New legislation to allow some company directors to keep addresses private

Is your address on the New Zealand Companies Register?

Public registers can play a valuable role in promoting transparency, but any benefits should be weighed against their potential privacy risks which can include threats to individuals’ safety. 

To address this issue in relation to companies, the Companies (Address Information) Amendment Act 2025 (“the Act”) was recently enacted on 18 November 2025. 

The Act amends the Companies Act 1993 and introduces new privacy measures for company directors - relating to the requirement for directors to have their residential address featured publicly on the Companies Register. 

The Act will come into force on a date to be set by Order in Council, or if the Act hasn’t come into force earlier, then on 18 November 2026. 

What was the previous position? 
Before the Act, a director or shareholder could only apply to have their residential address suppressed on the Companies Register if a protection order had been granted by the New Zealand Family Court. 

To request suppression of a residential address, directors or shareholders were required to submit a written application to the Companies Office, which was accompanied with a copy of the protection order.  The Companies Office would accept the request if it was satisfied that the protection order was in force, and that suppression of the address would not unduly compromise the Companies Register. 

If the director or shareholder was to change address while their address was suppressed, they were required to update their address with the Companies Office and apply for their new address to be suppressed. 

What’s new? 
Under the Act, a director (which includes a prospective director), or a shareholder who is also a director or who resides with a director, concerned about the disclosure of their residential address can apply to the Registrar to substitute their residential address with an alternative address. 
For this to occur, the application to the Registrar must: 

• be in a prescribed form; 
  
  

• include a statutory declaration in the application that verifies that public availability of the residential address is likely to result in physical or mental harm to the director or a person they live with; 
  
  

• specify an alternative address that can be featured on the Companies Register (which can’t be the address of the company’s registered office, the company’s address for service, a postal centre, or document exchange); and
  
  

• be accompanied by the prescribed fee (if set). 

While this is a step in the right direction, there still appears to be a relatively high threshold to meet for a director’s residential address to be redacted. There’s also uncertainty surrounding how the new process under the Act will be implemented (including how the required declaration must verify that harm is likely to occur). The Companies Office and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) are expected to release further guidance on the application of the Act and its processes. 

At MoranLaw we have a full service offering for company, corporate and regulatory support within our wider commercial team. This includes acting as a registered office for a number of companies and ensuring compliance with the Act. Get in touch today.