Hairdresser, car workshop, restaurant and guest house. All these places have one thing in common – they are business establishments. Are you about to start a business and don’t know if you need to set up a business establishment? Alternatively, are you unclear where you can set up an establishment and what conditions must be met? What authorities do you need to go to in order to get all the permits? All these questions can be answered in our article.
The Trade Licensing Act defines a place of business as “thepremises in which a trade is carried on.” Thus, a place of business is a specific location where business activity is conducted. For example, it may be an office, a business premises or a workshop. It is true that an entrepreneur may have several business premises and in many cases may not have any.
On the other hand, every entrepreneur must already have a registered office. This is the address where the entrepreneur (legal entity or sole trader) is registered in the commercial register or the trade register. It is therefore the address where the entrepreneur has its main administrative headquarters. The registered office is also the official correspondence address for communication with state authorities (e.g. the tax administration or the trade licensing office). Each entrepreneur has only one registered office.
The registered office can be practically any address. It can be the place of permanent residence of the entrepreneur or the place of business. The registered office can also be a virtual one – that is, an address that is provided for a fee and that numbers a number of business entities.
Place of business is an outdated name in law, which used to refer to the registered office of natural persons engaged in business (self-employed persons). Now, however, only the uniform term registered office is used. In practice, however, the term place of business is still used.
The company’s registered office must be in the Czech Republic, clearly defined and traceable, and the company must be visibly marked there. It also applies that you must prove ownership or use (landlord’s consent) of the property where the company is based.
We will guide you through the process of setting up your company and offer all the services you need for your business. Thanks to our experienced team of lawyers, you can be sure that everything will go smoothly and in the shortest possible time.
For the registered office of a self-employed person, it is then necessary to ensure the ability to communicate with the authorities and receive correspondence. If the self-employed person has a registered office at an address other than his/her permanent residence, he/she must prove ownership or use of the property (e.g. by providing an extract from the Land Registry or a lease agreement).
Are you planning to change the registered office of a self-employed person or company? Read how to proceed step by step.
Whether you need to have a formal place of business depends on the nature of your business – if you run your business in one place where you produce something or meet with clients, you must have a place of business. But if, for example, you work at clients’ homes, in different locations or even just at home on your computer without clients present, then you don’t need an official establishment.
You must have an establishment if:
You do not need to have a shop if:
The conditions that an establishment must meet also vary according to the type of establishment. There are three types of premises in total:
A permanent establishment is located in a property, such as a department store, restaurant or office.
A mobile establishment is relocatable and can be located in different places. These include market stalls, food trucks or mobile outlets.
A mobile establishment can also be a vending machinethat offers goods or services. Vending machines selling food and drink are the most commonly encountered, but vending machines selling cosmetics, cannabis products or collectible cards are also becoming more common.
Now let’s take a look at what conditions an establishment must meet:
If you are setting up an establishment, you are obliged to report this information to the Trade Licensing Office (at least three days before you start operating the establishment). You are also obliged to report if you relocate or close the establishment. If you would only be closing the business temporarily, you are obliged to post this information in an accessible and easily visible place (for example, the glass door of the shop). You must also indicate the date from and until which the premises will be closed.
You must declare the shop using the uniform registration form provided by the trade licensing office. On the form you will enter your name (or company name), identification number and registered office. You also fill in the purpose of the establishment, i.e. the object of the business, and the planned date of opening.
You should also remember to take with you a document proving your ownership or use rights to the property where you plan to open the establishment. This could be, for example, a land registry extract or a lease agreement.
On the basis of your notification, the Trade Licensing Office will issue you with an establishment identification number and enter it in the Trade Register.
Every establishment must be clearly marked. The information must be in an easily accessible place and must include:
If the establishment is used for the sale of goods or services to consumers (e.g. hairdresser, bookshop, restaurant, hotel) then this information must also be present:
Proper attention shall be paid to the correct identification of the establishment. If you mark the establishment incorrectly, you could face a fine of up to one million crowns.
Name of the company / Name of the entrepreneur
Business registration number: [Identification number]
Contact information: [Telephone number, e-mail, website]
If the establishment is used to sell goods or services to consumers, add the following information:
Responsible Person: [Name]
Hours of operation:
Monday-Friday: [opening hours]
Saturday-Sunday: [opening hours]
For accommodations, also add the following:
Category and class of accommodation: [e.g. hotel ★★★, guesthouse ★★]
In some cases, you will also need the approval of the establishment by the sanitary authority. Whether you need approval depends on the riskiness of the business and the risks your staff and customers will be exposed to. In practice, this will mainly be for grooming services and catering establishments. So let’s look at these two categories in more detail:
Body care services include hairdressing services, pedicure, manicure, solarium, beauty, massage, regeneration and recovery services, as well as any activity that compromises the integrity of the skin (e.g. tattoo parlour).
In this case, the establishment needs to be designated for this purpose by the building authority and also needs to be approved by the public health authority (hygiene). For this, certain conditions must be met:
First of all, the establishment must have operating rules. It must contain the following information:
The operating rules must be displayed in a visible place on the premises.
Only potable water may be used on the premises. If the establishment draws water from other than the public water supply (e.g. from a well), then you must provide evidence of a laboratory analysis of the water.
The establishment should be equipped with a cleaning room with a sink with hot and cold water and space to store cleaning products. Alternatively, a central cleaning room should be available within the building.
