Checking the counterparty in the Trade Register (Handelsregister) promotes peace of mind and confidence before concluding a transaction. However, public access to registry data is often creates problems. In particular, the business address of an entrepreneur can match his home address, that is, scammers and ill-wishers can easily find out where the businessman lives through the registry.
Information in the Commercial Register
Like us wrote, each business entity in the Netherlands (sole trader, partnership or company) must have a registered address of the location - bezoekadres. By default, this address is public and therefore visible in the KVK Commercial Register (Kamer van Koophandel).
- whether there is even a company with which you are going to do business,
- where is she,
- what types of activities does
- is not in a state of bankruptcy,
- who are authorized persons in it (in particular, with the right to make a decision on concluding a transaction).
The registry is accessed millions of times a year by searching by company name or unique KVK number.
Home addresses (woonadressen) in the Commercial Register are not publicly available. However, many entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have an office at home, i.e. their bezoekadres = woonadres. First of all, this applies to individual entrepreneurs (eenmanszaken).
How to block access to business address data in the Commercial Register?
How business address information is closed if it is the same as a home address depends on the legal form of the business (more on forms of doing business in the Netherlands here).
- Individual entrepreneurs (eenmanszaaken) can register a separate postal address (postadres), which will remain public and ensure that the business can be contacted at any time.
- Representatives of other organizational and legal forms of business can prove the existence of a specific or probable threat. Anyone who is authorized to act on behalf of a company may request that a business address be closed in the Commercial Register if it is identical to a private address. This protection is available for all legal forms of enterprises except BV (beslotenvennootschap) and NV (naamlozevennootschap).
What are the negative consequences of closing a business address?
If bezoekadres is closed, then it will not appear in the extract from the Commercial Register. Even the owner of the business himself will not be able to order the extraction with the indication of his address. And this can lead to a number of difficulties, in particular, with opening a bank account and obtaining insurance. The real economic presence (substantie) will have to be proved in some other way, for example, by providing a bank or insurance company with a lease agreement for premises. And the only way out of the situation that KVK can offer is to make the address publicly available again.
How else can you protect your address?
Even if you decide to block public access to your address in the Commercial Register, this may not be enough to completely hide it, especially if the address has been publicly available on the Internet for a long time.
What exactly can you do?
- close your address in the Baseregistratie Personen (BRP) - you can do this in your municipality;
- check that the address is not on your company's website, in social networks and in business directories;
- make sure the address is not traceable through other public registries and professional organizations.
consult you on this matter.
