What is Legal Address of a Company & How to Get it in the UAE

A company’s address is evidence of a company’s legitimacy. In future when dealing with clients you can be sure that’s the following questions will come up: “Where is your office located? Where is your company registered? What is your corporate address?”. So, you may think: “OK, now where do I get this address from? Where should my company be? What should I answer to all those people? At what point in time during the company registration process do I need to obtain a company’s address?” We are here to provide you answers to all the doubts you may have.

When registering your company, you will have to choose between having a real physical office or a flexi-desk. Flexi-desk is sometimes called a smart desk or, mistakenly, a virtual office. Why mistakenly? Because flexi-desk is a real working space, a desk and a chair in the business centre of registration authority for use up to 15 hours a month.

If you have a physical office, its address automatically becomes your company’s address and it will be mentioned on the company’s license. In case of a flexi-desk, your address will be the address of registration authority’s business centre where all flexi-desk facilities of that respective free zone are based. Of course, the flexi-desk address will not be unique, as it would be, if you had a physical office. Most of the time for companies registered with flexi-desk there is only building name, name of the free zone and the emirate mentioned on the license. Sometimes all companies with flexi-desk facilities from the same free zone have similar address. This should not bother you, as talking from experience: it is highly unlikely that anyone will question your address, once it is on your license. Your license will not state that you are renting a flexi-desk; it will merely list the address.

One of the most frequently asked questions is whether a company may rent two or more properties in its name. We are happy to share the right answers with you right here.

But first let’s have a look at a couple of examples. Imagine you are renting a physical office in a high rise building. Your company grows very fast and now you need to hire additional staff and accommodate all your employees. You start looking for additional office space and you find out that the unit next to you is vacant and is available for rent. In this case you would be allowed to take the property.

However, sometimes it happens that you rent a whole floor, as a big company, and now you need additional space, which can be taken on a different floor only, as the floor you currently occupy is fully leased by your own company. In such case, additional property on the next floor can be also allowed. In this specific case, you would need to justify to the relevant authority, why additional commercial space on a different floor would be needed. If justification is considered acceptable, you will be given a permission to rent additional offices by your company. However, sometimes investors wish to rent additional offices in buildings next to each other or even in buildings located in two different parts of the town. Here you shall bear in mind that one and the same company is not allowed to rent commercial property for use in different parts of the town and even in different buildings. To do this, you will need to establish two different companies that will rent two different offices.

Another frequent query is whether 2 or more addresses can be mentioned on the company’s license. The answer is no. Often company can have several office numbers mentioned on the license but these should be offices in the same building and on the same floor or in exceptional cases on different floors. But two completely different addressed are generally not possible.

If you have initially rented a flexi-desk and now you expand and would like to rent an office, you will need to apply for change of company’s address. We will describe the process in detail in the latter chapters. So listen carefully all next modules.
The issue of office address is closely linked to the receipt of various correspondence from your partners, clients, and official authorities. So, let’s discuss how everything can be arranged conveniently.

First of all, you might be living in the emirate different from the emirate, where your company is registered. As such, you may want to use your company’s address for your personal correspondences too. This you would be able to do.

Then you may want to ask, if the correspondence can come to a different address than that stated on your company’s license? The answer is yes, BUT: the official correspondence will be coming to the official office address mentioned on the company’s license anyway. Let me clarify: your bank or any other government authorities will not ask you to state your office address in application forms. Instead, they will mention the same address, that you will have listed on your license. Correspondence from clients, partners and other sources can be sent to an address different from the one mentioned on the license. In order to do that you can partner with some business centre in the emirate you wish to receive correspondences in and use their P.O. Box and secretarial services to receive such correspondence. Interestingly enough, some free zones also offer such services for an extra charge. So, it's up to you to choose which option suits you best.

The topic of P.O. Boxes we will cover in the chapter that is yet to come. Generally, you need to know, that there are no zip codes in the UAE and all post is sent to P.O. Boxes instead. Therefore, all companies usually arrange for their own P.O. Boxes or if you have registered a company with a fexi-desk, free zone will assign you a common P.O. Box number that is often mentioned on your license or in your flexi-desk agreement. In the latter case, free zone will receive your correspondence and will notify you accordingly. Once notified, you will be able to collect mail directly from the business center of the free zone, where your company is registered. Some free zones even offer a delivering correspondence to a more convenient address for you.

If you want to know more about Dubai freezone company formation, feel free to get in touch with our professional consultant team and we would be delighted to assist you and help you to compare Dubai freezone company setup costs and help you to find that free zone, which would suit your business needs the most.

Disclaimer: Business Boutique UAE-Consultants.com is not affiliated with any particular government or legal entity. Business Boutique does not give professional legal advice nor any other professional advice subject to a public office in the government. This article merely sets out a simple and basic idea as to the reasons of Dubai freezone company setup and Dubai free zone company formation cost. Business Boutique in no way holds nor imposes any official governmental or legal authority and the article herein is only to be taken as a guide. All further governmental or legal issues should be addressed to the corresponding authorities.

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