The establishment must include a place where civilian clothing can be deposited, i.e. a place where workers can change into their work clothes and store their normal clothing.
Another obligation is to have a toilet with a sink and soap available in the establishment. A washbasin with soap must be provided in each operating room.
All materials and equipment in the establishment (floors, walls, furniture, etc.) must be washable and disinfectable.
Catering establishments include establishments where food is produced, prepared or distributed. In business terms, this includes restaurants, bars, cafés, wine bars, canteens, catering companies, food delivery services, fast food outlets, etc.
A catering establishment must have a storage, service and dining area for patrons. The storage area shall have sufficient capacity to store separately raw and processed foods, packaged and unpackaged ingredients.
Protection against contamination must be ensured at all levels of food production, processing and distribution. It is essential to avoid crossing ‘unclean’ operations, where raw food is processed, dishes are washed and waste is disposed of, with ‘clean’ operations, where food is cooked and finished. This requires structural or operational separation of different areas, separate work areas and dedicated tools for different operations.
The canteen must have clearly separated areas for the dispensing of finished food and the receipt of used utensils. The dining area must also be adequately ventilated or air-conditioned.
The premises must have separate entrances for boarders and staff and separate material intake from refuse collection. The basic requirements also include a sufficient number of flush toilets and washbasins, adequate natural or mechanical ventilation, a continuous supply of running potable water, efficient waste water disposal and proper waste management.
The operator shall ensure that the consumer has visibly accessible and easily legible information on the presence of allergens in the food served. Where the establishment sells alcoholic beverages, the point of sale shall display clearly visible text informing of the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages to persons under 18 years of age.
If you plan to do business in one of the areas affected by the specific hygiene obligations, beware. Violating hygiene rules can be “rewarded” with a fine of up to three million crowns, or four million crowns in the case of damage to health or the creation or threat of an epidemic.
Labour inspections sound really scary for many employers. But it has an important place. Read on to find out what a labour inspectorate actually does, what powers it has, and how the inspection itself works.
You will need to have the premises in which you have your business premises approved if the building is for a different purpose (or if it is a new property). Typically, you may encounter this situation if you plan to run your business from your home and intend to convert part of the family home into a business premises.
What are the specifics of an establishment in an apartment or family house? Find out in the next article.
In these cases, you will have to have the premises approved or arrange for a change of use of the building. In this case, you need to find out what all your premises must meet from a building point of view and, after any building modifications, apply for a change of use permit.
This can be completed and submitted to the local building authority or processed online via a data box or the building authority portal. The application is subject to a fee of CZK 1,000, 2,000 or 5,000 depending on the type of building.
In addition, the application must be accompanied by construction documentation indicating the changes caused by the change of use compared to the certified documentation for the permitted construction according to the Construction Documentation Ordinance.
Each establishment must comply with the rules relating to occupational health and safety and fire protection. The basic obligations include in particular:
You are obliged to draw up fire alarm directives, which set out the procedures in the event of a fire, how to raise a fire alarm, evacuation and other important instructions. These guidelines must be clearly visible and accessible to all persons on the premises.
The establishment shall have adequate fire-fighting equipment, which shall be determined on the basis of the risks of the activity. Typically, this includes fire extinguishers. These must be located so that they are readily visible, freely accessible and in areas of highest fire risk. Firefighting equipment must also be maintained in working order.
You have a duty to provide clear access roads, access areas for fire fighting equipment and clear access to closures and distribution equipment. You must also provide escape routes and mark emergency exits and evacuation routes.
We will guide you through the process of setting up your company and offer all the services you need for your business. Thanks to our experienced team of lawyers, you can be sure that everything will go smoothly and in the shortest possible time.
Whether you own an electronics store, a coffee shop or a beauty salon, you will always produce some amount of waste. This waste is known as trade waste and, like all waste, it has to be disposed of somewhere.
Trade waste does not include waste from the entrepreneur’s production activities.
You can either use the municipal waste management system (but municipalities are not obliged to accept this type of waste) or contract with a private authorised person. This obligation applies even if you have an establishment in your home area and your trade waste is mixed with regular municipal waste.
In practice, small amounts of trade waste are usually not dealt with and many businesses throw trade waste in with municipal waste. However, it is good to be aware that you can be fined up to one million crowns for breaching this obligation.
A business premises is a place where an entrepreneur carries out a business activity, for example a hairdresser, restaurant or shop. An establishment is required if the business operates from one location and receives customers. On the other hand, it is not necessary, for example, for people working in the field.
The establishment must be notified to the Trade Licensing Office at least three days before the start of the business and clearly marked, including the name of the business, the registration number and, in the case of consumer establishments, the person responsible and the opening hours. A fine of up to one million crowns can be imposed for incorrect marking.
For some establishments, such as hairdressers and restaurants, approval from the hygiene authority is required. The business must have operating rules, sanitary facilities and access to drinking water. Failure to comply with the rules can lead to a fine of up to four million crowns.
If the use of the building is changed to an establishment, approval is required. The establishment must comply with fire regulations, have fire equipment and secure escape routes. The entrepreneur is also responsible for the proper disposal of trade waste, otherwise he or she faces a fine of up to CZK 1 million.
We will safely guide you through the entire process of setting up an LLC and provide all related services. We will handle everything quickly and professionally so that you can enjoy your own company as soon as possible. For a pre-determined price and throughout the country. You can pay only after the service is provided.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 10 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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