Registering your business at your home address: the five-year rule that almost everyone quotes backwards

Search for “registering your business at your home address” and you will read the same sentence everywhere: “it is possible for five years at most”. That sentence is wrong twice over. It mistakes the exception for the principle, and it applies to individual entrepreneurs a provision that concerns companies alone. Here is what the articles in question actually say, and the three questions to ask yourself before choosing this solution.

The principle is freedom — with no time limit

If you are still hesitating over the solution that suits you, our address assessment answers in six questions — including “stay at home”.

Article L. 123-11-1 of the code de commerce (the French commercial code), in its version in force since 3 August 2005, begins with a general authorisation: “Any legal person is authorised to establish its registered office at the home of its legal representative and to carry on an activity there, save where legislative provisions or contractual stipulations provide otherwise.”

Read that paragraph closely: it contains no time limit at all, and it authorises two things at once — establishing the registered office, and carrying on the activity there. If nothing stands in the way, a company may therefore remain domiciled at its director's home indefinitely.

The five years appear in the following paragraph, and only in one precise situation: “Where the legal person is subject to legislative provisions or contractual stipulations mentioned in the preceding paragraph, its legal representative may establish the registered office at his or her home, for a period that may neither exceed five years from the creation of that legal person, nor go beyond the statutory, contractual or judicial end of the occupation of the premises.”

Three points that competing articles almost invariably gloss over. First, this period is triggered only if an obstacle exists — a legislative provision, or a contractual stipulation. Second, it runs from the creation of the company, and not from the date on which you move it into your home: a company created four years ago that moves today to the home of its gérant (its manager) does not have five years, but one. Third, the ceiling is twofold: five years, and no longer than the end of your occupation of the premises. If your lease ends in eighteen months, your window is eighteen months.

A detail that matters in this situation: the letter of the second paragraph covers only the establishment of the registered office. It does not repeat the words “and to carry on an activity there” from the first paragraph. This is a literal reading of the text, consistent with the fact that a derogation is construed strictly, rather than a prohibition established by case law — but it calls for caution: where a clause stands in the way, do not rely on this article to authorise you to work within those walls.

What happens when the period expires? The text requires the evidence justifying your change of situation to be provided before the deadline, failing which you face removal from the register of the registrar's own motion (“radiation d'office”). In practice, article R. 123-171 of the code de commerce provides that the greffier (the registrar of the greffe, the French commercial court registry) sends you a letter three months before the deadline inviting you to provide the address of your new registered office. Nothing therefore falls due on the anniversary date without warning. And if removal is ordered, it is not final: article R. 123-138 allows you to ask the greffier to reverse it by showing that the situation has been regularised, the greffier having fifteen days to reverse the removal or to notify a reasoned refusal.

Company or business in your own name: not the same provision

This is the most widespread confusion, and the most costly in needless worry. Article L. 123-11-1 sits in a subdivision headed “Provisions applicable to legal persons”. It concerns companies only.

The trader (“commerçant”) or craftsperson (“artisan”) who is a natural person falls under a different provision, article L. 123-10 of the code de commerce, in its version in force since 1^st January 2023. That article allows them to “declare the address of their residential premises and carry on an activity there, provided that no legislative provision or contractual stipulation stands in the way”. And it adds, for anyone with no establishment at all, that they may “solely as the address of the business, declare that of their residential premises”, that declaration entailing “neither a change in the use for which the premises are allocated, nor the application of the statut des baux commerciaux (the commercial-lease regime)”.

No maximum duration in that text. No mandatory notification. No removal from the register of the registrar's own motion. The five years apply neither to the trader operating in their own name, nor to the micro-entrepreneur.

One nuance deserves to be flagged rather than hidden: the letter of article L. 123-10 covers natural persons applying for registration in the registre du commerce et des sociétés (the French trade and companies register), or in the registre national des entreprises (the French national business register) as a business in the skilled-trades and craft sector. Professionals in the liberal professions are not expressly named there. In practice, domiciliation at home is open to them; their situation is then assessed by reference to their lease, their règlement de copropriété (the rules of their co-owned building) and the change-of-use rules examined below.

What actually starts the clock

Since everything turns on whether a clause to the contrary exists, the real question is not “how long am I allowed?” but “is there a clause against me?”. It is settled by reading two documents.

Your lease, if you are a tenant

Contrary to what is often written, a landlord has no provision allowing them to prohibit the domiciliation of a business as such. Their only lever is contractual. Article 7, b) of Law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989, in its version in force since 15 June 2025, requires the tenant “to use the let premises peaceably in accordance with the use assigned to them by the tenancy agreement”. It is that permitted-use clause (“clause de destination”) — and it alone — that you need to go and read in your lease.

Two practical consequences. A residential lease does not by its nature prohibit domiciliation: everything depends on how it is drafted. And where a clause does exist, it does not prevent you from domiciling your business there: it moves your company into the five-year derogation regime, with a prior notification to send.

