How to Get a Registered Office Address in Romania in 2026
Every year, hundreds of foreign founders discover — usually three days before their incorporation deadline — that they cannot register a Romanian company without a registered office address. Some scramble to sign whatever agreement they find online. Others pay for unnecessary landlord consent they don't legally need. A few end up with addresses that the Trade Register rejects outright. This guide exists so you don't become one of them.
1. What Is a Registered Office — and Why Should You Care?
The registered office — sediu social in Romanian — is the official legal address of your company. Not an office you work from. Not a warehouse. Not a co-working desk. It is the address where the Romanian state directs all official communication: tax notices from ANAF, court summons, bank correspondence, Trade Register notifications.
This address appears on your Registration Certificate, your unique identification code (CUI), every invoice your company issues, every contract you sign, and every public filing in the Trade Register. Anyone — a client, a competitor, a tax inspector — can look it up.
Every company registered in Romania must have one. The Trade Register will not accept an incorporation application without it. This requirement applies equally to Romanian-owned and foreign-owned companies, to SRLs and SAs, to one-person operations and multinational subsidiaries.
Here is the part that most guides get wrong, and the part that matters most for foreign founders who do not plan to lease physical office space in Romania: the registered office does not need to be a place where you conduct business. It is a legal address, not an operational one. If nobody works there, if no clients visit, if no goods are stored — the documentation requirements become dramatically simpler. One document. No landlord consent. No neighbours' approval. No building association permission.
This distinction — activity at the address versus no activity — determines everything that follows: which documents you file, how much you pay, and how quickly your registration goes through.
The registered office is where the Romanian state sends your official correspondence. If you miss a notice sent to this address, the legal consequences fall on your company — regardless of whether you were aware the letter was sent.
This is why mail monitoring is not a convenience feature. It is a core function of any registered office arrangement.
2. What the Law Actually Requires
Romanian company law — primarily Law No. 31/1990 on companies, as subsequently amended, most recently by Law No. 239/2025 — requires every company to have a registered office in Romania. The law does not prescribe the type of property. It can be a residential apartment, a commercial office, a co-working space, or a virtual office address. What matters is that the company has a documented legal right to use the address, in a form the Trade Register accepts.
The requirements split into two tracks, and the dividing line is simple: will business activity take place at the address?
Track A — No activity at the address. This is the situation for the vast majority of foreign-owned SRLs that use a professional registered office service. No employees work at the address. No clients visit. No goods are stored. In this case, the only document required is an agreement. This agreement grants the company the legal right to use the address as its seat. It does not require the landlord's written consent. It does not require the approval of the building's owners' association. The Trade Register accepts this single document, and we have never had a filing rejected on registered office grounds when this approach is followed correctly.
Track B — Activity takes place at the address. If employees will work there, if clients will visit, if the company will operate from the premises in any tangible way, then additional documentation is required: a lease agreement or property deed, the landlord's written consent (acordul proprietarului) for the company to operate from the premises, and — if the property is in a residential building — the consent of the owners' association. The requirements are more extensive, the process takes longer, and the risk of Trade Register queries or delays increases.
Most foreign founders fall squarely into Track A. They need a compliant legal address in Romania, not a physical office. Everything in this guide is written with that context in mind.
Many online guides — and even some Romanian accountants — tell founders they need landlord consent for every registered office. This is incorrect. Landlord consent is required only when business activity takes place at the address. Filing unnecessary documents does not help your application — in some cases, it actually triggers additional scrutiny from the Trade Register clerk reviewing your file.
3. Documents You Need — Scenario by Scenario
The specific documents depend on whether you are registering a new company or changing the address of an existing one, and whether activity will take place at the premises.
New company — no activity at the address
The registered office agreement is prepared as part of the incorporation package, at the same time as the Articles of Association. It is a single document, typically two to three pages, formatted to meet ONRC's requirements. It is submitted to the Trade Register alongside the rest of the incorporation file. No additional address-related documents are needed. No landlord consent. No association approval. One document covers the registered office.
