Help- Personal details public via Companies House…

code_hunter_2

Hello. I’m looking for some advice. My husband set up a small business which has not been taking any income in the last year (due to not running). However, his personal details including date of birth and home address are all available online via Companies House. This is visible when doing a simple google search for the business he set up. 

He has just received threatening calls from a customer in his main job and logged this with police, so he now has a police incident number.

I’ve only just realised that our address is online, which is the address registered for his small business. Is it possible to get this quickly removed, along with his date of birth? He was thinking of completely closing the small business anyway due to it not running over the last year. 

Surely the info on Companies House could also be used for identity theft too?

CKhalvashi

He agreed to this when he set the company up.

I pay my accountant to have everything registered at their office, this doesn't cost anything extra (but this is a 2 person husband/wife firm we pay enough already).

I suggest anyone setting up a company pays for similar if they do not have an office space.

code_hunter_2

Thanks- yes, that is wise advice. However, he has done his own self-assessment each year as it was a very small income when running, so he didn’t have an accountant. 
He has been considering fully closing the business. Do you know if the details stay available on Companies House for a set period of time afterwards?

Jeremy535897

code_hunter_2 said:

Thanks- yes, that is wise advice. However, he has done his own self-assessment each year as it was a very small income when running, so he didn’t have an accountant. 
He has been considering fully closing the business. Do you know if the details stay available on Companies House for a set period of time afterwards?

No, forever. I am surprised his actual date of birth is showing. That was stopped for new companies a long time ago. Companies House are supposed to be doing something about this, but when I last spoke to them they said you can get an exact date of birth redacted for £50 per document. I don't know if they still do this.

DullGreyGuy

code_hunter_2 said:

Hello. I’m looking for some advice. My husband set up a small business which has not been taking any income in the last year (due to not running). However, his personal details including date of birth and home address are all available online via Companies House. This is visible when doing a simple google search for the business he set up. 

He has just received threatening calls from a customer in his main job and logged this with police, so he now has a police incident number.

I’ve only just realised that our address is online, which is the address registered for his small business. Is it possible to get this quickly removed, along with his date of birth? He was thinking of completely closing the small business anyway due to it not running over the last year. 

Surely the info on Companies House could also be used for identity theft too?

It should not be his full date of birth... are you sure it is? Obviously with what on there plus what people put on social media its often very easy to get a full dob but that isnt companies house fault alone.

The transparency of having directors details online is a fundamental part of limited companies. Historically company owners had unlimited liability which meant it was unsurprisingly difficult to attract investors. So limited companies were invented but why would a customer trust a company that had a capped liability? Their solution was to pull back the curtain and identify the statutory directors and significant owners.

Rules are actually fairly liberal and so address only need to be one you can be contacted at so you can pay an intermediary to act as your address but records are permanent so if you have put your home address etc then it will be there forever more.

code_hunter_2

That all makes sense- the replies are much appreciated. 

Also, I see that I was incorrect- only month and year show for birth, not the full date. 

Thanks for the responses, definitely some food for thought when setting up a limited company…

sevenhills

code_hunter_2 said:

That all makes sense- the replies are much appreciated. 

Also, I see that I was incorrect- only month and year show for birth, not the full date. 

Thanks for the responses, definitely some food for thought when setting up a limited company…

Councillors always had to display their home address when putting their names forward.
But they can now choose to keep it secret. We are certainly going down a road of secrecy.

CKhalvashi

sevenhills said:

code_hunter_2 said:

That all makes sense- the replies are much appreciated. 

Also, I see that I was incorrect- only month and year show for birth, not the full date. 

Thanks for the responses, definitely some food for thought when setting up a limited company…

Councillors always had to display their home address when putting their names forward.
But they can now choose to keep it secret. We are certainly going down a road of secrecy.

You've been able to use a council (or c/o) address since at least 2009.

silvercar

I have had this problem. Started to get hate mail as a result of my address showing on Companies House. Of course, I can't prove this, but the timeline and some other information suggests it is the likely source. They were helpful, but I had to pay for them to change the company address and my personal address to elsewhere. It seems to have worked.

Pennywise

silvercar said:

I have had this problem. Started to get hate mail as a result of my address showing on Companies House. Of course, I can't prove this, but the timeline and some other information suggests it is the likely source. They were helpful, but I had to pay for them to change the company address and my personal address to elsewhere. It seems to have worked.

I'm sure you know this, but for the benefit of other readers, a change of address doesn't remove the history - all previous addresses remain on public record, but it's still a good thing to do as lots of people only look at the "current" address and don't bother to look (or don't know where to look) for previous addresses.

silvercar

Pennywise said:

silvercar said:

I have had this problem. Started to get hate mail as a result of my address showing on Companies House. Of course, I can't prove this, but the timeline and some other information suggests it is the likely source. They were helpful, but I had to pay for them to change the company address and my personal address to elsewhere. It seems to have worked.

I'm sure you know this, but for the benefit of other readers, a change of address doesn't remove the history - all previous addresses remain on public record, but it's still a good thing to do as lots of people only look at the "current" address and don't bother to look (or don't know where to look) for previous addresses.

I know, but to remove the address on every document was about £45 per document. With 10+ years of accounts filed plus other required documents it would have cost a lot. We did look at filing a police report, but even with that and going to court, companies house wouldn't have changed the addresses without payment. So we just changed the current company and personal addresses. It seems to have done the trick as the hate mail has stopped. It was usually a few letters around Christmas time and this year and last there were none.