A recent case demonstrates the importance for directors of ensuring that their registered details are kept up to date in the company’s records.

Every company is required to keep a register of certain information in relation to each of its directors, including a service address (which need not be the director’s residential address). The Companies Act 2006 provides that a document may be served on a director at that registered address. This is not limited to documents relating to the director’s appointment as an officer of the company, but extends to any document.

This provision was relied on in Key Homes Bradford Ltd and others v Patel [2014] EWHC B1 (Ch) when proceedings were served on a director at his registered address by various companies of which he had been the sole director. They claimed that the director had diverted investment funds for his own benefit, issuing proceedings against him to recover those funds. The claim form and accompanying documents were served on the director at two service addresses given by him and listed in the companies’ registers: a residential address in Romford and a business address in Barking. Unknown to the companies, however, the director had moved to the UAE, although he retained a substantial business connection to the UK. The director argued that he had not been validly served.