New company — activity at the address
In addition to the incorporation documents, you will need the lease agreement for the premises, the landlord's written consent for the company to use the address, and — if the property is in a residential building — the owners' association consent or a declaration that the activity does not disturb other occupants. Each of these documents must be in the specific format that ONRC expects. Deviations — even minor ones — can result in the file being returned for correction.
Existing company — changing the registered office
A shareholders' resolution approving the address change. A new registered office agreement or lease for the new address. An updated Articles of Association reflecting the new address. The completed ONRC filing forms. ANAF is notified through the Trade Register's integrated system, though we recommend independently verifying that the fiscal vector has been updated. The Trade Register processes address changes within three to five business days.
4. Your Four Options, Compared
Foreign founders in Romania typically choose between four types of registered office arrangement. Each involves different trade-offs in cost, legal coverage, and the administrative burden that remains on your shoulders.
5. How the Process Works for New Companies
If you are incorporating a new company in Romania, the registered office is arranged as part of the incorporation process. It is not a separate step with its own timeline. Here is how it works when you engage a law firm.
Contact and Engagement
You email the firm or complete a contact form. The firm confirms availability, recommends a package based on your situation, and sends an engagement letter with the fixed fee. Everything is signed digitally. No travel to Romania required.
Documentation Prepared
The registered office agreement is prepared simultaneously with the Articles of Association and all other incorporation documents. One coordinated preparation process. The agreement is formatted exactly as ONRC requires — no adapting, no reformatting, no back-and-forth with the Trade Register clerk.
Filing with the Trade Register
The complete incorporation file — including the registered office agreement — is submitted to ONRC. Processing takes one to three business days. Once the Registration Certificate is issued, your company officially operates from the Bucharest address.
Ongoing Service Begins
Mail monitoring and notification start immediately. If your package includes monthly legal consultation and priority response, those begin from day one. There is no gap between incorporation and address coverage. If something arrives that requires action — an ANAF notice, a Trade Register deadline, a legislative change — it is flagged proactively.
6. Changing the Registered Office of an Existing Company
If your company already exists and you need to change the registered office — because your current agreement is expiring, because you are switching providers, or because you are moving from a personal address to a professional one — the process involves four filings.
First, a shareholders' resolution approving the change. Second, a new registered office agreement for the new address. Third, an updated Articles of Association reflecting the new address. Fourth, submission of the complete file to the Trade Register. Processing takes three to five business days. The company's CUI and trade register number remain unchanged. The Registration Certificate is reissued with the new address.
ANAF is notified through the Trade Register's integrated data system, but we recommend verifying independently that the fiscal vector — the record that determines where ANAF sends your correspondence — has been updated correctly. In our experience, this automatic synchronisation works reliably, but a manual check takes five minutes and eliminates the risk entirely.
At Mihai Attorneys, the complete address change process — including legal preparation, filing, and the first year of registered office service — starts at €370 plus your selected annual package fee. If you are also filing a share capital increase or a CAEN Rev. 3 reclassification at the same time, these can be bundled into a single Trade Register filing to reduce costs.
7. Registered Office vs. Working Point — The Distinction That Matters
This is one of the most frequently confused distinctions in Romanian company law. Getting it wrong creates compliance problems that are entirely preventable.
The registered office (sediu social) is your company's official legal address. It is where the state sends correspondence. It appears on your Registration Certificate. Every company has exactly one. It does not need to be a place where business activity occurs.
A working point (punct de lucru) is a secondary location where the company actually conducts business activity. An office where employees work. A warehouse where goods are stored. A shop where customers are served. A construction site where projects are executed. A company can have zero working points or dozens. Each one must be registered with ANAF within 30 days of commencing activity at the location. Working points may require a lease, landlord consent, and — in residential buildings — the owners' association approval.
