How to find someone's address in the UK: what you can do yourself, and when to use a professional trace

Start with what you already know

Before you search anywhere, write down everything you have. A full legal name, including any previous or married names. A date of birth, or failing that an approximate age. The last address you knew them at and roughly when they were there. Phone numbers and email addresses, even old ones. An employer, a trade, a business name. A partner, parents, siblings, a close friend.

Most people who think they have nothing find they have a full name, a rough age and one old address, which is enough for a professional trace to begin.

What you can lawfully do yourself

None of these needs anyone's permission, and between them they resolve a fair share of cases.

• Ask mutual contacts. Friends, relatives, former colleagues and neighbours at the old address are how most people are found. Say who you are and why you are asking; people will pass on a message far more readily than they will hand over an address.
• Write to the last known address. Mark the envelope "please forward" and give a way to reply. If the person has their post forwarded the letter reaches them, and a new occupier may pass it on. Nobody who handles the post will tell you the new address, but the person may answer.
• Check whether they run a company. The public companies register shows whether someone is a director and gives a correspondence address. It is usually an accountant's office or the company's premises rather than a home, but a letter sent there will be received.
• Ask a solicitor. In a legal dispute a solicitor can write on your behalf and advise on the court's own powers. In family proceedings about a child, for example, the court itself can ask certain government departments for an address. These are court processes, not something a private service can do for you.
• Search the open web sensibly. A business listing or a professional profile can point to a town or an employer. It rarely points to a front door.

Why free people-search sites and social media rarely work

Free UK people-search sites recycle a small number of old, publicly available listings. Many people opted out of the lists those sites were built from, the entries that remain are often years old, and a result labelled "current" frequently shows where someone once lived. Why free people-search sites rarely find a UK address goes into the detail.

Social media has the opposite problem: plenty of the right person and almost never an address. People do not post where they live, location tags show where a photo was taken, and messaging someone you are in dispute with can alert them, get you blocked or be treated as harassment. There is no single public record of where people in the UK live. A current address emerges only by putting many records side by side and checking them, which is the work a professional trace does.

When looking for someone is lawful, and when it is not

Looking for a person is lawful when you have a genuine reason connected to your rights: money you are owed, personally or through your business; a tenancy, whether arrears, damage or a deposit; court documents to serve; an estate to administer; a commercial matter with a supplier, customer or guarantor; or any legal claim. Wanting to reconnect with a lost relative or friend is a legitimate wish but not a basis for anyone to hand over a home address, so a reputable service approaches the person for you and shares an address only if they agree.

It is not lawful, or not wise, to look for someone out of curiosity, to check on an ex-partner or someone who has cut contact where there is no legal purpose, or to confront them. Under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 a course of conduct amounting to harassment is a criminal offence, and stalking is a specific offence. A search service that asks no questions about why you want an address is a warning sign, not a convenience.

There is a data protection point too. Looking for a friend yourself, for purely personal reasons, falls outside UK GDPR. A business that finds people for a fee is a data controller and must record a lawful basis for every instruction, which is why Trace Bureau asks the purpose of every trace. Is address tracing legal? explains how that works.

What a professional trace delivers

A professional trace cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a private investigator checks and verifies the result rather than trusting a single lookup. What you receive is a dated report giving the person's current registered UK address and a confidence rating:

• Confirmed: two or more independent current sources agree on the address.
• Probable: strong evidence from one current source with supporting indicators.
• Possible: the best available lead, stated plainly rather than dressed up.

"Registered" means the address the records currently place the person at. In the great majority of cases that is where they live; occasionally someone is registered at a partner's or relative's address they do not sleep at, which is why every report carries a rating rather than a promise. Where they are on file, you can add a mobile number for £30 or an email address for £30, each charged only if found. How it works sets out the full process.

What it costs

Trace Bureau charges the same prices whoever you are, because the work is the same.

• Standard trace: £150, delivered in 3 to 5 working days.
• Priority trace: £200, within 2 to 3 working days, worked the day it is accepted.
• Organisations and professionals acting for a client: the same prices, with the matter reference on the report and a signed statement on request.
• Firms instructing ten or more a month: £120 per trace on a monthly invoice, through a firm account.

Your card is saved when you instruct and charged only when a Confirmed or Probable address is delivered. A Possible result is offered at half price and you choose whether to take it. If the person cannot be found, nothing is charged and there is nothing to refund. Full details are on the pricing page, and how much a tracing agent costs puts those figures against the wider market.

What you need to start

The minimum is the person's full legal name plus at least one of a date of birth or a previous address. Everything else you gathered at the start helps, and the more you give, the higher the confidence rating is likely to be. The service covers the United Kingdom; if the evidence shows the person has moved abroad you are told, at no charge. You will also be asked why you need the address, and that reason is recorded as the lawful basis for the trace. The FAQ answers the other questions people ask before instructing.

When to instruct a professional trace

Try the letter and the mutual contacts first if there is time. Instruct a trace when those fail, when there is a deadline such as a court date, a limitation period or a deposit dispute, or when you need an address you can rely on and evidence of how you got it. That last point matters more than people expect: a dated, rated report is what stands up if the address is later questioned. If money is owed, tracing a debtor before issuing a claim explains the sequence; if you need to serve papers, serving court documents without an address covers the rules; if you are looking for a relative or old friend, finding a lost relative or friend explains the consent-based approach. When you are ready, instruct a trace in about five minutes.