Amendments to the Ordinance Regulate the Registration of a Business Address

Amendments to the Ordinance on Amendments and Supplements to Ordinance No. RD-02-20-9 of 2012 on the Functioning of the Unified Civil Registration System determine the conditions, obligations of the competent authorities and the documents on the basis of which address registration at a business address is carried out. The draft document has been published for public discussion on the Portal for Public Consultations and on the website of MRDPW, the department announced. Its purpose is to bring the ordinance into line with the amendments to the Civil Registration Act (CRA), which introduce a "business address" and the possibility for persons to be registered at such an address in cases specified in the law.

The amendments regulate the conditions and obligations of the members of a commission, which, according to Art. 92, para. 8 of the Civil Registration Act, must establish the circumstances for carrying out address registration of persons who cannot present a document of ownership or documents for the use of a given property for residential purposes, including a contract for the use of a social or integrated health and social service for residential care, or other documents proving the ownership or use of a property.

The proposed changes also determine the circumstances that are the subject of the inspection. For this purpose, in Chapter Five “Establishment and Maintenance of a National Classifier of Current and Permanent Addresses in the Republic of Bulgaria” in the regulation, a new Section IV “Obligations of the Commission under Art. 92, Para. 8 of the Civil Registration Act” has been created. The draft document determines that the commission is appointed by the mayor of the relevant municipality, and its chairman is an employee of the municipal administration. It must verify the circumstances for carrying out address registration within 7 days of its appointment. Representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Social Assistance Agency and the municipal administration are required to visit the address in order to clarify the circumstances. The Commission will have to prepare an opinion on the request for address registration, which it will submit to the authority under Art. 92, para. 1 of the LGR, i.e. the mayor of the municipality, the district or the city hall or officials designated by them. Registration is carried out upon a positive opinion of the Commission by the authority under Art. 92, para. 1 of the LGR. If the person is unable to register at the address subject to verification, the Commission proposes to register at a business address.

The changes to the ordinance also provide for a change from two to ten years in the period in which information is stored by the General Directorate "GRAO" at the MRDPW for access to electronic registers at the national level.

It is envisaged that it will be mandatory to check for the presence of an already drawn up civil status act based on documents from abroad. In this way, the drawing up of more than one act will be avoided. The check will be carried out by the civil status official responsible for drawing up the civil status act.

A new deadline is also proposed for storing information in journal entries. This achieves harmonization with the deadline set in the Electronic Governance Act. For greater clarity, texts of the regulation have been refined and changes of a legal, technical and editorial nature are proposed.