Changing domiciliation company: do not terminate first

Changing domiciliation company — or simply leaving the one you have — is an ordinary operation, and yet a poorly documented one: most of the available content is written by domiciliation companies, which readily explain how to come in and much less readily how to get out. We are one of them. Hence the stance taken in this article: leaving, seen from the client's side, including when that client is ours. Here is what the texts actually say — about the notice period, about the post, about what your former provider must declare, and about what you risk if you go about it in the wrong order.

The three months in the code de commerce are not a notice period for termination

Those three months are quoted everywhere, their source almost never. Here it is. Article R. 123-168 of the code de commerce (the French commercial code) provides: “The domiciliation agreement shall be drawn up in writing. It shall be concluded for a term of at least three months renewable by tacit renewal, save where notice of termination is given.”

Those three months are a minimum contract term, and it applies on the way in. It is neither a notice period nor a quarterly right to leave. Where this rule really bites is elsewhere: it stops you from signing a one-month transitional agreement with your new provider, just to see how things go.

As for the notice period itself: no text puts a figure on it. We have been through the eleven articles of the sub-section devoted to domiciliation — R. 123-166-1 to R. 123-166-5, R. 123-167, R. 123-168, R. 123-169, R. 123-169-1, R. 123-170 and R. 123-171 — as well as articles L. 123-11-2 to L. 123-11-8. None of them fixes a period of notice.

One caution, however: “no text puts a figure on it” is not the same thing as “it is purely contractual”. Other texts, of general application, apply nonetheless.

• The prohibition of perpetual undertakings (art. 1210 of the code civil, the French civil code): a contract cannot bind you indefinitely.
• Termination of a contract of indefinite duration (art. 1211): either party may bring it to an end at any time, subject to the notice provided for by the contract or, failing that, to a reasonable period. And tacit renewal gives rise to a new contract, in principle of indefinite duration (art. 1214 and 1215): after the first renewal, it is often that regime which applies.
• The abrupt termination of an established commercial relationship (code de commerce, art. L. 442-1, II): the party who terminates owes written notice taking account in particular of the duration of the relationship.

That last provision is misquoted more often than not. The text does mention eighteen months, but that is a safe harbour for the party who terminates — if it gives that notice, it cannot be held liable on that ground — and not a statutory eighteen-month notice period. And it presupposes an established relationship, that is to say a stable and regular one: a few months of subscription or a single renewal are not enough. Let us add that this litigation falls to specially designated courts, which rarely makes it a proportionate option for a subscription of a few tens of euros a month.

Finally, one protection that often comes to mind and does not apply here: the loi Chatel on tacit renewal does not apply to the domiciliation agreement. Article L. 215-1 of the code de la consommation (the French consumer code) is aimed at the consumer, and the extension provided for by article L. 215-3 covers only non-professionals. A company, or a member of a liberal profession, that domiciles its registered office is acting for professional purposes.

Post and termination fees: what the law does not regulate

Let us be clear about what is a matter for the contract, and for nothing else. No text requires the forwarding of post, its scanning, its keeping after the end of the contract, or the length of that keeping. No text regulates termination fees, administration fees, whether or not the pro rata paid in advance is refunded, or the making available of a meeting room and what it costs. All of that is to be read in your contract, and nowhere else.

But there is one legal lever, and it is not to be found in your contract. Article R. 123-168 requires the agreement to contain a specific undertaking on your part: “The domiciled person gives the domiciliataire, who accepts it, a mandate to receive any notification in their name.” That mandate, given to the domiciliataire (the domiciliation provider), is not a negotiated clause: it is imposed by the text. The rules governing mandate therefore apply as of right.

And article 1993 of the code civil provides that “every agent is bound to account for their management, and to account to the principal for everything they have received by virtue of their authority, even where what they received was not owed to the principal”. In other words: your former domiciliataire must account to you for what it has received on your behalf, even if your contract says nothing about handing back the post. Article 1991 adds that the agent is answerable for the damage resulting from non-performance of the mandate. That is where your remedy lies, and not in the criminal penalties.

