Key takeaways
- Providing a registered office address to a third-party company is a regulated domiciliation service, reserved to providers registered with the FPS Economy (act of 29 March 2018).
- Subletting your business address without that registration exposes you to carrying out an unauthorised regulated activity, and weakens the validity of the registered office of companies domiciled that way.
- The decisive test is not the number of companies at an address, but the reality of the occupation, and whether a proper registration stands behind it.
- A company that needs to domicile several entities or share an address has legal alternatives: going through a registered provider rather than an informal sublet.
A company that rents an office and wants another entity, often linked to the same director, to use it too, frequently wonders whether it can simply sublet its registered office address. The answer fits in one sentence: the act of 29 March 2018 on the registration of service providers to companies reserves this activity to providers registered with the FPS Economy. This article details exactly what this regime covers, the risks of an informal sublet, and the legal solutions for sharing an address.
Domiciling a third-party company is a regulated service, not a plain sublet
The instinctive reaction is to treat sharing an address as an ordinary lease sublet, a matter between landlord and tenant. That is a misclassification. Providing a registered office address to a company that does not really occupy the premises is a domiciliation service, whatever the parties choose to call their arrangement.
The act of 29 March 2018 on the registration of service providers to companies subjects this activity to prior registration with the FPS Economy, as part of the fight against money laundering and shell companies. The registered provider must verify the identity of every domiciled company and keep a file available to the authorities.
What a company risks by subletting its address without registration
A company that lends or sublets its business address to another entity, without being registered as a service provider to companies, carries out a regulated activity outside its legal framework. The practical consequences touch both parties to the arrangement.
For the company that sublets its address without registration, the irregularity exposes the operation to being requalified and flagged to the competent authorities. For the company domiciled that way, the risk concerns the very validity of its registered office: an address that corresponds to no real activity and that did not go through a properly registered provider can be qualified as a fictitious registered office, with a risk of challenge by third parties or of review by the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE).
| Registered provider | Informal sublet | |
|---|---|---|
| Registration with the FPS Economy | ||
| Identity verification of domiciled companies | ||
| File available to the authorities | ||
| Risk of requalification as a fictitious registered office | Ruled out | Possible |
| Continuity of service under review | Assured | Uncertain |
The test that matters: real activity, not the number of companies at the address
No text caps the number of companies that can share one registered office address. A licensed domiciliation provider legally domiciles dozens, even hundreds, of companies at the same business address, precisely because it is registered and takes on the verification duties the law imposes on it.
What draws the authorities' attention, then, is not concentration itself, but its lack of justification: several unrelated companies domiciled at a private individual's or an unregistered company's address, where no activity is verifiable, is a profile the CBE and the tax authorities can look into more closely.
The legal alternatives for sharing an address or domiciling several companies
A company that needs to domicile a subsidiary, a sister structure or a new entity linked to the same director does not have to improvise an informal sublet. Two legal paths exist, depending on the situation.
Before sharing an address between several companies
Does the entity receiving the address carry out a real activity there?
If so, a documented, genuine provision of a workspace can be enough, outside the domiciliation regime.
Does the address serve only as an administrative registered office?
Go through a domiciliation provider registered with the FPS Economy, the only legal route for this case.
Is the provider you are considering actually registered?
Check its status on the FPS Economy's public register before signing, rather than relying on the provider's word alone.
Does the contract provide for identity verification of the domiciled company?
A properly registered provider systematically documents the identity and corporate purpose of the entities it domiciles.
Will the CBE be informed of the effective registered office?
Declaring it to the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises through a licensed business counter remains a separate step, whichever provider is chosen.
Setting up a dedicated domiciliation structure to house several companies of the same group is an option, but it means registering yourself as a service provider to companies, with the verification and record-keeping duties that entails. For most directors, going through a domiciliation provider that is already registered remains the simplest solution to domicile several entities without exposing any of them to a risk of requalification.
Domicile your companies in full compliance
A domiciliation service registered with the FPS Economy, to house one or several companies at a real business address.
What sets lease subletting apart from domiciliation
The confusion often comes from the fact that lease law also has its own subletting regime: unless the lease says otherwise, subletting all or part of a rented space requires the landlord's consent. That rule protects the landlord; it says nothing about the final occupant's status under the act of 29 March 2018.
The two regimes apply cumulatively: a company renting an office that wants to domicile another company there must both respect its lease's clauses on subletting, and respect the domiciliation regime if the domiciled entity carries out no real activity on site. Conflating the two leads to the wrong belief that the landlord's consent alone makes the arrangement lawful.
Further reading
- Office lease or domiciliation, to compare the two options before choosing a registered office address.
- Terminating a domiciliation agreement in Belgium, for the steps to follow when switching provider.
- The public register of registered service providers to companies on the FPS Economy website.
