Most of the facts that decide a Montenegrin property purchase or company deal are on a public register somewhere. The difficulty is that they are spread across a dozen of them, kept by different bodies, some moved address in 2026, and a few are public only in part. This page is the directory: every register a buyer, investor or company founder normally needs, what it tells you, where it is searched, who can see it, and the law it rests on.
The addresses below were checked on 28 September 2026. Where a register is not open to the public, the table says so rather than pointing you at a search box that will not let you in.
The directory
| Register | What it tells you | Where, and who can search | Kept by / legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Register of Business Entities (company register) | Name, registration number, tax number, legal form, activity code, status; the entities a named person appears in | irms.tax.gov.me, "Pretraga registra"; free, no account; the search is behind a reCAPTCHA | Tax Administration (the register formerly run as CRPS) |
| Register of beneficial owners | Five fields: name, year of birth, nationality, country of residence, type and extent of interest | Direct electronic access with electronic identification; no legal-interest test | Tax Administration; AML Act Arts. 43 to 47 |
| Annual financial statements | The company's filed statements | Published by the Tax Administration on its website; filing due 31 March | Accounting Act (084/25) Art. 42 |
| Cadastre, portal search | Parcel, building, owner and burdens, for information only | Free portal search at ekatastar.me | Real Estate Administration (Uprava za nekretnine) |
| Cadastre, certified e-extract | A list nepokretnosti with the same legal value as one issued at the counter (since 10 July 2026) | listovi.ekatastar.me; needs a Montenegrin ID card and eID, so a foreign buyer obtains it through a lawyer or notary | Real Estate Administration; State Survey and Cadastre Act Art. 55 |
| Cadastre, pending applications | The number and time of every application, recorded immediately; priority runs from the moment of application | Shown on the extract and published | State Survey and Cadastre Act Art. 12 |
| Pledge register (movables and shares) | Registered pledges, indexed under the pledgor's name; a filing lapses after three years unless renewed | rzcg.sudovi.me; open to public inspection | Commercial Court; Pledge Act (38/02) Art. 17 |
| Court decisions and hearing schedules | Published decisions (full text, phrase search); hearings searchable by plaintiff or defendant name | sudovi.me; free | The courts |
| Bankruptcy | The opening of bankruptcy proceedings and the creditors' 30-day period | Notices section of the Official Gazette; the Commercial Court opens the proceedings | Commercial Court |
| Voluntary liquidation | Liquidation decisions as they are announced | IRMS public notice board | Tax Administration |
| Accounts under enforced collection | Debtor name, registration number, amount and number of consecutive days blocked; a daily single-debtor search | Central Bank of Montenegro website; monthly file on the first working day after month end | Central Bank; Payment Transactions Act (62/13 … 140/25) |
| Crypto-asset service providers | Name and services of each registered provider | scmn.me; one entry as at 28 September 2026 | Capital Market Commission; AML Act Art. 40a |
| Real estate brokers | Registered agencies; advertisements must carry the register number | Public electronic register; agencies must register by 13 August 2027 | Real Estate Brokerage and Lease Act (89/2025) Arts. 11 and 25; 114/2026 |
| Yacht register | Owners and pledges of registered yachts; the authority publishes the register list | Maritime Safety and Port Management Administration (UPSUL) | Yachts Act Arts. 3 and 7 |
| Trademarks | National trademark files by sign, holder or number; no class or image search | registri-is.gov.me (eRegister); check WIPO Madrid and TMview as well | Ministry of Economic Development; Law on Trademarks |
| Patents | National patent files by number, IPC class, PCT number or name; applications published after 18 months | patentniregistar.gov.me | Law on Patents Art. 44 |
| Politically exposed persons | Not public. Obliged entities see only currently active PEPs | Direct access for the financial intelligence unit, obliged entities and supervisors only | Anti-Corruption Agency; AML Act Arts. 54 and 55 |
Detailed guides for individual registers: company register · beneficial owners and AML · financial statements and audit thresholds · the title sheet · which cadastre extract counts as evidence · share pledges · crypto-asset service providers · real estate brokers · yachts · trademarks · patents · politically exposed persons.
Buying property: the checks in order
A property file is read in a sequence, because each register answers a different question and a clean answer in one does not cover the others.