The order of operations: do not terminate before you have transferred the registered office

This is the practical mistake that costs the most, and it is easy to avoid. When you file your application for an amending entry, you must prove enjoyment of the new premises. And the validity of the supporting documents is assessed at the date on which the application is filed (code de commerce, art. A. 123-45), while the greffier (the registrar) checks that the particulars in the application match the supporting documents filed (art. R. 123-95 of the same code).

If you have terminated the old agreement and the new one has not yet been signed, you have, on that day, no address to prove. The safe sequence is therefore the opposite of the one instinctively adopted.

• 1. Sign the new agreement — nothing prevents you from signing it in advance; it need only still be in effect on the day of filing.
• 2. Decide on the transfer in accordance with the rules specific to your corporate form — SARL, SAS or SASU, SCI — and update the articles of association.
• 3. Publish, then file the application with the guichet des formalités des entreprises (the French one-stop portal for company formalities) — the INPI single body — together with the new domiciliation agreement.
• 4. Terminate the old agreement, once the new address has been declared — observing the notice period provided for.

We have set out steps 2 and 3 in detail, with their four deadlines and the order — annonce légale (legal notice) first, filing afterwards — in our article on the transfer of the registered office. The one-month period for applying for the amending entry (code de commerce, art. R. 123-66) runs from the decision to transfer, and not from the date on which your termination takes effect. And it is one month for companies as for natural persons registered in the registre du commerce et des sociétés (the French trade and companies register), professionals of the liberal professions entered only in the registre national des entreprises (the national business register) being governed by a distinct body of rules.

On the documents, one point worth knowing: the proof of enjoyment must be a document drawn up in the name of the company and establishing that the declared address is real. Those are two substantive conditions; on the other hand, no maximum age is required. For a domiciliation address, a copy of the agreement is added, which must state the references of the domiciliataire's licence (agrément). Note that for an entrepreneur individuel (an individual carrying on business in their own name), the regulatory list does not mention the domiciliation agreement: some counters ask for it nonetheless, as a matter of practice.

What your former domiciliataire declares when you leave

Your departure is not a private matter between the two of you. Article R. 123-168 requires the provider to inform the greffier of the court, “on the expiry of the agreement or in the event of its early termination”, that the domiciliation on its premises has ceased. The obligation therefore applies to a normal ending as much as to an early termination, and it falls on the provider alone: it in no way relieves you of your own declaration.

The text fixes no period for that notification. In practice, this means that the greffe (the French commercial court registry) may learn of your departure before or after you have declared your new address — one more reason not to terminate first.

The same article imposes other obligations on the provider, useful to know in order to understand its behaviour: keeping a file for each domiciled person with proof of home address and of place of activity; sending each quarter, to the tax office and to the bodies that collect social security contributions and levies, the list of arrivals and departures; and each year before 15 January, the list of the persons domiciled on 1^st January. Finally, it must give commissaires de justice (French judicial officers) holding an enforceable instrument the information making it possible to contact you — a strict condition, but a real one, to bear in mind as regards the confidentiality of the address.

Removal from the RCS of the registrar's own motion: the chain that leads to it, and why it is long

Let us begin with the most important fact, because it contradicts what is very often read — namely that leaving your domiciliation company, or letting your agreement come to an end, would cause the business to be removed from the register. That is inaccurate: no text makes the end of a domiciliation agreement a ground for removal of the registrar's own motion. Removal does exist, but it is the end point of a chain, and that chain has stages.

Two branches lead to the removal of a domiciled business of the registrar's own motion — leaving without declaring it, and post that is not collected — and they should not be confused.

