Be Small Claims Wise guides › Finding someone’s address to sue them

Finding someone’s address to sue them

The online claim service needs a postal address in England or Wales for the person you are claiming against. If all you have is a phone number or a social media handle, this guide sets out the lawful steps, cheapest first, and the lines that must not be crossed.

Checked against official sources on 30 September 2026. Court fees from 13 July 2026; enforcement agent fees from 1 May 2026.

Why the address matters

A claim form must include an address at which the defendant can be served, with a full postcode, unless the court orders otherwise (CPR 6.6). For an individual that is their usual or last known residence; for someone sued in a business name it can also be their principal or last known place of business (CPR 6.9). Online Civil Money Claims (the gov.uk ‘Make a money claim’ service) and Money Claim Online both refuse a claim unless the defendant has a postal address in England or Wales. A paper claim form N1 without a full address will be issued but held by the court and not served until an address is supplied or the court dispenses with the requirement (PD 16 para 2.3).

So the address is worth a few hours of effort before you issue. It also decides where the case is heard: a disputed claim for a fixed sum against an individual is sent to the hearing centre for the area where they live.

The lawful ladder, cheapest first

1. Ask them. A message saying you need a postal address for correspondence about the debt costs nothing and, kept with its delivery receipt, is the simplest evidence of a ‘reasonable step’ if you later need one.
2. Records you already hold. Invoices, delivery addresses, bank transfer payee details, PayPal names and emails, a tenancy or booking form, an old letter.
3. Companies House (free). If the person runs or has run a limited company, the officer search shows their correspondence address and month and year of birth, together with the company’s status and registered office. A director’s residential address is not itself on the public register.
4. The open electoral register and directory sites. The open register can be bought by anyone and is what online directory sites compile. Anyone who opted out will not appear. The full register can be inspected under supervision at the local electoral registration office (often at a library): you may make handwritten notes only, and copying or photographing it, or name-searching an electronic version, is an offence.
5. HM Land Registry. If you know a property the person owns, the title register shows who owns it: £7 per document online, with a free property summary available.
6. Mutual contacts and public profile clues. Workplace, town, tagged locations and business pages the person has made public can be read; that is observation, not intrusion.
7. A tracing agent. Agents use credit reference agency data that private individuals cannot access. Most work ‘no trace, no fee’ at roughly £25 to £100 plus VAT for a desktop trace, usually within about seven days, and need the full name plus a previous address or date of birth. Some firms charge private clients a non-refundable compliance fee on top, and all will ask for the reason for the trace. See process servers and tracing agents.
8. A process server. Once you have an address, a process server can serve the claim form personally (roughly £90 to £130 plus VAT for up to three attempts with a statement of service) and, if the person is not there, provide a statement of attempted service that becomes evidence for the next step.

Tracing and process-server costs are not among the sums the court can award on the small claims track, so they come out of your pocket.

What is not allowed

The defences in s.170 include where obtaining the data was required or authorised by law or a court order, which is why a court order for information, or an application to the court about service, is the lawful route when self-help runs out.

Using information you already hold, or public information, to pursue a genuine debt is lawful. Two provisions help: the legal-proceedings exemption in Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 2 paragraph 5 disapplies several UK GDPR provisions where disclosure is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings (including prospective proceedings) or for establishing, exercising or defending legal rights; and ‘legitimate interests’ under UK GDPR article 6(1)(f), which the ICO explains with the three-part test (a legitimate purpose, necessity, and a balance against the individual’s interests), with debt recovery as its worked example. Neither turns unlawful obtaining into lawful obtaining.

Why a disclosure order against Meta is not the answer

A Norwich Pharmacal order compels a third party mixed up in wrongdoing, such as the operator of Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, to disclose information identifying a wrongdoer. It is made by the High Court, not the county court, and firms that handle them quote applicant legal costs of roughly £5,000 to £10,000 plus VAT for an uncontested application, plus the platform’s own costs, with a timescale of weeks to months. For a claim of £10,000 or less that is disproportionate. In practice a person you have dealt with by message is identifiable by name and handle; the county court’s answer is an order permitting service through the very channel you have been using, not a disclosure order.

If you have an old address

Where you have an address but have reason to believe the defendant no longer lives or carries on business there, CPR 6.9(3) requires you to take reasonable steps to find their current address. If you find it, you must serve there. If you cannot, you must consider whether there is an alternative place or method of service and, if there is, apply to the court under CPR 6.15 for permission to use it. Only if there is neither a current address nor any workable alternative may you serve at the last known address (CPR 6.9(6)).

Keep a dated log of each step (the message asking for an address, the searches run, the tracing report). It is the evidence the court will want to see, and serving at a wrong address risks the judgment being set aside later with costs.

If no address can be found

The claim can still go ahead. The route is a paper claim form N1 sent to the Civil National Business Centre, with an application (form N244, £126 without notice) for an order under CPR 6.15 permitting service by an alternative method such as WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram direct message, supported by a witness statement showing the steps you took and why the message is likely to reach the defendant. See serving by WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram for the evidence the court looks for, and evidence from messaging apps for how to preserve it. If the defendant is a company, sole trader or partnership, see suing a company, sole trader or partnership; if they are outside England and Wales, see defendant in Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad. For your own situation, ask ClaimsBot.

Sources

• Civil Procedure Rules Part 6: service of documents (rules 6.6, 6.9 and 6.15)
• Data Protection Act 2018 s.170: unlawful obtaining of personal data
• Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 2 paragraph 5: legal proceedings exemption
• ICO: legitimate interests
• House of Commons Library: the electoral register (SN01020)
• gov.uk: search for land and property information
• Companies House: find and update company information
• Online Civil Money Claims eligibility: defendant address