Transferring ownership of a shop in Saudi ArabiaSteps, fees and documents.

What moves with the shop?

• Commercial registration: through the “transfer of a sole proprietorship's registration” service, or by amending the articles if the shop is a company.
• Trade name: the seller chooses during the transfer whether it stays or changes, and it can also be assigned on its own.
• Municipal licence: transferred through Balady, for the same location.
• Employees: their contracts stay in force after the change of owner.
• Lease: settled with the landlord, who is a third party to the deal.

Transferring a sole proprietorship's registration

The service is online on the Saudi Business Center platform: the seller starts it and the buyer completes it.

Conditions

• The registration is active.
• The buyer does not already own a sole proprietorship registration.
• The buyer is not a government employee and is 18 or older.
• The trade name is not the seller's personal name.

What the seller does

1. Signs in to the Saudi Business Center with the National Single Sign-On (Nafath).
2. Chooses “Doing business”, then “Ministry of Commerce”, then “Transfer of ownership of a sole proprietorship's registration”.
3. Picks the registration, accepts the terms and says whether the trade name stays.
4. Enters the buyer's mobile, email, national address and ID copy, then submits and confirms with the verification code.

What the buyer does

1. Opens the request from the platform inbox.
2. Pledges to take over all obligations owed by the current owner, then accepts the request.
3. Updates the registration: activity, trade name, address and manager, then submits.

The fee is 500 and the stated processing time is within 72 hours. If the owner has died, attach the heirs' deed, a guardianship deed if any heir is a minor, a power of attorney from all heirs for the assignment, and a sale contract stating the registration number.

The pledge in step two means the buyer takes on the business's existing obligations. Know all of them before accepting.

The trade name

During the transfer the seller chooses whether the trade name stays or changes. The trade name can also be assigned on its own through a separate Ministry of Commerce service: 100 , within 72 hours. A family name can only be assigned to someone who carries the same family name.

If the shop is a company

A company doesn't move through the registration transfer service. Its shares are sold, then its articles are amended on the Saudi Business Center platform.

• Fees: 1500 to amend the articles, 100 to amend the registration, plus 15% VAT.
• The company's manager, or someone authorised online, submits it.
• The registration is active and not suspended, and the new partner or manager is not barred.
• Read the articles before selling: they may give the other partners first refusal on the shares.

The municipal licence

• The licence is transferred through Balady: the current owner applies and the new owner accepts, with no other approval needed.
• Both parties must be registered on Balady.
• The licence can't move to another location. If the shop moves, it is cancelled and a new one issued.
• Ownership can be transferred even if the licence has expired.

Employees

Article 18 of the Labour Law says a change in the business's owner does not end employees' contracts: they stay in force and service continues.

• Employees' dues from before the transfer, such as wages and end-of-service awards, are owed by the old and new owners jointly.
• In a sole proprietorship it can be agreed that the new owner alone takes them on, with the employee's written consent.
• An employee who doesn't agree may end the contract and collect their dues from the previous owner.

The lease

The lease is in the seller's name and the landlord is a third party. The safe path is to agree with the landlord before the deal: written consent, and a new contract or addendum in the buyer's name registered on Ejar.

Before you sign: what a buyer checks

• The obligations you pledge to take over when accepting the transfer: supplier debts, loans and fines.
• Employees' dues up to the transfer date: wages and end-of-service awards.
• The lease: time remaining, and the landlord's consent.
• The municipal licence: valid, and for the same location.
• Zakat and VAT returns settled up to the transfer date.
• Actual sales from bank statements and point-of-sale reports, not verbal figures.

How the deal works on Mumtalakat

1. Learn about the business, sign the NDA, then review its documents inside the platform.
2. Meet the seller and negotiate inside the platform.
3. Both sign the contract online.
4. The amount is held at Dhamen and released only after ownership transfers.

For business owners: Selling a grocery · Selling a laundry · Selling a salon.

Common questions