To reduce bureaucracy, a few years ago, the state allowed companies to register their legal address without the written consent of the property owner. As a result, the owner of one apartment in Riga has been trying for several months to get rid of eight companies registered there without his consent, while his apartment remains on the list of risky addresses.
The Ombudsman’s office began an investigation this week to determine whether current regulations are proportionate to potential infringements on an individual's property rights and privacy, reports the Latvian Television program "De facto".
Since 2017, entrepreneur and IT specialist Karlis Blumentals has been renting his apartment in Riga to the same person. The tenant, a British citizen, gave the impression of being a wealthy businessman. He was punctual, paid on time, and kept the apartment in order. Therefore, in 2017, Karlis allowed the tenant to register a company at the apartment. A few years later, the company was liquidated. There were no other approvals. The rental agreement included a prohibition on registering businesses in the apartment. Thus, last summer, Karlis was surprised when the police approached him, asking him to explain whether any company was indeed operating in his apartment.
It turned out that there were eight such companies. Almost all of the external businesses were "registered" at Blumentals' apartment last year. The State Revenue Service noticed signs of fictitious business activities in their operations. For example, a company owned by Finns, "Greta Carbon," declared the production of solid fuel from plant biomass at this - the only specified - address, which is impossible to carry out in an apartment. Similarly, three wholesale food trading companies ("Maurilat," Velmark Global, Harmonique), owned by citizens of Mauritius, India, and Myanmar respectively, also operated there. The remaining companies are owned by foreigners. All of them submitted confirmations to the Register of Enterprises that they have the right to be located at this address.
According to "Lursoft," there are at least 30 addresses across Latvia, each with more than 50 registered companies.
