Registering a Company Address in Romania

Yes, our Romanian lawyers can definitely help you with registering an address for your company in Romania.

We would like to inform you that there are several options to host the social headquarters of a new company opened in Romania. Here is what you should know about this topic.

Any newly formed company (SRL, SA etc.), as well as a PFA, needs a registered office that can be located in an apartment or a house owned by one of its managers, a rented space, or hosted by a law firm in Romania, like Darie, Manea and Associates.

While the first two options are well-known and widely-used, the third is relatively less popular and not everybody is aware this can even be a possibility.

Law 51/1995 for organizing and practicing the lawyer’s profession clearly stipulates that a new firm can host its HQ at a law firm, under a contract signed with the law firm that stipulates the conditions and duration of the hosting.

This is only available for SRL and SA type companies and is not possible in the case of authorized physical individuals (PFA), natural persons authorized to conduct commercial activity. Although the hosted company may not conduct economic activities at its HQ hosted by the law firm, it will receive here all its correspondence from authorities (letters from public bodies, ANAF etc), clients or any other type of documents sent to it.

Each of these options comes with its particularities and drawbacks and our lawyers in Romania list them below:

The HQ is located in a space owned by a company manager or owner

In this case, if no activity is carried out at the registered office, the approval for changing the use of a residential building required by Law no. 196/2018 on owners’ associations is not needed: the director (or directors) simply declares on their own responsibility that no activity is carried out at the registered office. The approval is still required if activity will be carried out at that address.

Our Romanian lawyers can provide more details.

Where this approval is needed (activity carried out at the address), obtaining it can take time and delay the incorporation of the new firm.

Hosting the HQ at a rented location

Be it a commercial space or an office in an office building, this option of hosting your Romanian company’s headquarters removes the hurdle represented by the acceptance of the association and direct neighbors, but the new firm will have to produce documents proving that the space really has the status of commercial or office area.

It must also produce proof that it rented the space, such as a rental contract, as well as the documents proving the owner’s right of ownership over the respective space: sale-purchase contract, inheritance certificate etc. The specialists at our Romanian law firm can give you a complete list on the documents that are required in this case.

In the first two situations, there is also the possibility that other companies have their social HQ at the same location. Since July 2020 the law no longer requires a notarised statement on the division of the premises between the companies (Law no. 102/2020, which amended art. 17 of Law no. 31/1990).

Hosting the HQ at a law firm

This option, although the easiest in its process, has to be seen as only a temporary solution (the law allows it for a temporary establishment of the registered office (Law 51/1995, art. 3 (1) h)) ); also, the company cannot declare activity at its HQ. If you wish to explore this option, our Romanian lawyers can give you more details.

The main plus of the option is a significant shortening of the time necessary for incorporating a new company in Romania.

Another benefit is financial, as law firms charge significantly lower rents than office buildings. Those who opt for this variant will submit at the Registry of Commerce a legal assistance contract and a decision issued by the Bar Association to which the respective lawyer belongs.

Do you need assistance in hosting your social headquarters in Romania? Feel free to contact our lawyers in Romania for a free consultation.