How to Get a Registered Office Address in Romania in 2026
A Romanian company cannot be registered without a registered office. The requirement is absolute, it applies from the first filing, and it is the point at which a significant proportion of incorporation files are returned for correction. Founders based outside Romania frequently discover it late, and the remedies adopted under time pressure tend to be the wrong ones: agreements sourced online that do not meet the format the Trade Register expects, landlord consents obtained at cost where none was required, or addresses that the registry declines outright.
This guide sets out what Romanian law actually requires of a registered office, which documents apply in which circumstances, how the four available arrangements compare, and where the process goes wrong. It is written for founders who intend to register a Romanian company without establishing physical premises in the country.
1. What Is a Registered Office — and Why Should You Care?
The registered office, sediu social in Romanian, is the official legal address of a company. It is not an operational premises, a warehouse or a desk in a shared workspace. It is the address to which the Romanian state directs all official communication: assessments and notices from ANAF, court summons, correspondence from banking institutions, and notifications from the National Trade Register Office.
The address appears on the Registration Certificate, alongside the unique identification code (CUI). It appears on every invoice the company issues, in every contract it concludes, and in every public filing made with the Trade Register. It is a matter of public record, accessible to counterparties, competitors and tax authorities alike.
Every company registered in Romania must have one. The Trade Register will not accept an incorporation application without it. The requirement applies without distinction to Romanian-owned and foreign-owned entities, to the SRL and the joint stock company, to single-member vehicles and to subsidiaries of multinational groups.
One point is consistently misstated elsewhere, and it is the point that matters most to founders who do not intend to lease premises in Romania. The registered office need not be a place where the company carries on business. It is a legal address, not an operational one. Where no person works at the address, no client attends and no goods are held, the documentary requirements become substantially lighter: a single instrument, with no landlord consent, no approval from neighbouring occupants and no authorisation from the building's owners' association.
That distinction, between activity at the address and the absence of it, governs everything that follows: the documents to be filed, the cost of the arrangement and the speed at which the registration proceeds.
The registered office is the address at which the Romanian state serves official correspondence. Where a notice sent to that address is not acted upon, the consequences fall on the company, irrespective of whether its officers were aware that the notice had been sent.
Mail monitoring is accordingly not an ancillary convenience. It is a core function of any registered office arrangement.
2. What the Law Actually Requires
Romanian company law, principally Law No. 31/1990 on companies as subsequently amended, most recently by Law No. 239/2025, requires every company to maintain a registered office in Romania. The legislation does not prescribe the character of the property. A residential apartment, commercial premises, a serviced workspace or a professional address arrangement are each capable of satisfying the requirement. What is required is that the company hold a documented legal right to use the address, evidenced in a form the Trade Register accepts.
The requirements divide along a single line: whether business activity will be carried on at the address.
Where no activity is carried on at the address, which is the position of most foreign-owned SRLs using a professional registered office, a single instrument suffices. That instrument confers on the company the legal right to use the address as its seat. It does not require the written consent of the owner. It does not require approval from the owners' association of the building. The Trade Register accepts it on its own.
Where activity is carried on at the address, the position is materially different. If employees are to work there, if clients are to attend, or if the company is to operate from the premises in any tangible sense, further documentation is required: a lease or title deed, the written consent of the owner (acordul proprietarului) to the company operating from the premises, and, where the property forms part of a residential building, the consent of the owners' association. The documentary burden is heavier, the process longer, and the prospect of queries from the registry correspondingly greater.
Founders based abroad fall predominantly into the first category. They require a compliant legal address in Romania rather than physical premises, and this guide is written on that assumption.
A number of published guides, and occasionally professional advisers, state that landlord consent is required for every registered office. That is not the position. Consent is required only where business activity is carried on at the address. Filing documents that the file does not call for confers no advantage and may invite further scrutiny from the reviewing clerk.
3. Documents You Need — Scenario by Scenario
The documents required depend on whether the company is being incorporated or already exists, and on whether activity will be carried on at the premises.
A new company, with no activity at the address. The registered office instrument is prepared as part of the incorporation file, concurrently with the constitutional documents. It runs to two or three pages and is drafted to the format the Trade Register requires. It is lodged together with the remainder of the file. No further address documentation is called for.
