The law of July 6, 1989, as amended by the ALUR law (law no. 2014-366 of March 24, 2014, concerning access to housing and urban renewal), mandates the use of a standard residential lease agreement. The decree of May 29, 2015, implementing articles 3, 8-1, and 25-7 of the law of July 6, 1989, clarifies the scope of this requirement and defines a standard lease agreement for unfurnished rentals and another for furnished rentals. The text is further supplemented by a notice outlining the respective obligations of each party, the content of which was established by a decree of May 29, 2015. This system entered into force on 1 , 2015. ,
with the following exceptions:
- furnished shared accommodation formalized by the conclusion of several contracts between the tenants and the landlord;
- rentals of accommodation subject to a personalized housing assistance agreement or assistance from the national housing agency;
- rental properties belonging to a social housing organization that are not subject to a personalized housing assistance agreement.
Generally, these standard contracts contain the clauses mandated by law but allow the parties some flexibility, enabling them to supplement the contract within the limits of applicable regulations.
In substance, the two standard contracts are divided into eleven sections, titled as follows:
- Designation of the parties
- Subject of the contract : this section contains a description of the accommodation, the intended use of the premises, where applicable, the designation of the premises and ancillary equipment of the building for the tenant's private use, the list of the premises, parts, equipment and accessories of the building for common use, and the equipment for accessing information and communication technologies.
- Effective date and duration of the contract
- Financial conditions : this section specifies in particular:
- the amount of rent, where applicable, in high-demand areas, mention is made of the specific methods for setting it;
- recoverable charges;
- In the case of shared accommodation, the landlord must take out insurance on behalf of the roommates;
- the terms of rent payment;
- where applicable, exclusively during a contract renewal, the terms of reassessment of a manifestly undervalued rent.
- Works : Mention is made, where applicable, of the amount and nature of improvement or compliance work carried out since the end of the last lease or since the last renewal, of the rent increase during the lease following improvement work undertaken by the landlord or acquisition of equipment and of the rent decrease during the lease following work undertaken by the tenant.
- Guarantees
- Solidarity clause
- Termination clause
- Rental fees : Article 5 of the law of July 6, 1989 must be reproduced in this section, which also specifies the details and distribution of fees.
- Other special conditions
- Appendices : This last section lists the documents attached to the contract. These include:
- an extract from the regulations concerning the building's purpose, the enjoyment and use of private and common areas, and specifying the share attributable to the rented unit in each category of charges
- the technical diagnostic file
- the information notice relating to the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords
- a property condition report, an inventory and a detailed description of the furniture
- where applicable, prior authorization to rent
- where applicable, references to rents usually observed in the neighborhood for comparable housing.
Each party may require the other, at any time, to draw up a compliant contract. If the lease agreement is missing information regarding the living area, reference rents, and the last rent paid by the previous tenant, the tenant may, within one month of the lease's effective date, formally request that the landlord include this information in the lease. If the landlord fails to respond within one month or refuses to do so, the tenant may, within three months of the formal request, bring the matter before the competent court to obtain, where applicable, a rent reduction.