• You leave without declaring it. Informed that you may have ceased your activity at the declared address, the greffier sends you a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt at that same address, reminding you of your declaration obligations. If the letter comes back marked to say that you are no longer there, an entry recording the cessation of activity is made in the register.
• You stop collecting your post. After three months without your having looked at it, the domiciliataire reports the fact to the greffier. The greffier then writes to you by ordinary letter, at your personal home address or at that of your legal representative, and where applicable at the address of the registered office, announcing that, failing news from you, the entry will be made in the register.

Those two branches are the ones set out in article R. 123-125 of the code de commerce. In both cases, removal of the registrar's own motion takes place only three months after the entry has been made, in the absence of regularisation (art. R. 123-136). For the second branch, then, reckon on three months of uncollected post, a letter, an entry, and then three months more. It is not a guillotine.

And a removal that has been ordered is neither final nor fatal. Anyone who shows that they have regularised their position may ask the greffier to withdraw it; the greffier has fifteen days to do so or to notify a reasoned refusal, and both a refusal and silence may be brought before the judge responsible for supervising the register within fifteen days. Above all, the Cour de cassation has held that the removal of a company from the register of the registrar's own motion does not entail the loss of its legal personality (Cass. com., 20 February 2001, no. 98-16.842).

The real cost of delay is therefore not removal from the register: it is unenforceability. Until the change is published in the register, you cannot set your new address up against third parties, who may, for their part, rely on it. In concrete terms, notifications continue to be validly sent to a place that no longer represents you. That is the genuinely costly point in the whole operation, and it alone justifies not letting things drag on.

One point of accuracy: not every removal follows that pattern. The one that follows a removal ordered by a social security body takes place as soon as the greffier is informed of it, with no prior entry and no period of time. It comes under a different mechanism, unconnected with your domiciliation.

Why a domiciliataire sometimes terminates the agreement itself

The reverse situation exists: it is the provider that brings the agreement to an end. It often comes as a surprise, and it has a precise legal explanation.

The domiciliation agreement has you enter into four undertakings, listed in article R. 123-168 of the code de commerce. The first is to use the premises actually and exclusively as the registered office of the business — or, where the registered office is abroad, as an agency, branch or representative office. The other three are to inform the domiciliataire of any change in your activity, to declare changes of personal home address, of corporate form, of objects or of directors, and to give it the mandate to receive your notifications.

And the regulations punish by a fine for a contravention de la cinquième classe (a fifth-class petty offence) the domiciliataire that has not made sure that you were complying with those undertakings. For a legal person, the fine may reach 7 500 €, and an additional penalty of confiscation is provided for. That penalty strikes the domiciliataire, not you — and that is precisely what explains why a serious provider terminates the agreement of a client it finds is no longer really using the address, or whom it can no longer reach. It is not commercial ill will: it is a criminal risk of its own.

If your domiciliation company loses its licence

The business of domiciliation is subject to prior licensing by the préfecture: no one may carry it on without being licensed before being registered in the registre du commerce et des sociétés. The licence is issued by the préfet of the département in which the domiciliation company's registered office is situated — in Paris, by the préfet de police — for a term of six years.

Consideration of the application takes two months, and silence from the préfecture amounts to a refusal, by way of derogation from the usual principle. And no text provides for tacit renewal: the licence has to be applied for again. The habit of filing the application two months before expiry is a practice aligned with the time allowed for consideration, not a rule.

The licence may be suspended for no more than six months, or withdrawn, where the conditions on which it was granted are no longer met. And carrying on the business without a prior licence is punishable by six months' imprisonment and a fine of 7 500 €. For you, the practical consequence is simple: the licence number must appear on your agreement, and it is the first thing to check — we have made it the first of five points to check before signing.

One new development worth mentioning, because it is recent and often badly reported: Law no. 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 on the fight against social security and tax fraud, in its article 69, has added a licensing condition — showing that you have completed training in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. That condition refers, however, to a decree of which we have found no trace to date, and nothing is provided for as to the position of domiciliataires that are already licensed. On the other hand, the obligation to train staff in anti-money-laundering matters does exist independently and already applies: do not confuse the two.