A new company, with activity at the address. In addition to the constitutional documents, the file must contain the lease for the premises, the written consent of the owner to the company's use of the address, and, where the property forms part of a residential building, the consent of the owners' association or a declaration that the activity will not disturb other occupants. Each must conform to the format the registry expects; departures, including minor ones, commonly result in the file being returned for correction.
An existing company changing its registered office. The file comprises a shareholders' resolution approving the change, a new registered office instrument for the incoming address, an updated version of the constitutional documents reflecting it, and the prescribed registry forms. ANAF is notified through the Trade Register's integrated system. Processing takes three to five business days.
4. Your Four Options, Compared
Founders establishing a company in Romania choose in practice between four arrangements. Each carries a different balance of cost, legal coverage and residual administrative burden.
The final column merits a word of explanation. Where the registered office is held through a law firm, correspondence addressed to the company is received by a person who is professionally qualified to assess it and who is bound by professional secrecy in respect of it. An ANAF notice is not simply scanned and forwarded; it is read against a deadline. That is the substantive difference between the arrangements, and it is the reason the cost differs.
5. How the Process Works for New Companies
Where a company is being incorporated, the registered office is arranged within the incorporation itself rather than as a separate exercise. It is one of the seven steps described in our guide to incorporating a Romanian company, and it does not extend the timetable.
Engagement
The firm confirms availability of the address, advises on the arrangement appropriate to the intended activity, and issues an engagement letter recording the scope and the fee. Documents are executed electronically. It is possible to form a Romanian company remotely, without attendance in Romania at this stage.
Preparation of the file
The registered office instrument is drafted alongside the constitutional documents as a single coordinated exercise, in the form the registry requires. The address is recorded in the constitutional documents themselves, so the two must be prepared consistently and at the same time.
Lodging with the Trade Register
The complete file, including the registered office instrument, is lodged with ONRC. Processing ordinarily takes three to five business days. On issue of the Registration Certificate, the address becomes the company's registered office as a matter of public record.
The arrangement takes effect
Monitoring of correspondence begins on registration, with no interval between incorporation and coverage of the address. Correspondence calling for action, whether an assessment from ANAF, a registry deadline or a change in the applicable law, is raised with the client rather than merely forwarded.
6. Changing the Registered Office of an Existing Company
Where a company already exists and the address must change, whether because the existing arrangement is expiring, because the company is moving between providers, or because it is moving from a personal address to a professional one, the exercise comprises four elements.
A shareholders' resolution approving the change. A registered office instrument for the incoming address. An updated version of the constitutional documents recording it. Lodgement of the complete file with the Trade Register. Processing takes three to five business days. The company's unique identification code and trade register number are unaffected, and the Registration Certificate is reissued showing the new address.
ANAF is notified through the Trade Register's integrated data system. It remains prudent to verify independently that the fiscal vector, which determines where the authority directs correspondence, has been updated. The synchronisation is generally reliable, but the check takes a few minutes and removes the risk entirely.
Where a share capital increase or a CAEN Rev. 3 reclassification is also required, these can be dealt with in the same filing. Combining them avoids a second round of registry fees and a second resolution.
7. Registered Office vs. Working Point — The Distinction That Matters
This is among the more frequently confused distinctions in Romanian company law, and the confusion produces compliance failures that are entirely avoidable.
The registered office is the company's official legal address. It is where the state serves correspondence, it appears on the Registration Certificate, and every company has exactly one. It need not be a place at which activity is carried on.
A working point (punct de lucru) is a secondary location at which the company does in fact carry on activity: premises where staff work, a warehouse holding stock, a retail unit serving customers, a site on which works are executed. A company may have none or many. Each must be registered with ANAF within 30 days of activity commencing there, and each may require a lease, the consent of the owner and, in residential buildings, the approval of the owners' association.
The error arises where founders assume that registering the company at an address entitles them to operate from it. It does not. A company whose registered office is in Bucharest but whose team works from an apartment in Cluj has a working point in Cluj, and that working point requires separate registration.