- A fresh extract of the title sheet. The list nepokretnosti shows the parcel and building, the owner and the burdens on separate sheets. It is a snapshot: entries can change between the date it was issued and completion, so the one that counts is the one taken immediately before you sign. Since 10 July 2026 the e-signed extract from listovi.ekatastar.me has the same legal value as the counter extract, but its login needs a Montenegrin ID card and eID, which is why a foreign buyer's extract usually arrives through a lawyer or a notary. See what a list nepokretnosti does and does not prove.
- The burdens sheet, line by line. Mortgages, easements, disputes and restrictions are recorded there. Since the Law on the Legalisation of Illegal Buildings (Official Gazette 91/2025) an unlawful building cannot be transferred (Article 33), and the note to that effect goes on the same sheet. The legalisation clock is in our owner checklist for the 14 August 2027 deadline.
- Pending applications. Under Article 12 of the State Survey and Cadastre Act the legal effect of a registration runs from the moment the application is filed, and the application number and time are recorded immediately. An application filed by someone else yesterday can outrank the contract you sign today. How the priority gap works.
- If the seller is a company: its status in the company register, its filed financial statements, and whether its account is on the Central Bank's enforced-collection list. A long run of consecutive blocked days tells you more than the amount.
- If movables or furniture are part of the price: the pledge register, searched under the seller's name.
Buying a company or a stake: the checks in order
- The company register for status, legal form, activity code and the people in the company, and a search by person, which most Western registers do not offer publicly (how to search it).
- The beneficial owner register for who stands behind the company. The public slice is five fields, accessed with electronic identification, and a beneficial owner can ask for their public data to be restricted in the cases Article 47 lists.
- Financial statements. Their absence is itself a finding: a company that does not file for two consecutive years faces compulsory liquidation under the Companies Act.
- The enforced-collection list and the pledge register, the second of which records share pledges (how share pledges work).
- Court decisions and hearing schedules, searched by the company's name as plaintiff and as defendant.
We set out the whole file for a share purchase in buying a Montenegrin company.
What a clean search proves, and what it does not
A register search proves only what that register records. The court portal publishes decisions, not every pending case, so "no result" means "not found in the published decisions", not "no litigation". The pledge register indexes by the pledgor's name, so a search under a trading name or a misspelling can miss a filing. The cadastre extract is right on the day it is issued. We write clean results as "not found in the following public sources on this date", and so should anyone who is relying on them.
Three things that changed in 2026
- The company register moved. crps.me and its search subdomains no longer serve the register; on 28 September 2026 crps.me answered with HTTP 410 (Gone). The public search now sits on the Tax Administration's IRMS portal and needs no account.
- The certified e-extract became evidence. Since 10 July 2026 the e-signed cadastre extract has the same legal value as the counter extract.
- Beneficial ownership opened, with an eID gate. Under the AML Act in force (Official Gazette 110/23, 65/24, 24/25), other persons have direct electronic access to five fields without proving a legal interest, but only through electronic identification.
Whose side we are on, and how we are paid
Every other professional around a Montenegrin transaction is paid out of the transaction. The agent's commission depends on the sale completing. The developer's sales team belongs to the developer. The notary owes duties to the act, not to you. That is not a scandal; it is simply how those roles are funded, and it decides what each of them is able to tell you.
We take no commission from sellers, developers, agents or brokers. None, in any form, on any file. The fee you pay us is our only income from your matter, and it does not increase if you sign. That single fact is the whole difference: because our position does not move when the deal moves, "do not buy this one" costs us nothing to say.
What that looks like in the file, rather than in a slogan: we obtain the register extracts ourselves instead of accepting the copies handed over by the seller or the agent; we read the contract against your position rather than against completion; we put in writing when the answer is that the matter should not proceed; and where a defect can be cured, we tell you what it costs in time before you commit money.
One boundary we state plainly. We are lawyers, not licensed investment advisers. We do not give personal investment advice on financial instruments and we do not tell you whether an asset will make money. What we protect is your legal position: the title, the contract, the registration, the status, and the deadlines that decide all four. That is the service the fee buys, and paying for it directly is precisely what allows it to be given without regard to whether you sign.
Before you sign
Registers are read in a sequence and on a date. If you are about to sign a reservation, a purchase contract or a share transfer, send us the draft and the names of the seller and the property or company, and we will pull the extracts ourselves, in the order above, on the day that matters. Property files sit with our real estate investment practice and company files with our company formation practice.
