site.btaOmbudsman Calls for Legislative Changes Because of Companies Registered at Addresses without Owners' Knowledge

Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva urged National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov and Justice Minister Atanas Slavov to initiate legislative changes related to company registrations, the public defender's press office said on Monday. Kovacheva said that citizens seek her assistance because companies or sole traders have been registered at their real estate address without their knowledge or consent.

Prof. Kovacheva stressed that this practice causes a lot of problems and inconveniences for the people affected. They receive summonses, debt collection notices and voluntary compliance notices, and are bothered by control bodies, debt collection companies, citizens who are victims of the companies, etc.

The ombudsman gave as an example the case of a citizen who complained that an individual and a company had been registered at her home address and that they were involved in a murder case in Sofia in early January 2024. The citizen alerted the authorities that she had found out that more than 80 companies were registered at her address.

The legislator has not set specific requirements for the companies' headquarters (no deed of ownership or lease agreement is required), which allows them to state an arbitrarily chosen address or even a non-existent one, which is entered in the Commercial Register, Kovacheva said. She added that although there is a possibility of filing a lawsuit to establish the nullity or inadmissibility of the registration, this is not an effective solution to the problem.