What Is a Director's Service Address? A Complete UK Guide

A director's service address is the address Companies House uses to send official correspondence to a director, and it appears on the public register. 

While you can use your home address for this purpose, many directors choose a professional address instead to keep their home address private. 

The address you provide needs to meet certain requirements, and this guide explains what you can and can't use as your director’s service address before you give these details to Companies House.

Key points

• Your service address must be a real, deliverable location 📬
  Your service address needs to be a place where official documents can be delivered and received. A PO box alone isn't enough, so make sure any address provider you use meets the requirements.
• You have to keep your details up to date 🔄
  If you move or stop using your service address, you need to update your details with Companies House. Otherwise, important correspondence could continue to be sent to an address you no longer monitor.
• Your service address is different from your registered office 🏢
  The service address belongs to you as an individual, while the registered office belongs to your company. These can be the same address, though it’s not mandatory.
• ANNA’s virtual office can simplify address requirements 🚀
  If you want to keep your home address private, ANNA's virtual office gives you a professional London address for your registered office and director's service address, with mail scanning included. You can also manage your business account, bookkeeping, receipts, and tax admin through ANNA to keep all your company admin in one place.

What is a director's service address?

You choose a service address and provide it to Companies House when you're appointed as the director of a UK limited company. This requirement also applies to company secretaries, LLP members, and people with significant control (PSCs).

A director's service address should be a physical location where documents can be delivered and received.

Here’s what you can use for this purpose:

• Your home or business address
• Your accountant's office
• A company formation agent's address
• A professional registered office or virtual office service

The address can be outside the UK, but a PO box alone isn't acceptable because Companies House requires an address where documents can be received.

Service address vs registered office vs residential address

A service address often gets mixed up with a registered or residential address. Here’s how they compare:

• Your registered office is the company's legal home. It’s the location featured on your incorporation certificate and letterheads, and it has to be a UK address.
• Your service address belongs to you as an individual. It follows you between companies if you're appointed as the director more than once.
• Your residential address is separate from company-related locations and remains off the public register. However, it's still shared with certain official bodies, such as credit reference agencies and the police.

In practice, many small business owners use the same address for both their registered office and service address, and some use their home address for one or both.

Who needs to provide a director’s service address?

Companies House requires a service address from:

• Directors of limited companies, including shadow directors
• Company secretaries, where the company has one
• Designated members of LLPs
• PSCs, typically anyone holding more than 25% of shares or voting rights

If you fall into more than one of these categories (for example, if you're the director and also the majority shareholder), you'll usually give the same service address for each role, though you're not required to.

Should you use your home as your service address?

While there’s no general rule stopping you from using your home as your service address, the main consideration is that the address will appear on the public register.

This means customers, suppliers, and members of the public can find it through Companies House. For someone who appreciates the convenience of a single address, this may be fine. For others, keeping their business and personal addresses separate might be a better fit.

If keeping your home address private is important to you, using a professional service address can help avoid revealing your home location to the public.

Should you use a professional service address?

A professional service address is ideal if you don't want to use your home address or need a reliable place to receive company correspondence.

It's particularly useful if you:

• Run your business from home
• Travel frequently or don't have a permanent business address
• Want to keep your personal and business addresses separate
• Manage several companies and want to use one professional address

A virtual office is one option. Depending on the provider, you may be able to use the address for your service address and registered office, with mail forwarded or scanned for you.

💡 Did you know?

ANNA's virtual office gives you a professional London address for official business correspondence, helping you keep your home address private while your mail and scanned documents are available in your account.

How to set up or change your service address

When you register a company, you'll enter your service address as part of the incorporation application.

If you need to change it later, here's what to do:

• Decide on your new address, whether that's your home, an accountant's office, or a virtual office provider.
• File the relevant form with Companies House. For an individual director, that's form CH01; for a corporate director, it's CH02. LLP members use LL CH01 or LL CH02.
• Submit the change through the Companies House online service or through your company formation platform, if it offers this service.
• Notify Companies House as soon as you can, since there's a legal expectation that your details stay current.

🧠 Good to know 

Changing your service address doesn't affect your registered office. If you also want to move your registered office, that's a separate filing (form AD01).

What happens if you get the service address wrong

Directors sometimes assume the service address is just a formality, but it carries real legal weight. 

Under the Companies Act 2006, documents can be validly served on a director by posting them to their service address at the time, whether or not the director still checks that address or lives there.

The service address requirements matter most in legal proceedings. If a court sends papers to your service address and you never see them because you've moved on and forgotten to update your details, the case can still proceed without you, and you could end up with a County Court Judgment against you without ever knowing a claim was made. 

There's also a more everyday risk to think about. Letters from HMRC about tax deadlines or from Companies House about your confirmation statement go to this address. If it's out of date, you can miss deadlines and get penalties for something you never saw.

What happens to correspondence sent to your service address?

The purpose of a service address is to give Companies House, HMRC and other authorised parties somewhere to contact you in the context of your role. That makes reliable mail handling important, particularly if you're using an address you don't visit regularly.

If you're using your accountant's office or a virtual office, check how you're notified when something arrives and how quickly documents are forwarded or scanned. You should also know what happens to urgent or legal correspondence.

Keeping your service address up to date

Your service address needs to remain accurate for as long as you hold the director’s role. If you move, change accountants, stop using a virtual office, or switch to a different provider, you should update your details with Companies House.

This is particularly important if you use a service provided by another business. If you cancel the service, make sure you arrange a replacement address before the old one stops accepting mail. Otherwise, important documents could continue to be sent somewhere you no longer have access to.

Changes to a director's details need to be reported to Companies House within 14 days. You can update the information online or file the relevant form, depending on the type of change.

Keep your company admin in one place with ANNA

Managing a limited company means keeping your Companies House details up to date, staying on top of correspondence, and keeping your financial records organised. 

ANNA brings these tasks together in one place, with tools designed to reduce the day-to-day admin of running a company.

Here’s how ANNA can help:

• Virtual office: Get a professional London address for your registered office and director's service address, helping keep your home address off the public register. ANNA scans your incoming mail and makes it available in your account, so you never miss any business correspondence.
• Business account: Manage your business finances from a dedicated UK business account, giving you a clear view of your company's money in one place.
• Automatic bookkeeping: Automatically categorise transactions as money comes in and goes out, reducing the amount of bookkeeping you need to do manually.
• Receipt capture: Photograph or upload receipts and keep them organised with your transactions, so you have the records you need when you review your expenses or prepare your accounts.
• Tax estimates and reminders: Get real-time estimates of your tax position and reminders for important deadlines to help you plan ahead and avoid last-minute admin.
• Invoicing tools: Create and send professional invoices directly from your ANNA account and get paid faster.
• Cash flow insights: See clear breakdowns and forecasts of your business finances to help you make better day-to-day decisions.
• 24/7 support: Get round-the-clock help from the ANNA support team whenever you need assistance, day or night.

Get started with ANNA today to get a professional service address and handle your company admin with confidence.