If you run a fully remote business — no physical office in Romania, no warehouse, no Romanian employees on-site — you need a registered office but you do not need a working point. This is the situation for most foreign-owned digital businesses using Romania as an EU base. One address is sufficient.
8. Cost Breakdown — 2026 Market Pricing
The cost depends on the type of provider and the depth of the service. The following reflects market pricing in Bucharest in 2026.
Address providers charge from approximately €160 per year for an address alone, rising to around €600 per year where scanning, forwarding and call handling are included. No legal service is provided. Quality varies: some providers are long established and their instruments pass without query, while others use forms that do not meet the registry's expectations, which delays filings.
Serviced workspace operators in Bucharest typically charge between RON 179 and RON 470 per month for an address package, equating to roughly €430 to €1,200 per year. The address and mail handling are included; legal support is not. Billing is monthly, which raises the aggregate cost and adds administrative overhead.
Leasing premises solely to hold a registered office costs from €200 to €800 per month and upwards depending on location and size. It is economically rational only where the space is also required for staff, meetings or operations.
Arrangements held through a law firm are ordinarily priced as a fixed annual fee covering the address, the instrument, monitoring of correspondence and a defined scope of advice. Our own fees, and what each level of engagement covers, are set out on our registered office page. Government fees are separate and are passed through at cost.
9. Five Mistakes That Delay Registrations
Obtaining consent that is not required. Landlord consent and owners' association approval are called for only where activity is carried on at the address. Where they are not required, obtaining them costs money and time and adds documents that invite scrutiny.
Using an instrument that does not meet the registry's format. The substance may be unobjectionable while the form is not. Files are returned for this reason more often than for any other, and each return costs several days.
Registering at a residential address without considering the consequences. It is lawful, but the address becomes public, it appears on every invoice, and changing it later requires a resolution, an amendment to the constitutional documents and a registry filing.
Allowing the arrangement to lapse. Where the term expires and is not renewed, the company is left without a valid registered office. ANAF may in consequence classify the company as fiscally inactive, which prevents it from issuing invoices. Recovery requires a further filing and takes considerably longer than renewal would have.
Treating the address as a place of business. Conducting activity at an address arranged on the footing that none would be carried on places the company in breach of the terms on which the address was granted and, potentially, of the declaration lodged with the registry.
10. What Changed in 2026 (Law 239/2025)
Law No. 239/2025, in force from 18 December 2025, made several changes to Romanian company law which bear on the registered office indirectly, although none alters the rules governing the office itself.
A Romanian bank account is now mandatory. Every legal entity must open and maintain at least one account with a Romanian bank or with the treasury. Newly incorporated companies must do so within 60 business days of registration. Non-compliance carries fines of RON 3,000 to RON 10,000 and exposes the company to classification as fiscally inactive, a status which prevents it from invoicing or trading. Banks require evidence of the registered office as part of account opening, and documentation that departs from the expected form delays the process.
Minimum share capital has been reinstated. The minimum for a newly incorporated SRL is RON 500, approximately €100. Companies whose net turnover exceeds RON 400,000 must increase capital to RON 5,000 by the end of the following financial year, and existing companies above the threshold have until 18 December 2027. The mechanics are set out in our note on the RON 5,000 share capital requirement.
CAEN Rev. 3 reclassification. Companies incorporated before 1 January 2026 must reclassify their activity codes by 25 September 2026. This requires an amendment to the constitutional documents and a registry filing of the same character as a change of registered office, so the two are conveniently dealt with together. Our CAEN Rev. 2 to Rev. 3 converter shows how existing codes map to the new classification.
Transfers of controlling stakes. A transfer of a controlling interest in an SRL now requires notification to ANAF within 15 days and, where the company has outstanding tax liabilities, evidence of guarantees covering them. The Trade Register will not register the transfer without fiscal clearance.
11. Pre-Registration Checklist
12. Frequently Asked Questions
We advise founders and corporate groups established outside Romania on the establishment and continuing administration of Romanian entities, and we hold the registered office for a number of the companies we incorporate.
Our company formation service and our registered office in Bucharest each set out the scope of the engagement and the fee. Enquiries may be directed to the firm through our contact page.
