French Residential Lease: Duration, Content, Rent and Notice
By Maître Léa Scemama, real estate lawyer. Updated 28 August 2026. Reading time: ~20 min.
A badly chosen French residential lease never causes trouble on signing day. It causes trouble two years later, in court, when a six-month lease is reclassified as a three-year lease or a notice to quit is struck down over a miscalculated notice period. This guide covers the full regime under the Act of 6 July 1989, including the new standard contract that applies from 1 October 2026, and flags at each stage what is actually litigated.
What is a French residential lease?
A residential lease (bail d'habitation) is the contract by which a landlord makes a dwelling available to a tenant in return for rent. What matters is not the definition but the regime: as soon as the property is the tenant's main residence, Act no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989 applies, and it is a matter of public policy. The parties cannot contract out of it, even by mutual agreement, even in writing.
This is what most landlords discover too late. A French residential lease is not a freely negotiated contract: it is a statutory status you sign up to. Contractual freedom is residual and essentially covers the rent, the start date and a few practical terms.
Under article 2 of the 1989 Act, a main residence is a dwelling occupied at least eight months a year, unless professional obligations, health reasons or force majeure apply. The test is objective: what counts is not what the contract says but how the property is actually occupied.
⚠️ Warning: calling a contract an "occupation agreement", a "provision of accommodation agreement" or a "common law lease" never takes it outside the 1989 Act. Courts reclassify based on the reality of occupation. In practice, our firm sees this reclassification argued by the tenant at the exact moment the landlord wants the property back, which is the worst possible time for the owner.
What falls inside and outside the 1989 Act
Inside: unfurnished lettings used as a main residence, furnished lettings used as a main residence (articles 25-3 onwards), house shares, the mobility lease (articles 25-12 to 25-18) and mixed residential and professional leases.
Outside: second homes, holiday lettings, tied accommodation, hostels and residences with services, short-term tourist rentals and leases governed by the Act of 1 September 1948. Those contracts fall under the general law of hire, articles 1713 onwards of the Civil Code, which is far more flexible for the landlord but offers the occupier no protection.
Drawing this line is the first question in any French real estate law letting dispute, because it determines duration, notice periods, grounds for termination and the competent court.
What changes on 1 October 2026: the decree of 6 July 2026
Since the ALUR Act of 2014, every main-residence lease must follow a standard contract set out in Decree no. 2015-587 of 29 May 2015. That standard contract has just been amended by Decree no. 2026-596 of 6 July 2026, published in the Official Journal of 7 July 2026. Its article 1 takes effect on 1 October 2026 and applies to leases entered into or renewed from that date. Existing leases are unaffected.
This is the first substantial overhaul of the standard contract in eleven years, and it has gone largely unnoticed. Three changes matter.
1. The forfeiture clause becomes mandatory and standardised
Section VIII of the standard contract is fully rewritten. It now provides that the lease is terminated automatically for non-payment of rent or charges, or for failure to pay the security deposit, and that the automatic termination clause takes effect only six weeks after a formal demand for payment (commandement de payer) has gone unanswered.
The six-week period is not new: it comes from Act no. 2023-668 of 27 July 2023, which cut it from two months. What is new is that the standard contract now incorporates it and makes the clause compulsory. A lease signed after 1 October 2026 without a compliant forfeiture clause forces the landlord into judicial termination proceedings, which are longer, less predictable and leave the judge free to assess how serious the breach is.
2. Three optional forfeiture clauses are now framed
- failure to take out tenant's liability insurance, effective one month after an unanswered formal demand;
- nuisance to neighbours, but only where established by a court decision that has become final, which prevents the landlord from taking matters into their own hands;
- breach of the obligation to occupy the property exclusively as a main residence, where the property is subject to the easement under article L. 151-14-1 of the Planning Code.
3. The main-residence easement enters the lease
Created by the Act of 19 November 2024 on tourist rentals, this planning easement allows municipalities in tight housing markets to require exclusive main-residence use for certain new builds. The decree now requires it to be stated in the lease where it exists. The matching forfeiture clause can only take effect once a formal notice period set by the mayor has expired, under article L. 481-4 II of the Planning Code.
