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Who owns what

slapmonkay

Campaign Veteran
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
1,308
Location
Montana
How do you go about determining who owns a business? (Whether it's government run or otherwise?)

The easiest way is to try and locate a website and the about us section. They typically mention their founding and ownership.

If a website and about us section is not around or helpful, you can typically lookup the address location and get a tax parcel number and look up who has the deed/ownership of the property.

Might try calling and asking too?
 

amlevin

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2007
Messages
5,937
Location
North of Seattle, Washington, USA
you can typically lookup the address location and get a tax parcel number and look up who has the deed/ownership of the property.
Only works if he business owns the property. Many just lease.

That's how I do it. My county tax rolls are on line, quick and easy to use, but I would look to who paid the most recent property tax.

Same as above but often the "tax payer" is the Mortgage Company

generally, the sec. of state's for states maintain business records. Gov't corporations? Usually a given.

If it's a WA entity, the corporations search at the secretary of state's web site can be very helpful. If it turns up, be sure to click on the "View Additional Information" link.

for corporations you'll often only see their "Registered Agent" which can be in many cases the same person for a host of companies. They're merely the person that gets served when the company is sued or receives any communications from the State to the corporation.

There are more than a few Businesses that have owners that go out of their way to be anonymous. Even tracing the ownership can lead one from one "Corporation" to another, often never really leading to the actual owner. That is unless you are actually "the Government" looking for that info.
 

rapgood

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
598
Location
Stanwood, WA
Only works if he business owns the property. Many just lease.

Same as above but often the "tax payer" is the Mortgage Company

for corporations you'll often only see their "Registered Agent" which can be in many cases the same person for a host of companies. They're merely the person that gets served when the company is sued or receives any communications from the State to the corporation.

There are more than a few Businesses that have owners that go out of their way to be anonymous. Even tracing the ownership can lead one from one "Corporation" to another, often never really leading to the actual owner. That is unless you are actually "the Government" looking for that info.

Welcome to the wonderful world of "hide the ball." We attorneys get to play it every day.
 
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