Why free people-search sites rarely find a current UK address

The UK is not the US

People-search sites are an American product. In the United States a great deal of information about individuals is public record at state or county level, including in many states voter files, property transactions and court filings, and data brokers have aggregated it for decades. A site can show a plausible current address for most adults because the raw material is open.

The UK never had that raw material. The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR require a lawful basis before personal data is disclosed, public bodies do not publish home addresses as a matter of course, and the few records open to anyone say much less. Sites with a UK address in the name are usually the same model with a thin British layer: old editions of the open electoral register, telephone directory entries and company filings.

What free routes exist, and where each one stops

The open electoral register

The only version of the electoral register sold to the public is the open, or edited, register. Anyone can opt out of it when they register to vote, and a large share of electors do, so it is incomplete by design. It also records that a name was at an address when an edition was compiled, not that the person is still there.

Social networks

Useful for confirming a town, an employer or a married name, and for sending a message. Rarely useful for an address: profiles are private, out of date, or belong to a namesake.

The public companies register

If the person runs a company, the register shows a service address, often a registered office or an accountant's premises rather than a home, and it can lag behind a move by years.

Property ownership records

For a small fee you can see who owns a property. That tells you the owner and their correspondence address, not who lives there: a landlord, a company or someone who moved and kept the house will all show as owner while the occupier is someone else.

Directory listings

Telephone directories list only landlines whose holders chose to be listed, a shrinking group, and the addresses attached to old entries can be a decade out of date.

People

Mutual contacts and a letter to the last known address remain the most effective free route. Our guide to how to find someone's address in the UK works through them.

Why free results are so often stale

People move. A record shows where someone was when it was made, and free sites rarely say when that was. They also merge records for people with the same name and present the result without any measure of confidence. The site earns from advertising or from a paywall that appears just before the answer, so it shows a result whether or not it is current. A name against an address with no date and no rating is a lead, not a finding.

The cost of acting on a wrong address

• Service failures. A letter of claim or a claim form sent to an old address does not reach the defendant. The Civil Procedure Rules require reasonable steps to find the current address if you have reason to believe the last known one is out of date, and a default judgment on a claim that never arrived is liable to be set aside, with your court fee and months gone.
• Wasted enforcement. Enforcement agents or a process server sent to the wrong door cost money and produce nothing.
• Your own data problem. A letter setting out someone's debt or family business, opened by a stranger, is a disclosure of personal data that you made.
• Embarrassment or harm. Contacting a namesake, an ex-partner's new household or an estranged relative by mistake can cause real distress, and in some situations danger.

Our guide to serving documents when the address is unknown covers the court side.

How a professional trace differs

A professional trace does not rely on one record. We cross-reference more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a person checks the result. The report is dated and carries a confidence rating: Confirmed means two or more independent current sources agree, Probable means strong evidence from one current source with supporting indicators, and Possible means the best available lead, which we tell you plainly and never charge at the full fee. The address is where the person is currently registered according to the records, which in the great majority of cases is where they live. A lawful basis is recorded on every instruction under UK GDPR Article 6, and nothing is charged unless a current registered address is delivered. Read how it works and our guide to what a tracing agent is.

When it is worth paying

Pay when you are about to spend money or take a legal step on the strength of an address: a letter before claim, a County Court claim, serving documents, instructing enforcement agents, distributing an estate or chasing an unpaid invoice. Against a court fee, a process server's visit or a solicitor's hour, a Standard trace at £100 is the cheap part, and a wrong address costs far more. Firms instructing ten or more a month pay £85 per trace.

Do not pay when the reason is curiosity. A personal wish to know where someone lives is not a lawful basis for anyone to tell you, and an ICO-registered tracing service will not do it. To reconnect with a relative or friend, the route is consent-based, explained in our guide to finding a lost relative or old friend.

Checklist before you pay anyone

1. Be clear that your purpose is lawful: a debt, a claim, service, an estate, a tenancy, a commercial matter, or reconnection with consent.
2. Try the free routes once, and note what each produced.
3. Write down the person's full legal name, date of birth if you have it, and every address you know with the date it was current.
4. Expect a dated report with a confidence rating, and expect to pay only if the person is found.

When to instruct a professional trace

Instruct when the free routes have run out, the matter justifies £100, and you need an address you can act on. A Standard trace is delivered in 3 to 5 working days, Express within 48 hours for £150, and Priority within 24 hours for £195, same working day when instructed before noon. Your card is saved at instruction and charged only on a Confirmed or Probable result; a Possible result is offered at half price and the choice is yours. See what a tracing agent costs in the UK or instruct online now.