The decree also adds an optional mobile phone number for the landlord and co-tenants. Its article 2, on housing benefit in cases of arrears in the overseas territories, takes effect on 1 January 2027.
💡 Practical tip: if you are re-letting or renewing in autumn 2026, check the start date before choosing your template. A lease starting on 25 September remains under the old standard contract; the same lease pushed to 2 October falls under the new one. In the files we handle, this kind of few-day gap is the most common cause of formal non-compliance.
Which lease for which situation?
| Type of lease | Minimum duration | Tenant's notice | Security deposit | Access condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfurnished, individual landlord | 3 years | 3 months, 1 month in tight markets | 1 month's rent excluding charges | Main residence |
| Unfurnished, corporate landlord | 6 years | 3 months, 1 month in tight markets | 1 month's rent excluding charges | Family SCI treated as an individual landlord |
| Furnished letting | 1 year | 1 month | 2 months' rent excluding charges | Furniture compliant with the decree of 31 July 2015 |
| Student furnished lease | 9 months, no tacit renewal | 1 month | 2 months' rent excluding charges | Proof of student status |
| Mobility lease | 1 to 10 months, non-renewable | 1 month | Prohibited | Training, higher education, internship, apprenticeship, temporary assignment or transfer |
| Short lease under article 11 | 1 year minimum, under 3 years | 3 months, 1 month in tight markets | 1 month's rent excluding charges | Specific professional or family event, individual landlord |
✅ Good to know: the mobility lease is the only contract under the 1989 Act where a security deposit is outright prohibited. The landlord may still require a guarantor or use the Visale scheme. Many templates downloaded online still include a deposit box in a mobility lease: that clause is void.
The "bail précaire" myth: a lease that does not exist
To be clear: there is no such thing as a precarious residential lease in French law. The bail précaire, or derogatory lease, belongs to commercial lease law under article L. 145-5 of the Commercial Code. It does not apply to housing.
For a main residence, the 1989 Act recognises only three legitimate ways to let on a short basis.
The article 11 short lease
Article 11 allows an unfurnished lease shorter than three years but at least one year, where a specific event justifies the individual landlord needing the property back for professional or family reasons. The contract must state the reasons and the event relied on.
Three cumulative conditions: an individual landlord, a specific dated event, and an express mention in the lease. A planned return from abroad, a scheduled retirement, a child moving in, a known transfer: these hold up. "I might need the property" does not.
The landlord must then confirm the event at least two months before the end date. They may postpone the end date once, and once only. The sanction is set out in the text itself: where the event has not occurred or is not confirmed, the lease is deemed to be a three-year lease.
⚠️ The classic trap: a landlord signs an eighteen-month lease "pending a sale", without stating an event. At the end, they give notice. The tenant challenges it. The lease is deemed to be three years, the notice is void, and the landlord is bound until the end of the third year, with a buyer lost. We see this several times a year, and the landlord almost always loses.
The occupation agreement and the mobility lease
A convention d'occupation précaire is a judge-made construct requiring an objective cause of precariousness beyond the parties' control: a building due for demolition, a property under a dangerous structure order, an expropriation in progress. The payment must be modest and unrelated to market value. Used to house someone long term at market rent, it is systematically reclassified.
The mobility lease, created by the ELAN Act of 23 November 2018, in practice covers most of the needs that push landlords towards a "precarious lease": furnished, one to ten months, non-renewable, no security deposit, reserved for tenants in vocational training, higher education, apprenticeship, an internship, civic service, a transfer or a temporary assignment.
Duration, tacit renewal and renewal
The statutory duration is a floor, never a ceiling. Nothing prevents a five-year unfurnished lease; what is prohibited is a two-year unfurnished lease outside article 11.
Note also that the French "3/6/9" formula belongs to commercial leases and has no meaning for housing, where the tenant may leave at any time subject to notice. A residential lease template mentioning a "3/6/9" regime should be discarded.
