What to do If an unwanted business address is registered at your property?
In our recent article HERE, we discussed what to do if you find out someone has registered a permanent residence at your property. But what if you discover that a company or entrepreneur has registered their business address at your property without your knowledge or if the address should have been changed long ago?
Although the process is more complicated than canceling permanent residences, this situation can also be resolved. How? You will find out in this article.
How is it Possible to Have a Company's Address at Your Property Without Your Knowledge or Despite It Needing to Be Deleted?
When purchasing a property, you might find out later that a company or entrepreneur has registered their business address at your property's address. Although your initial reaction might be anger towards the seller for not informing you of this fact, the truth might be that even the previous owner was unaware of these "lingering" business addresses (although they should have checked this before selling their property).
The most common reason is that the seller himself bought the property with registered business addresses without knowing it. Another possibility is that the seller had previously given consent to a specific company/entrepreneur to establish their business address at the property, this consent expired, but the company/entrepreneur did not change their address (contrary to their legal obligations).
Step-by-Step Procedure: What to Do If You Discover Registered Business Addresses at Your Property?
Although solving this situation is not straightforward and can be time-consuming, it is not impossible. To initiate the removal process of the registered addresses, you will need to file a petition for rectification with the registry court in the case of business corporations (typically LLCs) and with the trade licensing office for entrepreneurs – individuals.
For all entities, it is necessary to provide proof of the termination of the legal reason for use along with the petition – for example, a lease termination notice, an agreement on the termination of the lease, fixed-term lease agreements (if the lease ended upon the expiration of the lease term), or a revocation of consent to establish the business address.
If you do not have the aforementioned documents, you will first need to revoke the consent to establish the business address. This revocation will need to be sent to the addresses of the individual entities (paradoxically, this means sending the revocation to your property's address, where the business address is registered but where the entity most likely no longer operates), then wait for the letter to return if the company/entrepreneur does not pick it up, and only then file the petition for rectification.
If you are able to immediately prove the termination of the legal reason for use, you can proceed directly to filing the petition (e.g., in a situation where you contacted the previous owner, who provided you with a terminated lease agreement, etc.).
Subsequently, the registry court or trade licensing office will request the entities to rectify the situation, i.e., (simply put) to change the business address in the commercial register and trade register. If the rectification is not made within the specified period, the court or trade licensing office should delete the address information from the relevant registers.
This procedure can similarly be applied if you had previously given consent to a company/entrepreneur to establish their business address, but it subsequently expired (whether by the expiration of the period or by your revocation), and the company/entrepreneur did not change their address.
Prevention Is Better Than Solving Consequences
To avoid these complications, I recommend conducting a thorough check of the property before purchasing it. Websites like Kurzy.cz can easily help you find out which companies are based at a specific address, preventing problems with unwanted business addresses.
How Can We Help You?
If you are dealing with this situation or are in a position where you might find yourself in this situation, we can review/create contractual documentation for you to ensure obligations and possible penalties are set in accordance with the law. Additionally, if you are already dealing with the deletion of a business address and are unsure how to proceed or need assistance with preparing the necessary documents, we will gladly help you through the entire process.