Have you recently, or are you about to, become a director of a Company? If so, you should expect to receive a letter in the form below from Companies House, along with a leaflet on Directors’ Duties, but you may wonder why?

Previously, the appointment of a new director could be filed electronically, but in order to do so, 3 pieces of sensitive personal information (such as town of birth, father’s first name, last 3 digits of passport number etc) had to be provided. Filing new appointments using a paper form has now almost disappeared completely, and whilst electronic filing is still the norm, the “sensitive information requirement” has now been removed. Instead, the company now has to confirm that the new director has consented to act, and Companies House write to all new directors to “congratulate them on their appointment” and provide some information about their duties as a director. Accordingly, if there has been an error in or some other mistake relating to the appointment, Companies House hope that the individual will make contact so that corrective action can be taken.

However, this system is not yet foolproof…..Companies House currently write to the service address filed for the new director, not their usual residential address (“URA”). This means that if the service address is, for example, the company’s registered office or business address to which the director may not have regular access, there is no certainty that the letter will actually be received by him/her. If this correspondence was sent to the new directors URA (which requires to be intimated to Companies House at the time of appointment but is not made public, unlike the service address), there should really be no doubt about receipt. We understand that Companies House are hoping to improve their procedures and in the future be able to write to the URA.

If you get a letter of this nature, and have not agreed to become a director, either get in touch with Companies House or ourselves without delay!

You can see an example of this type of letter here!

If you wish further information on Company incorporation or Companies Act compliance please contact Shona Cramond, Company Registrar, by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..