Absent valid notice, the lease is tacitly renewed for the same duration: three years for an unfurnished lease from an individual landlord, six years for a corporate landlord, one year for a furnished letting. The nine-month student lease is the exception: it is neither tacitly nor automatically renewed.
What the lease must contain
The lease must be in writing and follow the standard contract. A verbal lease is not void, but it puts the landlord in a very weak position: article 3 allows the tenant to demand a written contract at any time, and without written evidence the burden of proving the rent, the start date and the condition of the property falls on whoever relies on it.
Mandatory particulars
- identity and address of the landlord, of any agent, and of the tenant or tenants;
- start date and duration;
- description and intended use of the property and its equipment;
- habitable floor area;
- rent, payment terms and indexation rules;
- last rent paid by the previous tenant, if they left less than eighteen months before signing;
- nature and cost of works carried out since the end of the previous lease;
- amount of the security deposit;
- in rent-controlled areas, the reference rent, the increased reference rent and any justified rent supplement;
- amount and allocation of agency fees;
- estimated heating and cooling costs, with the reference year;
- the property's tax identification number;
- the forfeiture clause, mandatory in the standard contract applicable from 1 October 2026.
⚠️ Floor area: if the actual area is more than one twentieth smaller than the stated area, the tenant may claim a proportionate rent reduction. The claim must be brought within two months of an unanswered request, and the reduction is not retroactive beyond that. This action is used far more often than landlords expect, particularly for small Paris flats.
Mandatory annexes and decency
The technical diagnosis file must be annexed: energy performance certificate (DPE), lead risk report for pre-1949 buildings, electrical and gas installation reports where the installation is over fifteen years old, natural, mining and technological risk statement, and noise report in the airport zones concerned. Add the information notice, the inventory of condition, the tenant's insurance certificate, the list of communications equipment, the relevant extract of the co-ownership rules, and, for a furnished letting, a detailed inventory of the furniture.
The property must also be decent under Decree no. 2002-120 of 30 January 2002: at least 9 sq m and 2.20 m ceiling height, no obvious risk to safety or health, and minimum amenities. The Climate and Resilience Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021 added an energy performance criterion.
| EPC band | Mainland France | Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Réunion, Mayotte |
|---|---|---|
| G, above 450 kWh/sq m/year | Since 1 January 2023 | Not applicable |
| G | Since 1 January 2025 | 1 January 2028 |
| F | 1 January 2028 | 1 January 2031 |
| E | 1 January 2034 | Not yet set |
The ban covers new lettings and renewals, not leases in progress. Since 2025, the rent on a G-rated property can no longer be indexed.
Rent, indexation, rent control and charges
Outside regulated areas the initial rent is free. In tight housing markets, two distinct mechanisms overlap and are often confused. Rent-increase control on re-letting applies across tight markets under an annual decree and in principle prohibits raising the rent when the tenant changes. Rent control proper, under article 140 of the ELAN Act of 23 November 2018, is an experimental scheme applied where local authorities opt in. It caps rent at an increased reference rent, subject to a justified supplement. It applies in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Villeurbanne, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, Plaine Commune, Est Ensemble and the Basque Country, with further areas announced for 2026. Breaching it exposes the landlord to an administrative fine of up to 5,000 € for an individual and 15,000 € for a company, on top of repaying the excess.
Rent can only be indexed during the lease if the contract expressly provides for it, by reference to the rent reference index (IRL) published by INSEE. In the second quarter of 2026 the IRL stands at 148.37 points, up 1.15 % year on year.
⚠️ The one-year rule: a landlord who does not act on indexation within one year of the review date set in the lease is deemed to have waived it for that year. Indexation is never retroactive. In the files we handle, this is the costliest oversight for private landlords: three years of unclaimed indexation cannot be recovered.
Only charges on the exhaustive list in Decree no. 87-713 of 26 August 1987 can be passed on: water, communal heating, lift, upkeep of common parts, refuse collection tax and others. Major works, managing agent fees, property tax and management costs are never recoverable. The limitation period is three years both ways, under article 7-1.
