Understanding Legal Notices in Indonesia

For business professionals and office renters in Indonesia, there’s always a good chance of moving into a fresh space, even if the work environment remains the same. A coworking space in Jakarta is essentially like a public park or shared bus stop. People from all walks of life come and go on a regular basis. It can be challenging for the property manager to keep up with the constant influx of tenants. In a professional capacity, the property manager is responsible for a variety of tasks. While signing leases and registering tenders, one can only keep track of so much at once. Sometimes, the right information doesn’t get relayed to the right place. For the small business, the inconvenience of a stray legal notice sent to the wrong address is nothing compared to the stampede of problems that typically follows it. If your office address changes, there’s a good chance that you’ve had important documents wind up in the wrong hands in the past, hopefully without any significantly damaging effects.

The consequences can be disastrous if the document in question was a legal notice. This is what you need to know about what to do about an errant legal notice in a professional context in Indonesia or anywhere else, and how to mitigate the situation whenever possible – not just from a legal perspective, but from an operational perspective as well. The purpose of a legal notice is to inform you of your legal obligations. A legal notice may be issued by the government, your landlord, your business partner, or anywhere in between. In a legal sense, it’s an official notification of you or your company’s non-compliance with laws, bylaws, or agreements. A legal notice is seldom sent out with an immediate deadline attached, and you usually have time to research, prepare, and respond.

In Indonesia, a legal notice is typically sent to inform your company of a breach of contract. This could mean failure to pay rent, failure to deliver the product, or any other legal infraction on the parts of you, your suppliers, or your clients. Even in a government-related context, a legal notice could simply be an information request – requiring that you present certain documentation to your local government office of choice. Until the notification is resolved, you may not be able to continue doing business as usual.

While the term legal notice may seem straightforward enough, there are a number of ways that an important document could wind up in the wrong place. Some of the most common reasons for a stray document are: In a highly competitive business climate, where everyone is constantly vying for the attention of the same list of (continually shrinking) clientele, it’s crucial to prevent things like missed rent payments from happening. This is just one of the many “red flags” companies use to gauge the synergy of a potential partnership. The unfortunate truth is that this kind of mistake can be extraordinarily costly. Not only could this disruption result in penalties for missed payments, but countless clients could also be lost as a direct result.

Whether the matter is related to rent, an acquisition, or a contract, lost clients are potentially your greatest concern. When you don’t receive a legal notice in the mail, it’s probably because the company you’re renting the office space from is also housing the notices of countless other companies. Depending on the situation, they may simply be diligent about sending out the information on your behalf. But what if this isn’t the case? Unfortunately, you could wind up on the receiving end of legal repercussions. For most businesses in this position, it’s a tricky matter to sort out. Either you have to suddenly admit that you received a legal notice due to improper forwarding practices, or you did not receive the document at all, putting the responsibility in the hands of the property managers. This means that no matter how you slice it, you could be stuck with the bill – unless your legal counsel is able to negotiate otherwise.

For most companies, even one missed bill payment or legal notice could mean catastrophic consequences. Fortunately, there are certain steps you can take to ensure that you’re never left without the information you need to address a late notice. If you’ve opted to rent a space from a private property manager, try to separate yourself from the competition by: With these four options in mind, you should also be aware of the potential consequences of a missed legal notice – and how to improve your response time if the situation ever turns personal. When it comes to legal notices, there are a number of ways to streamline the process to ensure that you get the proper information when you need it.