?

No. Where the registered office sits doesn't change how the company is run. Companies House only needs an appropriate address where post for the company will reach someone acting for it. For tax questions such as IR35, speak to your accountant.

What do I put as my service address if I move the registered office?

Any address where you can receive post, such as a business address, an accountant's address or a service address provider. It's separate from the registered office, so you can change one without the other. Both are public, so pick somewhere you're happy for clients and recruiters to see.

Do I need a replacement address when I remove my address from old filings?

Only if your home is still your current service address in a live role, such as director of a company that's still trading. For resigned roles, dissolved companies or a home used only as a former registered office, you can usually leave the replacement section blank.