Security deposit and guarantor
The deposit is capped at one month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished letting and two months for a furnished one, and is prohibited in a mobility lease. It can never be increased during the lease, even if the rent rises. It must be returned within one month where the outgoing inventory matches the incoming one, and two months otherwise. Late return carries an automatic penalty of 10 % of the monthly rent excluding charges for each month started.
The guarantee formalities changed on 1 January 2022. Following Order no. 2021-1192 of 15 September 2021 reforming security law, article 22-1 requires the individual guarantor to sign a deed showing the rent and its indexation terms, reproducing the second-to-last paragraph of that article, and to add the wording required by article 2297 of the Civil Code. The landlord must give the guarantor a copy of the lease. These formalities are prescribed on pain of nullity.
💡 Practical tip: have the guarantee deed signed the same day as the lease and keep proof that a copy of the lease was handed to the guarantor. Our firm finds that nullity of the guarantee is raised in a large share of arrears proceedings, and that it usually succeeds on that precise point rather than on the wording itself.
Giving notice: tenant and landlord
This is where most litigation sits, because the rules are not symmetrical. The tenant can leave whenever they wish. The landlord can only recover the property at the end of the lease and on three grounds exhaustively listed in article 15.
| Party giving notice | Unfurnished | Furnished | Ground required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tenant, general rule | 3 months | 1 month | None |
| Tenant, reduced notice | 1 month | Not applicable | Ground stated and evidenced in the notice letter |
| Landlord | 6 months before the end date | 3 months before the end date | Repossession, sale, or legitimate and serious cause |
Reduced notice of one month applies where the property is in a tight housing market, or on job transfer, job loss, a new job following job loss, a first job, health grounds for a tenant over 60 evidenced by a medical certificate, receipt of the RSA or the disabled adults' allowance, or allocation of social housing. The ground must be stated and evidenced in the notice letter, failing which three months applies.
The landlord's three grounds are repossession for occupation by the landlord or close family, sale, which gives the tenant a pre-emption right of two months extended to four if a loan is sought, and legitimate and serious cause such as repeated arrears, established nuisance, absence of insurance or unauthorised subletting.
⚠️ Protected tenants: a landlord cannot give notice to a tenant over 65 whose annual income falls below the social housing ceiling without offering suitable alternative accommodation nearby, unless the landlord is themselves over 65 or below that income ceiling. Age and income are assessed at the lease end date. Notice given in breach of this rule is void, with no way to cure it.
Notice is given by recorded delivery letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by bailiff's writ, or by hand against a signed receipt. Time runs from receipt, not from posting.
Key figures on rented housing in France
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Total dwellings in France, excluding Mayotte | 38.4 million |
| Main residences | 31.7 million, or 82.5 % of the stock |
| Households owning their main residence | 57.4 % |
| Private sector tenants | 22.8 % |
| Social housing tenants | 17.6 % |
| Vacant dwellings | 3.0 million, or 7.7 % of the stock |
📊 Letting disputes in numbers. According to the French Ministry of Justice statistical service study on eviction proceedings, non-payment of rent and charges is the principal ground in 95 % of cases. Eviction is sought in 90.3 % of cases and granted in around 96 % of those. The median debt set by judges is 3,000 € and exceeds 5,100 € in a quarter of cases. Time to pay is granted in only 41 % of defended cases.
Sources: INSEE, "Le parc de logements en France au 1er janvier 2025", INSEE Focus no. 359, published 17 September 2025; INSEE, rent reference index, second quarter 2026, Informations rapides no. 167, published 10 July 2026; French Ministry of Justice, Infos rapides Justice no. 16 on eviction proceedings, 2024.
The seven costliest mistakes
- Signing a short lease without stating the article 11 event. The lease becomes a three-year lease and the notice given at the intended end date is void.
- Using a "bail précaire habitation" template found online. These transpose the commercial regime to housing and invite outright reclassification.
