Guide: Business Domiciliation — Who Can Use Their Home Address, and Who Can't
This guide is informational. It explains how the process works and helps you prepare for a conversation with a professional, or for filing on your own. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice.
What you'll get
- why a registered address matters even for a micro-entreprise, not just for companies
- when a home address works with no limit, and when a 5-year cap applies
- the five legal address options, and what sets them apart
- how to check a domiciliation company actually has the right to provide an address
- what it costs in practice — using SeDomicilier as an example
Why you need an address even as a micro-entrepreneur
An address is a required field on the form in the guide on registering via INPI: without one, the guichet unique won’t accept your file, regardless of legal form — that applies to a micro-entreprise exactly as much as to a SASU or an EURL. The only difference is that there are more address options than you might think, and not all of them mean having your own office.
Your home address: when there's no limit, and when the 5-year cap kicks in
Article L123-11-1 of the Code de commerce allows a business to be domiciled at a personal residence — both for a sole trader and for a company director. From there, it splits into two cases:
- If the lease and the building’s co-ownership rules don’t prohibit carrying out an activity at that address — there’s no time limit at all, and the domiciliation can be permanent.
- If they do prohibit it — the law still grants the right to domicile there, overriding the lease, but for a maximum of 5 years from the date the business was created. There’s a mandatory condition: you must notify the landlord or the co-ownership syndicate in writing of your intention — before filing your registration application, not after.
In practice, this affects almost anyone who rents: most standard residential leases include a clause banning commercial activity, simply by default, not because the landlord has anything against you personally.
The five legal address options
- Your home address — free, covered above.
- A domiciliation company — a paid professional address, covered below.
- Your own or a rented commercial space — pricier than the other options because of the commercial lease (bail commercial), but necessary if your activity involves receiving clients on site.
- A business incubator (pépinière d’entreprises) — support structures, often backed by the state or local government: shared premises, shared equipment, and guidance. Getting in requires an application process, and your stay there is time-limited.
- A coworking space with a domiciliation add-on — some coworking spaces sell the address as a separate service alongside a desk.
Domiciliation companies: the préfecture's approval (agrément) is mandatory
Not just any company is allowed to provide a legal address for a fee — only ones holding an agrément préfectoral, valid for 6 years. This isn’t a box-ticking formality: the domiciliation contract must explicitly state that approval number, and any substantial change to the information the company submitted to obtain it has to be reported to the préfecture within 2 months.
The penalty for operating without this approval, or after it’s been withdrawn, runs up to 6 months in prison and a €7,500 fine for the domiciliation company itself (Article L123-11-8 of the Code de commerce). That’s their risk, not yours — but if the approval doesn’t exist, or has been withdrawn, your own registered address becomes invalid, and your file simply won’t go through at the guichet unique.
Before signing with any domiciliation company, ask for their approval number and check it with the préfecture of the département where the address is located. One check, and the risk is gone.
A real example: what it looks like with SeDomicilier
SeDomicilier is one of the major players in France’s domiciliation market, marketing itself as “N°1 de la domiciliation en France” (France’s #1 domiciliation provider): the contract is signed online in under 4 hours, with addresses on offer in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and other cities.
Domiciliation pricing starts at €16/month with no commitment, or from €11/month if you prepay for 3 years upfront (a one-off payment of around €403). The base plan includes: mail scanning, insurance against a registry (greffe) rejection linked to the address, and customer support 5 days a week.
SeDomicilier also has a “Domiciliation + Création” plan, where the company-formation formality is included free with the subscription — the same model as Indy from the previous guide in the series: not a separate paid registration service, just a bonus tied to the subscription.
For comparison, according to SeDomicilier’s own figures, the average price of domiciliation across providers on the market is around €25 excl. VAT a month, and setting up a company as a whole (legal notice plus registry fees) averages around €200. These figures are a market benchmark, not a guarantee: at the time this guide was written, SeDomicilier was running a “45% off with code AOUT26 on a 2- or 3-year contract” promotion — like with Indy, domiciliation providers’ prices and promotions change, so it’s worth checking their site directly rather than relying on this text.
When a home address doesn't work, and a domiciliation company makes sense
Domiciliation through a company makes sense if: you need a prestigious address in a specific city to build client trust, rather than your home address; your lease explicitly bans the activity and the 5-year right under L123-11-1 doesn’t work for you as a temporary fix; you don’t want your home address exposed in public registers (SIRENE, Infogreffe — open to anyone); or you move often and don’t want to redo the registered-address change process every time.
When to bring in a lawyer
What’s covered here is enough for a standard situation — a residential lease, ordinary co-ownership rules. It’s worth consulting an avocat if: the co-ownership syndicate has already refused in writing and things are heading toward a dispute; it’s a commercial lease (bail commercial), with its own restrictions that differ from a residential one; your 5-year domiciliation period under L123-11-1 is running out and it’s unclear what to do next about your registered address.
The address you choose affects more than your post: it is also what CFE, the local tax on your place of business, is calculated from. How it works, and why the bill only arrives in year two, in our guide to micro-entrepreneur surprises.
Rules and amounts in France change. As of publication on 8 August 2026, the information matched the official sources linked in the text. Webinkub accepts no responsibility for legislative changes, or for decisions made on the basis of this material. Before filing, check the current requirements on the official sites — and if your situation is non-standard, consult an expert-comptable or an avocat.
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