Complete Rental Management: Landlord Owner's Guide

Renting out a property involves a succession of obligations, each with its own timeline and its own penalty. The difficulty is not in knowing them one by one, but in not missing one when it comes due: an expired diagnostic report at signing, a service charge reconciliation never carried out, a notice of termination given too late. This guide follows the chronological order of a tenancy, from putting the property on the market to the tenant's departure.

Before letting the property

Three checks determine the very right to let.

Habitability of the property. Minimum floor area, absence of any risk to safety and health, basic amenities. To these criteria is now added an energy performance requirement: the most energy-intensive properties are progressively being excluded from the rental market, in successive stages. A property that does not meet habitability standards is not merely open to criticism, it exposes the landlord to a suspension of rent.

The technical diagnostic file. It must be complete and up to date at signing, and appended to the lease. The validity periods applicable to rentals differ from those applicable to sales, which makes reusing a sales file risky — the details are set out in our article on mandatory property diagnostics.

The rent-setting regime. In rent-control areas, the rent is capped at a reference rent plus a permitted increase, with a surcharge possible only if the property has exceptional features. Outside these areas, the rent is unregulated for a first letting but capped on re-letting in certain municipalities.

Choosing between unfurnished and furnished letting

This choice is not purely a tax matter; it determines the lease term and the mechanics of termination.

For unfurnished letting, the lease term is three years where the landlord is an individual, and the landlord's notice period is six months. For furnished letting, the lease term is one year — or nine months for a student, with no automatic renewal — and the landlord's notice period drops to three months.

Furnished letting offers greater flexibility and often a more favourable tax regime, at the cost of faster turnover and a furnishing obligation whose list is set by decree. A property presented as furnished but incomplete can be reclassified as an unfurnished letting, with retroactive application of the three-year lease term.

Selecting the tenant

The documents a landlord may require are exhaustively listed by decree. Requesting a document outside this list — bank statements, a certificate of no outstanding loans, medical records — is prohibited and punishable.

Selection may not be based on any discriminatory criterion. It may, however, be based on solvency, assessed from the permitted supporting documents, and on the guarantees offered: joint guarantor, public rental guarantee, unpaid-rent insurance. The latter two cannot generally be combined with an individual guarantor, except in certain exceptions.

The lease and its annexes

The lease for a property used as a primary residence follows a statutory model contract. Mandatory annexes must be added: the information notice, the technical diagnostic file, and, in the case of a co-owned building, extracts from the by-laws relating to the building's purpose and to the enjoyment and use of common areas.

These annexes are not merely decorative: their absence can be raised as a legal defence, and it deprives the landlord of the ability to enforce the documents concerned against the tenant. Signing the lease and its annexes as a single dated set, which can be shown not to have been reassembled afterwards, settles this issue durably — this is the main benefit of electronic signature of a residential lease.

The inventory report, a cornerstone of move-out

The move-in inventory report is only useful when compared with the move-out one. Its value therefore lies in its precision: room by room, fixture by fixture, with a level of detail that will, two or three years later, allow damage to be distinguished from normal wear and tear.

In the absence of a move-in inventory report, the property is deemed to have been handed over in good condition, and no deduction can be made on move-out. This is the harshest penalty in the scheme, and it applies automatically. The signing of an inventory report that is time-stamped and cannot be altered afterwards removes any dispute over the document's date and content.

During the tenancy

Four obligations recur, each on its own rhythm:

• The rent receipt, to be issued free of charge on the tenant's request.
• Rent revision, possible only if a clause in the lease provides for it, within the limit of the rent reference index, and within one year of its effective date — after this period, that year's revision is forfeited.
• The annual reconciliation of service charges, mandatory, with disclosure of the statement broken down by type of charge. The line between what can be recovered and what remains the landlord's responsibility is covered in our article on service charges.
• Repairs, divided between tenant-borne repairs, the list of which is set by decree, and everything else, which is the landlord's responsibility.

End of the lease

The tenant may give notice at any time, with a three-month notice period, reduced to one month in high-demand areas and in several personal situations.

The landlord may only do so at the lease's expiry, with a six-month notice period for unfurnished lettings, and for one of three exhaustively permitted grounds: repossession to live in the property, sale, or a legitimate and serious reason. The notice must state the ground, and a notice for repossession or sale must contain mandatory particulars, failing which it is void. The precise procedures are detailed in our article on termination of the lease.

The security deposit must be returned within one month where the move-out inventory report matches the move-in one, and within two months otherwise. Any deduction must be supported by evidence — quotation, invoice, report — and delay triggers penalties calculated per month begun, without any fault having to be proven.

Usage scenarios

First property let out. The order to follow is diagnostics, habitability, checking rent control, then drafting the lease. Reversing this order leads to signing a lease that is missing an annex or has an irregular rent.

Unpaid rent. A quick response matters more than the amount. Formal notice, followed by triggering the termination clause via a payment demand served by a judicial officer. Procedural timeframes mean that waiting costs more than acting.

Managing several units. The issue becomes one of scheduling: diagnostic deadlines, annual revision dates, reconciliation deadlines, notice periods. Tracking by deadline and by unit is the only system that holds up beyond two or three properties.

Frequently asked questions

Can a landlord refuse a tenant without reason? The landlord chooses freely, but without any discriminatory criterion, and without requiring documents outside the list set by decree. The refusal need not be justified, but the selection method, if challenged, must be capable of being justified.

What notice period applies to give termination? Three months for the tenant, reduced to one month in high-demand areas and in several particular cases. Six months for the landlord in unfurnished lettings, three months in furnished lettings, only at expiry and for a permitted ground.

What happens without a move-in inventory report? The property is presumed to have been delivered in good condition. No deduction from the security deposit is then possible on move-out, regardless of the actual state of any damage.

Can the rent be increased during the tenancy? Only if a revision clause is included in the lease, within the limit of the reference index, and provided it is applied within the year following its effective date. After this period, that year's revision can no longer be claimed.

Within what timeframe must the security deposit be returned? One month if the move-out inventory report matches the move-in one, two months otherwise. Any deduction must be supported by evidence, and exceeding the deadline triggers penalties.

Can an incomplete furnished lease be reclassified? Yes. If the furnishings do not match the statutory list, the lease can be reclassified as an unfurnished letting, with the corresponding consequences for the term and for termination.

Key takeaways

Rental management is less a matter of law than a matter of scheduling. The obligations are well known; it is their deadlines that give rise to disputes — an expired diagnostic report on the day of signing, a rent revision claimed thirteen months after its effective date, a service charge reconciliation never carried out, a notice of termination given at five months instead of six.

Two documents concentrate most of the financial risk: the lease with its annexes, and the move-in inventory report. For both, what provides protection is not the content alone, but the ability to establish, years later, what was signed, by whom, and on what date.