- Forgetting to apply the annual rent indexation. After one year the landlord is deemed to have waived it, permanently, year after year.
- Failing to give the guarantor a copy of the lease. The guarantee is void, and the landlord finds out exactly when they need it.
- Giving notice to a protected tenant without offering rehousing. The notice is void and the lease continues, often for another three years.
- Skipping the incoming inventory of condition. The tenant is then presumed to have received the property in good order, and no deduction from the deposit is defensible.
- Returning the deposit late. The 10 % monthly penalty is automatic.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum duration of a French residential lease?
Three years for an unfurnished letting from an individual landlord or a family SCI, six years from any other legal entity, one year for a furnished letting, nine months for a student lease. The article 11 short lease can go down to one year if a specific professional or family event is stated in the contract. The mobility lease runs from one to ten months.
Is a "bail précaire" residential lease legal in France?
No. The precarious or derogatory lease belongs to commercial lease law. For a main residence the only short options are the article 11 lease, the mobility lease, the furnished student lease and, in very limited cases, an occupation agreement justified by an objective cause.
Can a lease be ended early?
The tenant can leave at any time, with three months' notice for an unfurnished letting, reduced to one month in tight housing markets or in eight statutory situations, and one month for a furnished letting. The landlord cannot: they must wait for the end date and rely on repossession, sale or a legitimate and serious cause.
Is a verbal lease valid in France?
Yes, and it remains subject to the 1989 Act. But the tenant can demand a written contract at any time, and without an inventory of condition the property is presumed to have been received in good order, which rules out any deduction from the deposit.
Which court hears residential lease disputes?
The juge des contentieux de la protection at the judicial court for the district where the property is located. It handles arrears, notices, repair claims, deposit recovery and evictions.
What happens if the property is rated F or G on the EPC?
A G-rated property can no longer be let in mainland France since 1 January 2025, and an F-rated property will be banned from 1 January 2028. Leases in progress continue, but the rent on a G-rated property can no longer be indexed and the tenant may apply to court for works or a rent reduction.
📞 Are you a landlord or tenant facing a French residential lease dispute?
Maître Léa Scemama, real estate lawyer, will review your situation, secure the drafting or renewal of your residential leases and represent you in litigation: reclassification, contested notice, arrears, deposit recovery.
Phone: +33 6 13 53 19 86
Email: contact@mirai-avocats.com
Disclaimer. This article is for general information only. It is not legal advice and cannot replace the personalised analysis of a lawyer, who alone can take account of the specific circumstances of your case. The law is stated as at 28 August 2026.
Legal references
- Act no. 89-462 of 6 July 1989 on landlord and tenant relations, in particular articles 2, 3, 3-1, 3-3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7-1, 8, 8-1, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 17-1, 17-2, 18, 22, 22-1, 23, 24 and 25-3 to 25-18.
- French Civil Code, articles 1713 onwards (hire of things) and article 2297 (guarantor's wording).
- French Planning Code, articles L. 151-14-1 and L. 481-4.
- Order no. 2021-1192 of 15 September 2021 reforming security law, article 35, in force 1 January 2022.
- Act no. 2014-366 of 24 March 2014 (ALUR Act).
- Act no. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018 (ELAN Act), in particular article 140.
- Act no. 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021 (Climate and Resilience Act).
- Act no. 2023-668 of 27 July 2023 on protecting housing against unlawful occupation.
- Act no. 2024-1039 of 19 November 2024 on regulating tourist rentals.
- Decree no. 87-713 of 26 August 1987 listing recoverable charges.
- Decree no. 2002-120 of 30 January 2002 on decent housing standards.
- Decree no. 2015-587 of 29 May 2015 on standard lease contracts for main residences.
- Decree no. 2015-981 of 31 July 2015 listing the furniture required in a furnished letting.
- Decree no. 2026-596 of 6 July 2026 amending Decree no. 2015-587, Official Journal of 7 July 2026, article 1 in force 1 October 2026 and article 2 in force 1 January 2027.