How much does a head office transfer cost?

Moving the registered address, a common procedure.

When creating your company, you must specify the registered office in your legal statutes. As for individual entrepreneurs, they must mention the location of their business in the administrative forms for business creation.

This address is not your registered office. The latter is the legal domicile of your company in corporate form. A company may decide to change its address for various reasons:

• relocation of activity,
• change of premises,
• financial difficulties,
• strategic reasons for tax optimization, etc.

The transfer of registered office can be carried out "outside the jurisdiction" when the company's new address is not registered with the same commercial court as the department in which the old one is located. On the other hand, it is said to be "within the same jurisdiction" when the new registered office remains attached to the same commercial court as when it was created.

The decision to transfer the registered office is governed by law. In fact, the partners must decide on the change of address of the company by a vote during an extraordinary general meeting. This decision will be recorded in the minutes.

Note: In some cases, especially for an SARL (art. L. 223-18 al. 8 of the French Commercial Code), the manager or another body can decide on the transfer.

Transferring your company's registered address: What are the registry fees?

Any manager who wishes to change the registered address of their SAS, SARL or SCI must file their transfer file with the registry of the commercial court. This will update your company's Kbis extract.

Different registry fees

To transfer your registered office, you must then submit an amendment file to the registry. This file must include documents such as a copy of the minutes of the amending decision taken by the partners, a copy (certified as a true copy) of the updated articles of association, etc. The registration costs at the registry include several fees, in particular:

• the official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements (BODACC),
• registry fees,
• the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI),
• the price of modification to the register of beneficial owners.

The registry costs for a change of registered office vary depending on the legal form of each company and the jurisdiction of the new address. The cost is 192.01 euros including VAT if the address change occurred within the same registration department. A SASU (single-member simplified joint-stock company) and an EURL (single-member limited liability company) in which the sole partner is also the manager benefit from a discount of 116 euros.

Different amounts when changing address

If the company transfers its registered office outside its registration department, the amount to be paid to the registry depends on several factors. To determine this, you need to know whether the establishment representing the new address was already occupied by the company before the transfer and whether the company retains the premises of the old registered office.

The cost is 226.49 euros if your SAS (simplified joint-stock company), SARL (limited liability company) or SCI (real estate civil company) transfers its registered office to a new location and does not keep the old location. SASU and EURL pay 83.49 euros. If your company transfers its registered office to another establishment and does not keep the old headquarters as a secondary one, it will have to pay 259 euros to the registry of the commercial court.

Single-member simplified joint-stock companies (SASU) and single-member limited liability companies (EURL) get a discount and pay 116.95 euros. When you transfer your registered office to a registered establishment without keeping your company's old location, the amount is 203.73 euros. Expect to pay 86.73 euros for a SASU or EURL. If the company transfers its registered office to a new establishment and keeps the old office as a secondary address, it must pay 236 euros to the commercial court registry. SASUs and EURLs pay 120.19 euros. The registry collects the amount to pass it on to the organizations.

Transfer of registered office: what cost to expect for the legal announcement?

To figure out the legal announcement costs for moving your company's registered office, you need to consider two things. The price of the legal announcement will depend on these criteria.

Transfer of registered office within the same jurisdiction

When you're changing your address within the same department, the steps are easier. You only need to publish a single notice in a legal announcement journal (JAL). It needs to be in the same department as your company's main address. So, if you're doing a registered office transfer within the same jurisdiction, you should expect legal announcement costs of between 150 and 200 euros.

Transfer of registered office outside the jurisdiction

If you want to change your company's address within the same department, you need to publish two notices in a legal announcement journal. The first notice must be published by the JAL of your former registered office. The second notice will be published in a journal under the jurisdiction of the court of the new address of your company.

Your company will then receive a transfer notice. In these two notices, you must mention the following information:

• the address of the old and new registered office,
• your company name,
• a piece of identification for the manager,
• proof of address (less than 3 months old) for the company director,
• the mention of the transfer of the registered office.

The cost of publishing a change of address for your registered office in another region is between 300 and 400 euros.

Support fees for completing the formalities for changing address

In addition to the mandatory administrative fees, you must budget for any costs relating to support. If your company handles the transfer of its registered office itself, it has no additional costs to consider. However, you can benefit from full support from SeDomicilier to carry out your procedures.

In this case, you need to factor in the cost. Our exclusive partner handles registered office transfers within 48 hours. Companies wishing to change their address can therefore benefit from personalized support to facilitate the administrative formalities.