Respondents, absent parents and relatives, traced through your firm.
A current registered address for service and enforcement in family proceedings, with the safeguards a family practice would expect: instructed by the firm, checked by a person, refused where an order prevents contact, and released to the solicitor. Invoiced only if found.
Where the address matters
A divorce application, a financial remedy application, a Children Act application or a child maintenance enforcement step all need the respondent's current address, and an application to dispense with service or to serve by another method needs evidence that the address was looked for. Absent parents, respondents who have moved without notice and relatives who need to be given notice are everyday family work.
Family work is also where tracing can do harm, which is why these instructions come through a firm. The declaration recorded on every instruction includes that no order prevents contact, and the result goes to the instructing solicitor.
How family practices use it
Respondents
A current registered address for service of the application, with a dated report for the file if service is later questioned.
Child maintenance
An absent parent's current address for enforcement steps, instructed by the firm acting for the parent with care.
Notice to relatives
People who must be told about proceedings and cannot be found through the family. Each is a separate instruction with your matter reference.
Safeguards on every family instruction
- Instructed by a solicitor or on the direction of a court, never by the party personally.
- Refused where any non-molestation order, restraining order, injunction, bail condition or similar order is in place against the person who would use the result, or where the person has told the police or a court they do not want contact.
- A person reads the instruction and the purpose before work starts, and the result is released to the firm.
- The full list of purposes we refuse is in section 4 of the terms.
Prices for firms
Every tier is charged only when a current registered address is delivered. Single instructions on the professional list, or a firm account from ten a month.
| Standard | £150 | Within 3 to 5 working days. £125 on a firm account. |
|---|---|---|
| Express | £225 | Within 48 hours. Worked the day it is accepted. |
| Priority | £295 | Within 24 hours. Same working day when instructed before noon. |
| No find | £0 | Nothing invoiced. You receive a short note of what was checked. |
Run by a professional investigator, built for the file.
Trace Bureau was founded and is run by a working UK investigator who has spent years locating people for solicitors, creditors, landlords and executors. Every instruction is read, worked and signed off by a person who knows what a real trail looks like, and the report is written for the person who has to rely on it: dated, rated, referenced to your matter, and priced for the work rather than the letterhead. About Trace Bureau.
Other work firms bring us
Service of proceedings
An address for service.
Read moreEnforcement and insolvency
Judgment debtors and insolvency work.
Read moreProbate and estates
Missing beneficiaries and next of kin.
Read moreThe report
What arrives on the file.
Read moreHow to instruct
Single traces and firm accounts.
Read moreCompliance
Lawful basis, data and records.
Read moreQuestions firms ask
Anything else, email [email protected] and a person replies within one working day.
Will you trace a respondent for a lay client directly?
Not where the reason is personal. Family instructions come through a solicitor, or on the direction of a court, so that the purpose and any orders are known before work starts. The result is released to the instructing firm.
What do you need from the firm?
The usual identifiers, the nature of the proceedings, and confirmation that no order prevents your client from contacting the respondent. That confirmation is part of the declaration recorded on the instruction.
Will the respondent know we asked?
No. The person traced is not told who instructed the trace. Where the purpose is a consent-based reconnection, which is not a family proceedings matter, that is different and is explained on its own page.
Can you find a child?
Not for a private individual. A child, or a person under the care or protection of the state, is traced only through a solicitor or a court, and the instruction is assessed by a person before any work starts.
How fast can it be done for an urgent application?
Priority is within 24 hours, and the same working day when instructed before noon. Express is within 48 hours.
Open a firm account
Reply within one working day. Accounts open after a short identity and purpose check.