Domiciliation or commercial lease: which registered office should you choose in Morocco in 2026?

The registered office is a company's official address. It determines:

• The territorial jurisdiction of the commercial court whose registry keeps the Commercial Register (Law 53-95), as explained in the guide on where to register a company in Morocco
• The competent tax office (DGI)
• The competent CNSS branch and labour inspectorate
• The address enforceable against third parties (notifications, litigation, official mail)

The registered office is a mandatory particular of the articles of association (statuts) (Law 5-96 for the SARL; Law 17-95, as amended by Law 19-20, for the SA; Law 5-96 as amended and supplemented by Law 19-20 for the SAS). It appears in the Commercial Register (Law 15-95) and on business documents (invoices, letterhead, website).

Law No. 89-17 (2019) inserted Articles 544-1 to 544-11 into the Commercial Code, which give domiciliation a clear legal framework:

• The domiciliation provider (business centre, firm, domiciliation company) must be registered in the Commercial Register and declared to the tax administration
• The domiciliation contract is written, compliant with the regulatory model, and concluded for a renewable fixed term
• The parties have reciprocal obligations: the domiciliation provider keeps a file for each domiciled business, forwards mail and informs the registry and the DGI when the contract ends; the domiciled company must register in the RC within 3 months of signing and report any change

Law No. 49-16 on leases of buildings or premises let for commercial, industrial or craft use replaced the 1955 dahir. It provides in particular for:

• A written contract, registered with the DGI to give it a certain date (date certaine)
• The right to renewal for the tenant who can show two consecutive years of occupancy; the law does not set a minimum lease term
• Commercial ownership (propriété commerciale): eviction compensation if renewal is refused without legitimate grounds
• The conditions for rent review
• The rules on notice to quit and termination

Buying premises in Morocco involves:

• Registration with the Land Registry (Conservation Foncière: National Agency for Land Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, ANCFCC) pursuant to Law 14-07
• Payment of land registry fees
• Going before a notary (Law 32-09) or an adoul (Law 16-03), depending on the case

This is the option that offers maximum stability, but it requires a significant initial investment.

Whichever option is chosen, the corresponding supporting document (domiciliation contract with the domiciliation provider's RC extract, registered lease or land title) is attached to the registration file filed with the commercial court registry (greffe du tribunal de commerce) for the place of the registered office, together with the other documents required to register a company in Morocco. The address is then recorded by the DGI (tax identification number, ICE, professional tax (taxe professionnelle)) and by the CNSS. Law 88-17 makes it possible to complete these formalities electronically: with Charikaty, you send your supporting document online and we file the application for you.

Any transfer of the registered office requires:

• A decision of the competent body: partners representing at least three quarters of the shares in a SARL (Article 75, Law 5-96), an extraordinary general meeting in an SA (Law 17-95), the body provided for in the articles of association in an SAS
• An amendment to the articles of association published in a legal announcements newspaper and in the Official Bulletin
• An amending entry in the Commercial Register, with the commercial court of the new registered office in the event of a change of city
• A declaration of transfer to the DGI within 30 days (Article 149 CGI) and an update with the CNSS

In the event of a transfer to another district, the company falls under a new tax office and updates its file with the competent registry. With Charikaty, the drafting of the deeds, the electronic signature, the filing with the registry and the legal publications are done online; the formalities are detailed in the guide to transferring the registered office to another city.

Charikaty is a private Moroccan legal-tech platform specializing in online company formation. Here is what you need to establish your registered office: compare domiciliation, lease and ownership according to your activity, then provide the corresponding supporting document. With Charikaty, you do everything online. We help you make this choice, we offer, with our domiciliation provider partners, a solution compliant with Law 89-17 through our domiciliation service, and we support companies that have premises with the drafting of the lease in compliance with Law 49-16. Your supporting document is then included in the registration file that we file with the registry, the DGI and the CNSS. More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.