Is a domiciliation agreement a commercial lease?

One frequently reads that “the law excludes the domiciliation agreement from the commercial leases regime”. That is inaccurate: no text says so. What can be said with certainty is that the texts on domiciliation provide nothing on the subject, and that the agreement is not built like a lease — the domiciliataire must make available premises containing a room allowing meetings to be held and your registers to be kept, which is an obligation to make something available, not a letting of floor space.

We shall not push the point further, in the absence of a court decision directly settling the question. Remember the practical consequence: do not expect a domiciliation agreement to give you the protections of a commercial lease, in particular as to duration and renewal. If those protections matter to you, what you need is premises, not a domiciliation.

What your termination letter must contain

To spare you the drafting, we provide a template termination letter setting out these four elements and the request for your mail to be returned.

No text imposes any particular form: it is the termination clause in your contract that governs. If it requires a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, comply with it; if it says nothing, send one anyway, because it is proof of the date of sending that will count on the day the starting point of the notice period is disputed.

Four items are enough, and there is no point drowning them in legal considerations.

• Your identifying details: company name, SIREN number, contract number if there is one.
• Your intention to terminate, with no condition and no reasons given — you do not have to justify yourself.
• The effective date you want, calculated from the notice period your contract provides for.
• Your request for the return of the post already received and still to come, and the address to which it is to be sent to you.

Ask as well for a certificate of end of domiciliation stating the date on which the agreement comes to an end. No text requires it, but it will be useful to you if a third party — a bank, an insurer, a government department — asks about the period during which the address was yours. Let us recall, finally, that your former domiciliataire, for its part, informs the greffe that the domiciliation has ceased, with no period fixed for it to do so: your certificate does not take the place of that declaration, it merely gives you a record of it.

Five checks before you leave

• Re-read the termination clause in your contract: length of notice, form required, renewal period, any fees. That is where everything is settled, since the law puts a figure on nothing.
• Sign the new agreement before terminating the old one, so as to have the proof of enjoyment on the day of filing.
• Count the period from your decision to transfer, not from the date on which the termination takes effect.
• Terminate in writing and keep proof of the date of sending: it is that date which fixes the starting point of the notice period, and it is the one point on which disputes are common.
• Update your business documents — invoices, order forms, website: the address of the registered office must appear on them, and the obligation bears on the documents issued, with no grace period. Tell directly those whose letters set a period running: bank, insurer, landlord, greffe.

And one question to ask yourself before looking for another provider: is commercial domiciliation still the right solution for you? Depending on your situation, registering your business at your home address may suit, and it costs nothing. We would rather say so, including when it does not suit us.

Rules checked against primary sources on Légifrance: articles L. 123-3, L. 123-5, L. 123-9, L. 123-11-3, L. 123-11-8, L. 210-3, L. 442-1, R. 123-45, R. 123-66, R. 123-95, R. 123-125, R. 123-136, R. 123-166-1, R. 123-166-3, R. 123-166-5, R. 123-167, R. 123-168, R. 123-169, R. 123-169-1, R. 123-237 and annex 1-1 to Book I of the code de commerce; articles 1171, 1210, 1211, 1214, 1215, 1991 and 1993 of the code civil; articles L. 215-1 and L. 215-3 of the code de la consommation; article 131-13 of the code pénal (the French criminal code); Law no. 2026-534 of 25 June 2026 on the fight against social security and tax fraud, article 69; Cass. com., 20 February 2001, no. 98-16.842. Article written by Épiphyse Conseil, an expert-comptable (French accountancy firm) specialising in support for the liberal and healthcare professions. Transparency: this firm also carries on a domiciliation business, through Domisiège. This article describes the law applicable to all providers, ourselves included, and the checks it recommends hold good for our own contract. Last updated: August 2026.