Directors can take their home address off the Companies Register from 18 November

Every New Zealand company director has had to publish their home address on the Companies Register, where anyone can search it for free. Parliament heard evidence of directors being found and approached at home by people who got their address that way, including women directors who were stalked after their address was found there, and mental health practitioners concerned that clients could find them at home.

From 18 November 2026, that changes. The Companies (Address Information) Amendment Act 2025 comes into force, along with regulations setting out what an application must include.

Who can apply

Current directors and people about to become directors. You apply to the Registrar of Companies to replace your residential address on the public register with an alternative address.

What you’ll need

• A statutory declaration that public availability of your residential address is likely to result in physical or mental harm to you or to someone who lives with you. A statutory declaration is a formal statement made before an authorised witness, such as a lawyer, Justice of the Peace or court registrar.
• An alternative address that is:
  • a physical address in New Zealand where documents can be served on you
  • not the company’s registered office or address for service
  • not a PO Box, postal centre or document exchange
  • if it’s at an accountant’s, lawyer’s or other person’s office, identified as such in the application
• Any fee the regulations set.

You’ll still give your residential address to the Registrar. It just won’t be public.

What it doesn’t fix

• Past directorships. You can’t replace an address linked to a company you’ve already left, or a company that’s been removed from the register.
• Shareholders, mostly. The protection extends to a shareholder only if they’re the applying director, or live with the director and consent.
• Copies elsewhere. Data already scraped by business directories and search engines won’t change automatically.
• Other registers. Your name and address may still appear on the rates database, the electoral roll, land titles and in other records.

What to do before 18 November

1. Search the Companies Register for your own name. Note every current and past company, and which addresses appear, including in older documents.
2. Arrange an alternative address. Ask your accountant or lawyer whether you can use their office, and how they’ll handle documents served on you there.
3. Prepare your statutory declaration, so you can apply on day one.
4. Talk to co-directors and household members who are shareholders.
5. Deal with the other registers now: write to your council asking it to withhold your name from the rates database, and consider the unpublished electoral roll if you have safety concerns. See getting your address off public registers.

Is it worth it if I’m not at risk?

The test is that publication is likely to result in harm. That’s a real threshold, and the declaration is a formal legal document, so don’t sign it unless it’s true for you. Directors of businesses that deal with distressed or angry members of the public, people in public-facing roles, and anyone with a history of threats are the people this was designed for.

The Government’s wider review of the Companies Act may change the default for everyone. Until then, this is the route.