Registering your company's head office at home: lease and co-ownership rules

Quick answer. Article L123-11-1 of the French Commercial Code allows any company to register its head office at the home of its legal representative, with no time limit. If a lease clause, the co-ownership regulations or a legal provision opposes it, registration is still possible but for a maximum of 5 years from incorporation, provided you notify the landlord or the co-ownership association in writing, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, before registration. No prior consent is required: this is information, not an authorisation.

Many founders we support at incorporation want to register their company's head office at their home, to start without renting premises. It is legal and common, but the freedom is not absolute: your residential lease, the co-ownership regulations and, in certain cities, the rules governing the use of residential premises may restrict it. The key distinction is simple: registering an address (the administrative head office) is not the same as actually carrying out a business activity at home.

Registering the head office at home follows a simple economic logic at launch: no commercial rent, no domiciliation contract, an address available immediately. It is one of five main options for setting a head office; we map them all in our overview of the five domiciliation options. This guide focuses on one specific case and its legal constraints: registering the head office at your home, and what that means for your lease and your co-ownership.

The framework has not changed substantially in 2026: Article L123-11-1 of the Commercial Code sets out a principle of freedom with exceptions. The point that is often misunderstood is that you do not have to ask for permission from the landlord or the building manager for simple administrative registration. In certain cases, you must inform them in writing. Confusing these two logics is the source of most of the mistakes we correct.

Article L123-11-1 of the French Commercial Code provides that any legal entity is authorised to register its head office at the home of its legal representative and to carry out an activity there, except where legal provisions or contractual clauses say otherwise.

Three consequences follow directly.

1. The principle is freedom. A company (SARL, EURL, SAS, SASU, SA, etc.) may register its head office at the home of its legal representative — managing director, president, general manager. With no contrary clause, this registration is valid with no time limit.
2. Exceptions come from three sources. A legal provision, a clause in the residential lease or a clause in the co-ownership regulations may oppose registration. In that case, the right remains but becomes temporary.
3. Temporary registration is capped at 5 years. When a clause opposes it, the legal representative may still register the head office at home for a period not exceeding five years from incorporation, nor exceeding the legal, contractual or judicial term of occupancy. Before the period expires, the company must — on pain of automatic removal from the register — provide the court clerk with evidence of its change of situation.

The same article includes two protective safeguards: home registration cannot trigger either a change of use of the building or the application of the commercial lease regime. Hosting a head-office address does not turn your home into commercial premises.

This is the heart of the matter. French law distinguishes two situations that are often confused.

• Registration: your home serves as the administrative address of the head office (mail, registration, legal mentions). No material activity takes place there. This is the most flexible case, framed by Article L123-11-1.
• Actually carrying out an activity: you genuinely work from the home (and, even more so, you receive clients, goods or employees there). Here a second set of rules applies: Article L631-7-3 of the Construction and Housing Code.

Article L631-7-3 authorises a professional activity, including a commercial one, in part of a residential premises, provided that no clause in the lease or in the co-ownership regulations opposes it, that the activity is carried out only by occupants whose principal residence is in the home, and that it involves neither receiving clients nor receiving goods.

This rule does not cover the whole country: it applies to municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants and to the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne — the inner ring around Paris. Paris is therefore squarely within scope. In practice, receiving clients at home in these areas usually requires a change-of-use authorisation, which goes well beyond simple registration.

For those who simply want to work from home without receiving the public, administrative registration is enough in the vast majority of cases.

Here are the steps we follow with our clients during a business creation engagement.

1. Check your residential lease. Review the clauses on the use of the premises. A clause requiring exclusively residential use, or an express ban on registration, triggers the 5-year temporary regime.
2. Check the co-ownership regulations. Look for any clause limiting the use of lots to housing or banning any professional activity. The building manager can issue you a copy.
3. Check local urban-planning rules. In large cities and the Paris inner ring, Article L631-7-3 of the Construction and Housing Code conditions the actual exercise of an activity in a home.
4. Notify in writing if a clause opposes it. Before registration (or before a registration amendment), notify your intention to the landlord, the co-ownership association or the building representative, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. This is information, not a request for consent.
5. Enter the address in the registration file. The head-office address appears in the articles of association and in the application filed with the INPI one-stop shop.
6. Check your home insurance. Report the use to your insurer; a "professional activity" extension is often advisable. We cover the whole journey in our guide on how to create and register your company online.

