How Address Alert was created to help protect homes and properties from unauthorised company registrations.
The idea for Address Alert came about unexpectedly during a conversation with a colleague. He was talking about his father’s experience of having bailiffs show up at his house to collect debts for a company he had never heard of. It turned out that a fraudster had registered a company using his home address, and this was causing a lot of stress for the family. I hadn’t come across this kind of fraud before, and it got me thinking about how often this might happen to others.
I started looking into it and discovered that Companies House doesn’t do much to verify addresses when new companies are registered. This seemed like a big loophole, so I began to explore whether there was a way to help people keep track of any companies being registered at their address without their knowledge. That’s how Address Alert started to take shape – as a way to notify people quickly if something like this was happening to them.
As I spoke to mentors and others in the industry, it became clear that this issue was more common than I initially realised. They shared their own stories or those of people they knew who had experienced similar problems. It’s not just an issue for individual homeowners – it can affect landlords, social housing providers, and anyone responsible for managing multiple properties. The potential consequences can be significant, ranging from legal hassles to financial loss and damage to reputations.
With this broader perspective, it was evident that Address Alert could provide a valuable service to a range of people and organisations, helping them stay informed and take action if their properties were being misused in this way.
Address Alert was developed by Sam Jenkins, who has a knack for creating practical solutions to everyday problems. With a background in technology and a genuine interest in helping people, Sam has worked on various projects aimed at making life a little easier for others. His approach is straightforward – find a problem, understand it, and then figure out how to solve it effectively.
Sam’s motivation for creating Address Alert was to offer a simple tool that anyone could use to protect their home or property from unauthorised company registrations. It’s one of several projects he’s developed to address gaps and challenges he’s noticed in different areas. To learn more about Sam and his other work, you can visit SamJenkins.com.