Your règlement de copropriété, if you are a co-owner

A restrictive clause is not valid there in and of itself. Article 8 of Law no. 65-557 of 10 July 1965 provides that the règlement de copropriété “may impose no restriction on the rights of the co-owners other than those justified by the designated use of the building, as defined in the deeds, by its characteristics or by its situation”. And article 43 of the same law deems clauses to the contrary unwritten, which is what gives that limit its sanction. The Cour de cassation (France's supreme court in civil matters) does review this point: in a judgment of 8 June 2011 published in the court's official reports, a court of appeal was entitled to deem a restrictive clause unwritten after finding that the rules expressly authorised other activities generating comparable comings and goings, that no nuisance had been shown and that the restriction was not justified by the designated use of the building. That case concerned short-term furnished letting: take from it the method of review, not an automatic transposition to your own situation.

The distinction you will read everywhere between a “simple” and an “exclusive” habitation bourgeoise clause (residential-use clause) has no basis in any text: it comes from case law and academic writing. It remains useful as a reading grid — an exclusive clause has been held to be justified by the designated use of the building where the rules provided that the premises could be occupied for residential purposes only, to the exclusion of any industrial, commercial or craft use — but do not rely on it as you would on a rule: it is for the judge to assess, clause by clause and building by building.

If you are housed by someone else

The obstacle is not ownership, but proof. Article L. 123-11 of the code de commerce requires that “any legal person applying for registration in the registre du commerce et des sociétés must show that it enjoys the use of the premises in which it establishes, alone or with others, the registered office of the business”. Article L. 123-10 imposes the same evidence on registered natural persons. An attestation d'hébergement (a written statement from the person housing you) accompanied by proof of address in that person's name is the usual answer.

Domiciling your registered office is not carrying on your activity there

This is the second confusion, and it catches out more people than the first. Putting an address on a registration extract and working within those walls fall under two different bodies of rules. The second is the change-of-use regime for residential premises, in the code de la construction et de l'habitation (the French construction and housing code).

In the communes falling within the scope of this regime, article L. 631-7-3 authorises a professional activity to be carried on in part of residential premises, but subject to three cumulative conditions: that no stipulation of the lease or of the règlement de copropriété stands in the way, that the activity is carried on only by occupants whose main residence is in those premises, and that it “does not lead to clients or goods being received there”. It is the third that people forget: as soon as you receive clients at home, or store goods there, you fall outside the text.

Two ways out then exist. If your premises are on the ground floor, article L. 631-7-4 authorises the activity directly, clients and goods included, subject to the same contractual clauses, provided that it creates neither nuisance nor danger for the neighbourhood and causes no damage to the fabric of the building. Otherwise, article L. 631-7-2 opens up a mere power for the mayor to authorise the activity — a power, not a right. In every case, the clause in the lease or in the règlement de copropriété prevails: the mayor cannot authorise what a lease prohibits.

Outside the communes covered by this regime, no change-of-use authorisation is required: your lease and your règlement de copropriété alone govern. The geographical scope of this regime was rewritten by Law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026, the French loi de finances (budget act) for 2026, which now refers to a list of communes to be set by decree. Its practical reach remains suspended pending publication of that decree; we will update this article as soon as it appears.

In social housing, article L. 631-7-5 lays down its own regime, which excludes in particular the carrying on of a commercial activity. And if you hold the property in indivision (joint ownership in undivided shares), no text settles the question specifically: the general law of indivision applies, and the agreement of the co-owners remains the elementary precaution.

One reassuring point, on the other hand, and it is written in black and white. Article L. 123-11-1 ends with: “The provisions of this article can give rise neither to a change in the designated use of the building, nor to the application of the statut des baux commerciaux.” Domiciling the registered office at the director's home therefore gives rise to no commercial lease. Be careful not to over-read this, however: that neutrality holds only for the effects of this article. It does not exempt you from the change-of-use regime where that applies, and it does not erase a clause to the contrary in your lease.

Being free does not remove the CFE

“No premises, no cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE, the annual local business tax)”: that is untrue. Under article 1647 D of the French tax code (“code général des impôts”, CGI), in its version in force since 1^st July 2026, taxpayers who have no premises at all and whose tax domicile is at the place of their home are liable for the minimum charge (“cotisation minimum”) at that place. Your commune of residence therefore becomes your commune of assessment, with its minimum base and its rate.

Only one way out, and it is narrow: “taxpayers with turnover or income of 5 000 € or less are exempt from the minimum charge”, subject to compliance with the European de minimis State aid rules. Above that, the minimum base is set by your commune within a statutory range of six bands, whose floor is 250 € and whose ceiling runs from 597 € to 7 769 € depending on your turnover. We set out this scale and its sector-specific exemptions in our article on CFE and domiciliation.

Note that the first year of activity escapes CFE, and that the base for the second year is halved. Many entrepreneurs therefore discover the bill in year N+2, and think it abnormal.

A favourable counterpart, often overlooked: a professional who works from home may deduct a share of their housing costs. For leased premises, the French tax authorities accept that the deductible part of the rent equals the fraction corresponding to the ratio between the floor area used for professional purposes and the total floor area. The rules differ according to whether or not you enter the premises in the fixed-asset register, and that decision also determines the treatment of any capital gain: it is a trade-off to be made with your expert-comptable (your accountant in France), not one to settle on your own.

