The SCI (Société Civile Immobilière) is the ideal legal form for managing and transferring your real estate assets. Its main role is to enable several people to acquire a property and manage it jointly through the company.
Like all companies, an SCI must have a registered office in order to be registered with the RCS (Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés). Having a registered address is a legal obligation. This is the official administrative address to which the administration sends all official correspondence.
There are three ways for a manager to domicile his SCI: at his own home or that of the company's legal representative, in a business premises, or opt for a company domiciliation service via a domiciliation company. How to make the best choice?
The registered office of a société civile immobilière is its official reference address. From a legal point of view, it determines the company's nationality, its country of taxation and the competent jurisdiction in the event of a dispute. The choice of registered office address is the first decision to be made in the process of creating the company.
The head office location is ideal for receiving business mail, or for holding meetings, general assemblies and welcoming customers, colleagues or visitors.
The registered office address also appears in the company's articles of association and on all its official documents, which is why it is of particular importance.
Entrepreneurs wishing to domicile their SCI can choose between several options:
According toarticle L. 123-11 of the French Commercial Code, "a legal entity applying for registration with the RCS is authorized to set up its registered office at the domicile of its legal representative and carry on business there, unless otherwise provided by law or contractual stipulations".
Although it may seem a cost-effective solution, it has major drawbacks when it comes to protecting your privacy. Indeed, this alternative poses a threat to your privacy, as your personal address is disclosed online in all official public directories, as well as in all official documents and by-laws.
Note that if the manager is a tenant in his or her own home, it is necessary to check the co-ownership regulations or the lease contract to ensure that he or she has no objections. Indeed, if you are a tenant in a co-ownership, the domiciliation of an SCI at your personal address must not disrupt the lives of the other co-owners and/or tenants in the building.
What's more, domiciliation at the entrepreneur's personal address is a short-term solution, as an entrepreneur cannot domicile his company for more than 5 years, after which he will have to change his registered office.
This option is particularly costly, and obliges an SCI to pay monthly rent, deposits and guarantees via a commercial lease.
This alternative is the ideal choice for benefiting from the many services offered by domiciliation establishments to lighten the daily burden of entrepreneurs, and from CFE (Cotisations Foncières des Entreprises) reductions.
This option avoids the need to transfer or move your company, as well as the costly rent required for office space. Using a commercial domiciliation company is the perfect option for benefiting from a prestigious address in Paris and many other French cities.
Many SCI founders prefer to use the services of a commercial domiciliation in order to benefit from a business address, a guarantee of credibility in the eyes of the company's partners.
It also protects the privacy of the manager or partners, by not disclosing their home address on all official company documents. Last but not least, it's a popular solution for reducing SCI costs compared with renting commercial premises.
Good to know: If you're moving premises, you don't have to transfer your registered office and avoid the time-consuming formalities involved in amending the company's articles of association.
When the manager of a non-trading property company (SCI) wishes to transfer its registered office, several steps must be taken:
Commercial domiciliation enables entrepreneurs to benefit from an administrative address not subject to the limitations of a lease or co-ownership contract.
What's more, the services offered by a domiciliation company like SeDomicilier are non-binding for the duration of your contract, unlike a traditional commercial lease where the duration can be long.
If you're setting up an SCI, our online domiciliation service can make your day-to-day work easier and save you time, thanks to a wide range of additional services.
Domiciliary companies offer a wide range of services designed to outsource time-consuming tasks with little added value for your business: day-to-day mail management (scanning, forwarding or making your mail available), switchboard services, assistance with legal and administrative formalities, meeting room rental, etc.
Online domiciliation services allow entrepreneurs to delegate time-consuming, low-value-added tasks so they can concentrate on what's most important: the success of their project!
At SeDomicilier, dedicated experts accompany entrepreneurs throughout the company creation and head office transfer process, answering their questions and guaranteeing a smooth process.
We can help you with the administrative formalities (drafting the articles of association, publication in a legal gazette, registration with the CFE, receipt of the Kbis from the Registrar of the Commercial Court, etc.).
To find out more about the advantages of commercial domiciliation for your SCI, visit our Practical Information page.