How to Go About Changing the Location of the Registered Office?

Times change and with time, the place of your business can too. However, the legal process of changing your place of business or registered office of your business if you are a company is quite confusing.

However, the process involved with changing your office of your company is a simple one. In this article, we have tried our best to simplify the process for you.

What is a registered office?

Before we dive into the process of how to change the address of the registered office, its better to look into what a registered office is. What are its aspects? What purpose does it serve? Well, here are the points neatly wrapped for your understanding.

1. It serves as the record holding location of the company:  A registered office of a company holds all the major records about the company. It’s the location that, in the eye of the Registrar of Companies is your primary place of business.
2. It’s the place where meetings are held: A registered office is the venue that holds all the business related meetings of your company from annual general body meeting to event-based meetings.  
3. It’s the location where the inspection takes place: When your company goes through auditory inspection, it’s the registered office that plays hosts to the inspectors.
4. It’s the location that determines the stamp duty: At the time of company incorporation, you’re asked to pay a stamp duty based on the capital you’ve invested in your company. The registered office also plays a role in that. Depending upon where the office is located, the stamp duty can differ.
5. It determines the court that will hold jurisdiction in your area: Your Company will have to handle a lot of legal matters. For that purpose, the location decides which court you’ll have to go through to deal with those.

Factors to consider before shifting the registered office of your business

When it comes to changing the location of the office of your business, there are factors you have to consider:

1. Do you want to shift your office to another location but within the same city/town/village?
2. Do you want to shift your office in another city but within the same state – under the jurisdiction of the same registrar?
3. Do you want to shift your office to another state where the ROC is different?

Those three factors dramatically change the process of changing the address of your business.

Shifting your office to the different part of the same city

When you want to apply for change of registered office within the same city, you have to follow the procedure given below:

1. Pass the resolution to change the address of the registered office.
2. File intimation to (Inform) the Registrar of Companies (ROC) via INC 22 form within 22 days of changing the location.

Shifting your office to another city

If you are looking for shifting your office to another city, but in the same state, the process to follow is as follows:

1. Get approval from the board of directors to shift the location of the company.
2. Hold a general body meeting to approve the relocation of the company.
3. File a special resolution in MGT 14 that will state that the board of directors have resolved to shift the location of the company.
4. Within 30 days of shifting your office, inform the Registrar of Companies of the same via the INC 22 form.
5. Start working on your letterhead and make all the necessary changes in your company documents.

Shifting your office to another state of union territory

When it comes to shifting of registered office to another state or union territory, the process is more or less similar to the previous one. However, it’s a bit more involved and requires a more hands-on approach by the business professionals.

Conclusion

Changing the registered office of your company is quite easy, but the trick is to keep the main authorities informed. If you do it on time, you’ll never have the face the wrath of the government’s penalty. But, if you are not careful, you’ll be staring down a barrel of a long list of punishments that might just destroy your business.

Author: Dushyant Sharma

Hey there, I'm Dushyant Sharma. With the extensive knowledge I've gained in past 8 years, I have been creating content on various subjects such as banking, insurance, telecom, and all the important registration and licensing processes for various companies. I'm here to help everyone with my expertise in these areas through my articles.