The confusion arises because some founders assume that registering a company at an address automatically means they can operate from that address. It does not. If you register your company's sediu social at a professional registered office in Bucharest, but your team works from an apartment in Cluj, that apartment is a working point — and it needs to be registered separately with ANAF.
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 of a registered office in Romania depends on the type of provider and the depth of service included. Here is what the market looks like in 2026.
Law firm managed (Mihai Attorneys) — three fixed-fee annual packages. The first, at €400 per year, covers the address, the registered office agreement, mail receipt and notification, scanned copies of correspondence, document support for banking, and a 60-day renewal reminder. The second, at €700 per year, adds one hour of monthly legal consultation with our corporate team and priority response on all enquiries. The third, at €1,200 per year, adds proactive compliance alerts, two routine Trade Register operations per year, a quarterly compliance status report, and a dedicated compliance calendar for your entity. Government fees are passed through at cost with no markup. Full package details are on our registered office page.
Virtual office providers — prices range from approximately €160 per year for basic address-only services to €600 per year for packages that include mail scanning, forwarding, and phone answering. No legal support is included. The quality varies significantly between providers. Some are well-established with addresses that ONRC accepts without question. Others use agreements that do not match ONRC's expected format, which can delay your filing.
Co-working and serviced offices — These types of companies charge between 179 and 470 RON per month for virtual office packages in Bucharest, which translates to roughly €430 to €1,200 per year. These include a registered address and mail handling. No legal support. Monthly billing, not annual, which means higher total cost over time and the administrative overhead of monthly payments.
Own leased office — if you lease office space in Bucharest solely for the purpose of having a registered office, expect to pay €200 to €800 per month or more depending on location and size. This only makes economic sense if you also need the physical space for employees, meetings, or operations.
9. Five Mistakes That Delay Registrations
Based on our experience handling registered office arrangements for foreign-owned companies, these are the errors we encounter most frequently — and the ones most likely to cost you time and money.
10. What Changed in 2026 (Law 239/2025)
Law No. 239/2025, which entered into force on 18 December 2025, introduced several changes to Romanian company law that intersect with the registered office — even though none of them modify the registered office rules directly.
Mandatory Romanian bank account. All legal entities are now required to open and maintain at least one bank account or treasury account in Romania. Newly incorporated companies must open the account within 60 business days of registration. Failure to comply risks fines of RON 3,000 to RON 10,000 and potential classification as fiscally inactive by ANAF — a status that prevents the company from issuing invoices or conducting any commercial activity. Banks require proof of the registered office during the account-opening process. If your registered office documentation is non-standard or incomplete, it can delay banking. Our registered office packages include document support for banking — certified copies in the format your bank requires, at no additional cost.
Minimum share capital reinstated. The minimum share capital for newly incorporated SRLs is now RON 500, approximately €100. Companies with net turnover exceeding RON 400,000 must increase their capital to RON 5,000 by the end of the following financial year. Existing SRLs above the threshold have until 18 December 2027 to comply. If your company needs a capital increase filing, this can be bundled with a registered office change in a single Trade Register submission, saving both time and fees.
CAEN Rev. 3 reclassification. All companies incorporated before 1 January 2026 must reclassify their activity codes to the new CAEN Rev. 3 system by 25 September 2026. This requires an amendment to the Articles of Association and a Trade Register filing — the same type of filing as a registered office change. Bundling the two saves a round of paperwork and government fees. You can check how your old codes map to the new classification using our free CAEN Rev. 2 to Rev. 3 Converter.
New formalities for controlling-stake transfers. Transfers of a controlling stake in an SRL now require notification to ANAF within 15 days and, where the company has outstanding tax liabilities, evidence of guarantees covering those liabilities. The Trade Register will refuse to register a share transfer without fiscal clearance. While this does not affect the registered office directly, it is another reason why having a legal partner who monitors your company's compliance calendar — and who already knows your structure — becomes increasingly valuable as the regulatory burden grows.
11. Pre-Registration Checklist
Registered Office — Filing Checklist
12. Frequently Asked Questions
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