in a nutshell

Submissions are now open for a bill that would allow directors of New Zealand companies to keep their residential addresses private if they have concerns about their own safety or the safety of someone they live with.

We have worked with people who have legitimate safety concerns about their residential address being publicly available.  We support people being able to keep that information out of the public eye and we plan to make a submission in support of the bill.

the detail

Currently, directors’ residential addresses are publicly available on the Companies Register (at the Companies Office website).  Those addresses are publicly available because the Companies Act 1993 requires them to be.

The amendment bill would allow directors to apply to the Registrar of Companies to substitute their residential address on the public record with an address for service.  To do so, a director would need to:

• provide a statutory declaration verifying that public availability of the director’s residential address is likely to result in physical or mental harm to the director or a person the director lives with
• provide a substitute address for service (which can’t be the same as the company’s registered office or address for service), and
• pay a fee (the amount of that fee is currently unknown).

The bill has passed its first reading and is now at the select committee stage. 

The bill isn’t perfect – we’ll note in our submission some material issues that we hope the select committee process will address.  However, we welcome it as the first development in this area that we’ve seen since 2018.

next steps

You can make a submission on the amendment bill on the Parliament website.  The closing date for submissions is 11.59pm on Thursday, 02 May 2024.

You’re also welcome to get in touch with us if you would like to discuss our submission.