The table below summarises your situation depending on the lease and the co-ownership. It assumes simple administrative registration, with no reception of clients or goods.

Key point: even when a clause opposes it, the landlord or building manager cannot prohibit temporary registration. The law grants it to you; they are simply informed.

You are a tenant. You remain a residential tenant. Registration does not open the right to the commercial lease regime and does not change the use of the home. If the lease bans registration, the 5-year regime applies, with notification to the landlord.

You are an owner in a co-ownership. Check the regulations. A clause requiring exclusively residential use limits registration to the temporary regime and requires notification to the association. The co-ownership cannot oppose this temporary registration, which applies as of right.

You live in social housing. Social-housing leases frequently contain specific clauses on the use of the premises. Prudence requires re-reading the contract and informing the social landlord. Simple administrative registration is generally tolerated, but carrying out an activity rarely is without agreement.

You are an individual entrepreneur or micro-entrepreneur. You are not a "legal entity": Article L123-11-1 covers companies. For a sole proprietorship, the home can serve as the business address by default. Additional good news: since the reform of the status, the principal residence of an individual entrepreneur is unseizable as of right by professional creditors, with no formality. Before launching, weigh the implications of the auto-entrepreneur status.

You are still hesitating on the legal form. The choice between SARL and SAS determines who the "legal representative" is, whose home can host the head office. We systematically build it into the broader thinking on creating and structuring your company.

• Confusing information with authorisation. You do not need the landlord's or building manager's consent to register; you must inform them if a clause opposes it. Asking for permission exposes you to a refusal that has no legal basis.
• Forgetting the prior notification. The registered-letter notification must occur before filing the registration application. A late notification weakens the file.
• Letting the 5 years expire without acting. As the term approaches, you must prove a change of situation to the court clerk (new head office, end of the contrary clause), on pain of automatic removal from the register.
• Receiving clients or goods without authorisation. In large cities and the Paris inner ring, this falls under Article L631-7-3 of the Construction and Housing Code and, most often, requires a change of use. Registration alone does not cover this.
• Neglecting insurance. A professional activity not declared to the home insurer may jeopardise a claim.
• Ignoring local taxation. A head office may have effects on the business property contribution (CFE) depending on your municipality; this deserves a dedicated check.

Recently, an independent consultant asked us to set up his SASU while registering the head office in his rented Paris flat. His instinct: "I have to ask my landlord for permission." In fact, his lease contained a residential-only clause. Rather than seeking consent — which could have been refused without basis — we activated the regime of Article L123-11-1: temporary registration for 5 years, notification to the landlord by registered letter before incorporation. The file went through smoothly, and we set a checkpoint at year 4 to anticipate the head-office transfer.

Our conviction, built across many incorporation files: registering the head office at home is an excellent start-up solution, provided it is treated as a legally framed mechanism and not a mere box to tick. The trap is almost never registration itself; it is confusing it with the actual exercise of an activity receiving the public, which calls for far stricter rules. Anticipating the end of the 5 years, securing the notification, checking insurance: these are the details that separate a clean file from an exposed one. As chartered accountants registered with the Ordre and statutory auditors, we treat this step as a structuring building block of the launch, not an accessory formality.

Hayot Expertise advice. Before setting the head office at your home, re-read your lease and your co-ownership regulations, then decide: simple administrative address, or actual exercise of an activity? If a clause opposes it, do not ask for authorisation — notify by registered letter and activate the 5-year regime. And plan the exit from this regime from the outset. At Hayot Expertise, we integrate this choice into the overall creation strategy to avoid legal and tax blind spots.