The real price: your private address becomes public

This is the point that the “free versus 24 € a month” comparison invariably forgets, and it is often the one that tips the decision.

The address you declare as your registered office is published. It appears in the public registers, it can be reused as open data, and the guichet des formalités (the French one-stop portal for company formalities) expressly warns you of this at the point of entry. For a company, registration also gives rise to a notice in the BODACC (the French official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements) containing the address of the registered office — with two exceptions worth knowing: that notice is not required for a SARL whose sole member (associé unique), a natural person, personally acts as its gérant, nor for a SAS whose sole shareholder, a natural person, personally acts as its président.

A recent text has improved matters, and it is almost absent from articles online. Decree no. 2025-840 of 22 August 2025, in force since 25 August 2025, created articles R. 123-54-1 and R. 123-54-2 of the code de commerce. Natural persons declared in the register — directors, partners with unlimited liability, members of administrative or supervisory bodies — may now ask at any time for the information relating to their private home address to be kept confidential. The greffier deals with the request within five jours francs ouvrables — five clear working days in the French legal sense (every day except Sundays and public holidays); failing which, the applicant may apply to the judge responsible for supervising the register. Access remains open to the authorised authorities and government departments.

But read carefully what that decree protects: the director's private home address, not the address of the registered office. If your registered office is your home, the address continues to be published as the address of the business. In other words, the only mechanism that exists for masking your address happens not to work in precisely the case we are concerned with.

• Your address appears on your invoices: it is a mandatory item, and it remains one under electronic invoicing.
• It appears in business directories and in reusable databases, without your having any control over its onward publication.
• A disgruntled client, a cold caller or a former business partner will find it in seconds.
• If you move house, the change must be declared within the month — and, for a company, a legal notice (“annonce légale”) must be published and the articles of association amended.

That last point is not neutral: a transfer of registered office costs, between the annonce légale, the greffe's scale fees and the register levy, in the order of 200 to 480 € depending on the form of the company and on whether or not you move to a different registry district. We have set out these amounts in our article on the real cost of company formalities. Domiciling at home, when you move every three years, is therefore not exactly free.

When domiciliation at home is the right choice — and when it stops being so

Let us say it plainly, even though we are a domiciliation company: in many cases, domiciliation at home is the right answer. A consultant starting out alone, with no clients received on the premises, who owns their home or holds a lease with no troublesome clause, has no reason to pay for an address.

It stops being the right choice when one of these situations arises:

• You are a tenant and your lease contains a permitted-use clause that stands against you: your company then enters the five-year window, running from its creation, with a deadline to manage.
• You receive clients or store goods: the change-of-use regime catches up with you, and the ground floor or the mayor's authorisation are not always there when you need them.
• You do not want your private address to be public: that is a sufficient reason in itself, and the 2025 decree does not settle it.
• You move often: the cumulative cost of transfers of registered office quickly exceeds a subscription.
• Your commune of residence applies a high minimum CFE base: the place of assessment follows your home.

A third way exists, and it is little known because it is written in the same text: the code de commerce expressly authorises domiciliation “in premises occupied jointly by several businesses”, for companies as well as for registered natural persons. That is the basis for domiciliation in a coworking space, which may suit anyone who needs an address and a place to work.

If you are leaning towards a provider, the question becomes that of choosing the domiciliataire (the domiciliation provider) — and it deserves the same care as the rest: prefectoral licence (“agrément préfectoral”), length of commitment, genuine provision of premises. Note in passing that the licence and the written agreement are obligations borne by the professional domiciliation provider, not by you when you domicile the business at your own home: the law indeed prohibits carrying on the business of domiciliation in premises used as a main residence. We have drawn up a list of five points to check before signing, valid for any provider, ourselves included.

One final reflex, whatever you decide: take care over the drafting of the registered-office clause in your articles of association. Stating the commune rather than the full address avoids an amendment to the articles at every move — we explain this in our article on the registered-office clause.

Rules checked against primary sources on Légifrance: articles L. 123-10, L. 123-11, L. 123-11-1, L. 123-11-2, R. 123-45, R. 123-66, R. 123-138, R. 123-155, R. 123-159, R. 123-171, R. 123-240 and R. 123-54-1 to R. 123-54-2 of the code de commerce; articles L. 631-7, L. 631-7-2 to L. 631-7-5 of the code de la construction et de l'habitation; article 7 of Law no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989; articles 8, 9 and 43 of Law no. 65-557 of 10 July 1965; Cass. 3^e civ., 8 June 2011, no. 10-15.891, published in the official reports; article 1647 D of the French tax code in its version in force on 1^st July 2026; decree no. 2025-840 of 22 August 2025. Article written by Épiphyse Conseil, a French firm of experts-comptables (accountants) specialising in support for the liberal and healthcare professions. The firm is also associated with Domisiège, a domiciliation company based in Tours — a fact we mention in the interests of transparency, since this article explains precisely in which cases registering your business at your home address remains the best solution. Last updated: August 2026.