Mandat ad hoc moves online to the registered-office court

The mandat ad hoc guidance, verified 6 October 2026, reframes how a struggling company asks the court to appoint a mandataire ad hoc. Only the dirigeant — the entrepreneur individuel or the company's représentant légal — may applyService Public, and the request now goes to the court of the company's siège socialService Public rather than the place of businessService Public: the tribunal de commerce or tribunal des activités économiques for commercial or craft activity, the tribunal judiciaire or TAE for liberal activity, with the 12 experimental TAE cities (Avignon, Auxerre, Le Havre, Le Mans, Limoges, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy, Nanterre, Paris, Saint-Brieuc and Versailles) handling amicable and collective proceedings since 1 January 2025 and the tribunal judiciaire remaining competent for regulated legal professions. Any company including micro-entrepreneurs may apply whatever its size or turnover, provided it is not in cessation des paiementsService Public; a company in cessation for under 45 days may instead seek conciliation toward an agreement with its main creditors. Typical triggers are economic, financial or social difficulties such as a lost contract, late social or tax payments, credit repayment strain or a dispute between partners.

The designation request is made on the standard form, dated and signed, setting out the company's activity, employment, turnover and results, the difficulties and financing needs, the recovery steps envisaged such as payment delays and debt write-offs, and the name of a proposed mandataire if the manager wishes to suggest one. It must be accompanied by an extrait Kbis or, now, a justificatif d'immatriculation au RNE instead of a Siren numberService PublicService Public, plus the statement of claims and debts with a schedule and main creditors, the statement of assets and liabilities, sureties and off-balance-sheet commitments, annual accounts, the financing table and realisable-asset and payable-liability position for the last three years where drawn up, and a sworn statement of no cessation des paiements.

The filing route is newService Public: the completed request is sent either online through Tribunal digital or lodged or posted in duplicate to the greffe of the competent court. After examining the file the president hears the manager, then issues an order appointing a mandataire — often an administrateur judiciaire — where the request appears founded; the manager may propose a name. The order defines the mission, usually helping negotiate rescheduling with the main creditors, with no statutory maximum duration though three months renewable is the practice, and it now spells out the remunerationService Public as fixed by the president at the start of the mission: the criteria, the ceiling and the provisions, with the struggling company's agreement recorded in writing and annexed to the order, per articles R611-19 and R611-47 of the code de commerce. The appointment is notified by registered letter to the manager and for information to the commissaire aux comptes where one exists; the CSE and staff are not informed and the designation is not published, so the procedure stays confidential. Legal basis: articles L611-3, R611-18, R611-19 and R611-47 of the code de commerce.