Article 7 of the Company Law states that the business licence shall include the information of domicile.” Having a domicile is regarded as one of the prerequisite for establishing a company in China. During the course of the establishment registration before administration for industry and commerce, the authority needs to verify the ownership certificate and the use purpose of the domicile, and sometimes, the officials will visit the premises in person to scrutinize the environment there before granting their approval for registration.
In order to get an address well and conveniently registered as the new company’s domicile, lots of investors choose to rent an office. There a three main things need to be carefully noticed when you rent the office from the landlord:
1. Pay attention to the use purpose listed in the ownership certificate of the premises.
There are two kinds of use purposes provided for each premises. One is residential purpose, and the other is commercial purpose. Only the premises for commercial use could be registered as the company’s domicile. The application accompanied by an address of a place for residential use only would be definitely rebutted. Thus, it is wise to keep an eye on the use purpose of your target office.
2. The lease agreement should be signed by the individual investor or the authorized signatory of the unit investor either in its own name or in the new company’s name.
One would probably ask the question that what if the new company fails to be established, then, who will bear the obligations or liabilities set forth in the lease agreement? Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Company Law (III) clears the problem that if a company fails to be established due to some reasons, any creditor may claim all or part of the promoters to bear joint and several liabilities for paying off the expenses and debts incurred in the establishment of the company. Of course, if the new company is finally established, it will bear the contractual obligations and liabilities by itself.
3. You need to inform the responsible person taking in charge of the property management of the target office to upload the office information and its address onto the AIC’s address information platform. Then, after completing the documented or on-site check, the AIC will make a decision on whether or not to approve the address to be registered as an office for your new company.