Options for a Company’s Change of Address

There are currently three options in which a company can change its address:

1. Change of address within the same city, town, or village;
2. Change of address and location from one region to another region or moving within the limits of the same region but to another city;
3. Change of address or location to a shareholder’s apartment holding a share of at least 50% of the capital (for LLC’s) or the company CEO's apartment.

Depending on the option and whether the company's old address is indicated in the current edition of its articles of association, amendments are to be entered into the company's articles of association and the state register or only into the unified state register.

Our company's lawyers have extensive experience and will be happy to provide comprehensive support for choosing the optimal method of changing your company’s address.

Important note!

Current law differentiates between the concepts of a “company address” and “a company's location”. Today, the articles of association of all commercial and non-commercial organizations state a “location”, which is indicated before the city, town, or other population center. For instance, “City of Moscow” or “Moscow Oblast, Urban District of Khimki”. However, it's not required to add the street address and office or other facility indications. Despite this, if the articles of association is old and the full address is indicated in it, or, if the company moves to another city, then in addition to the change of address, amendments will have to be made to its articles of association as well.

Now let’s look at all the options for changing a company address in detail.

Option 1: changing an address within the same city, town, or village.

If a company address is changed within the same city, town, or village, the changes will only need to be made to the unified state register of legal entities. In this case, you will be required to make amendments to the articles of association in the case that the old address is indicated in it. In the case that “City of Moscow”, for example, is indicated in it, amendments are only to be entered at the unified state register of legal entities.

The participants/founders/shareholders make the decision regarding the address and, if necessary, approve a new edition of the articles of association. In this case, the CEO will be in charge of submitting the documents to the registering tax office.

The director has different options as to how to submit the documents and can choose the one that works best for him:

1. File the documents at the registering office in person after having the P13014 form notarized in advance;
2. Use the services of the Municipal Public Services Center and file the documents through that portal;
3. File the documents via a representative for whom you've had a power of attorney issued after having the P13014 form notarized in advance;
4. File the documents using the digital signature of a notary after having the P13014 form notarized in advance;
5. File the documents with the help of the company's digital signature.

The change of address will be registered six business days after the documents are submitted.

Option 2: change of address and location from one region to another or a move within the same region but to another city.

If the company needs to change the region of its location, for instance suppose it's moving from Irkutsk to Khabarovsk or for instance, from one city in the Moscow Oblast to another, the procedure will take place in the following format:

The participants/founders/shareholders make a decision on the company’s change of location from one region or city to another as well as its change of address and adopt a new edition of the articles of association. After this decision is made, the decision and a P13014 form are to be submitted to the registering authority in which the registering authority shall be notified of the adopted decision to change the location. Six business days after the documents are submitted to the unified state register of legal entities, the note “decision adopted to change location” will be added to the system.

After the note is added, by law, the company must subsequently wait 20 days and then submit

the documents regarding the location and registration of the new edition of the articles of association to the registering authority with jurisdiction in the new location.

Important note!

It often happens that the company starts running into issues at this stage, since the tax offices deem moving from one region to another as grounds to appoint an investigation. The executive may be called to the tax office to which the new location is subject. During the course of the “chat”, the tax office employees will ask a great variety of questions regarding the reasons for this “migration” and the company's operations. At the end of it, either a positive or a negative decision regarding the change of location will be made.

Like in the case of Option 1, the director has different options in terms of ways to submit the documents and can choose the most suitable method for him.

It’s important that the company's move from one region to another is accommodated by lawyers with extensive experience in this specific area, rather than a lawyer with delusions that they think they know what they’re doing. 

Option 3: change of address or location to the apartment of a shareholder with a capital share of at least 50% (for an LLC) or the company CEO.

A company address or location can only be changed to the company CEO's registration address or that of a shareholder in possession of at least 50% of the reserve capital. To make this change, it is necessary for the shareholder’s or CEO’s passport to contain a registration stamp for that particular address. It’s also preferable to obtain the consent of all of the apartment owners and establish that they are not opposed to the company being located at their apartment.

In all other respects, the process of changing the company address is analogous to the process of changing an address in a rental agreement. However, if the location of the company is also planned to be moved to another region or city, in that case the company will also be exempt from compulsory notification of adoption of a decision to change the address and wait 20 days. In that case, one can submit the documents to the registering authority right away to which the new address is subject.

As a whole, the address change procedure is quite a complex process with a multitude of clear and not-so-clear aspects to it, so it’s important to entrust the handling of it to professionals. Our company's lawyers have extensive experience and will be happy to provide comprehensive support in choosing the optimal change method for your company’s address.

Our lawyers will help you get to the bottom of all the aforementioned issues and consult you, accommodate you, and resolve the messiest situations related to changing a company address.