Company domiciliation in France: the 5 points a chartered accountant checks before letting you sign

Every year we take over files from clients who chose their domiciliation provider by comparing two figures: the advertised monthly price, and the prestige of the address. Those are rarely the two criteria that cause trouble later on.

Here is what we look at, for our part, before approving a domiciliation contract.

1. Does the prefectoral licence number appear on the contract?

This is the non-negotiable point, and the one most often overlooked.

Since ordonnance n° 2009-104 of 30 January 2009, any business carrying on a commercial domiciliation activity must hold a prefectoral licence (« agrément préfectoral »), issued by the prefect of the département where its premises are located (the prefect of police in Paris). The licence is valid for six years and is renewable.

This is not a decorative formality:

• Carrying on a domiciliation activity without a licence is a criminal offence, punishable by up to six months' imprisonment and a €7,500 fine.
• The licence number must appear on the domiciliation contract given to the domiciled company.
• Without that number, the proof-of-address certificate will not support registration of your business with the trade and companies register (registre du commerce et des sociétés).

What this means for you in practice: if your domiciliation provider loses its licence, or never held one, the problem is not only theirs — it is your registered office that becomes irregular, with a risk of being struck off the register and an obligation to move at short notice.

The habit to adopt: ask for the licence number before you sign, not afterwards. A serious provider displays it as a matter of course on its website and on its contracts.

2. How long is the commitment in reality — and, above all, the notice period?

The law sets a minimum term of three months for a domiciliation contract, renewable by tacit renewal. That is the legal floor, not market practice.

In practice, many providers operate with:

• commitments of 12, 24 or even 36 months in order to obtain the headline rate used in advertising;
• three-month notice periods for termination, sometimes calculated from the last invoice issued rather than from the date of the request;
• a requirement that notice be given in writing before a specific day of the month, failing which a further month is charged.

A monthly rate advertised at €7.90 or €11 usually corresponds to a long-term commitment. Measured as a total cost over the commitment period, the gap with an offer at €24 with no long-term commitment can be far smaller than it appears — and is sometimes reversed.

The habit to adopt: always work out the total cost over the commitment period, not the monthly price. And read the termination clause before the pricing clause.

3. Does the provider genuinely make premises available to you?

This is the least well-known obligation, and the one that separates a genuine domiciliation company from a mere letterbox.

The domiciliation contract must provide that the provider makes available to you premises including a room suitable for ensuring confidentiality, allowing:

• the regular meeting of the bodies responsible for managing, administering or supervising the business;
• the keeping, retention and consultation of the books, registers and documents required by law and regulation.

This is not boilerplate. In the event of a tax inspection or an audit of the accounts, the authorities may ask to consult the accounting records at the registered office. A registered office that is no more than a mail-forwarding address, with no accessible premises at all, puts the director in an uncomfortable position.

The habit to adopt: ask whether you can actually use a meeting room, on what terms and at what cost. An evasive answer is a signal.

4. What does the subscription really include — and what will you pay on top?

The advertised price almost always covers the bare minimum: the address and receipt of post. Everything else is optional, and that is where the differences widen.

The following are frequently charged as extras:

• physical forwarding of post (per item, or as a monthly package);
• handling of parcels and recorded delivery items;
• provision of a telephone line or a switchboard service;
• meeting room hire;
• set-up fees on joining and, less often, on leaving;
• a deposit, whose refund conditions are worth reading carefully.

Conversely, scanning of post is now included in the basic offer of the more serious providers. If it is billed to you as an option, that tells you something about the provider's positioning.

The price depends mainly on three factors: the prestige of the address, your legal form (sole traders under the auto-entrepreneur scheme and associations often benefit from reduced rates) and the options taken.

5. Is the domiciliation consistent with your legal structure?

This is the point on which a chartered accountant adds value that an online platform cannot.

A few situations in which the choice of address has real consequences:

• Healthcare professional in a SEL (« société d'exercice libéral », the professional practice company used by regulated professions): the address of the registered office and the place where the profession is actually practised do not follow the same logic; conflating them for convenience creates difficulties during formalities with the professional regulatory body. This is covered in detail in Épiphyse Conseil's guide to SELs.
• SCI (« société civile immobilière », the French property-holding company): the choice of the commercial court registry (« greffe ») with jurisdiction affects the time and cost of later formalities.
• A later change of address: transferring the registered office requires an amendment to the articles of association, publication of a legal announcement (« annonce légale ») and a filing with the one-stop shop (« guichet unique »). Allow around €350 in registry and publication costs, excluding professional fees. Choosing the wrong address at the outset therefore costs more than a few euros a month of difference between two providers.
• Domiciliation at the director's home: possible and free of charge, but subject to the landlord's consent or to the rules of the co-ownership, and with consequences for commercial image and for the privacy of your home address, which is public on the Kbis (the company's official registration extract).

This article is written by Épiphyse Conseil, a chartered accountancy firm specialising in advising the liberal and healthcare professions. The firm is also associated with Domisiège, a domiciliation company based in Tours — information we mention for the sake of transparency, since the points of caution set out above apply to any provider, including our own. The market rates given were recorded in August 2026 and change regularly.