Complete Rental Management: Landlord Owner's Guide

Renting out a home involves a series of obligations, each with its own timeline and its own penalty. The difficulty is not knowing them one by one, but not missing one when it becomes due: an expired diagnostic report at signing, a charges reconciliation never performed, a notice given too late. This guide follows the chronological order of a tenancy, from listing the property to the tenant's departure.

Before listing the property

Three checks condition the very right to rent out a property.

The habitability of the dwelling. Minimum floor area, absence of risk to safety and health, basic amenities. To these criteria is now added an energy performance requirement: the most energy-intensive dwellings are being progressively excluded from the rental market, in successive stages. A substandard dwelling is not merely open to criticism—it exposes the landlord to a rent suspension.

The technical diagnostic file. It must be complete and up to date at signing, and attached to the lease. Validity periods for rentals differ from those applicable to sales, which makes reusing a sale file risky—the details are covered in our article on mandatory real estate diagnostics.

The rent-setting regime. In rent-control zones, rent is capped at a reference rent plus a surcharge, with a supplemental amount possible only if the dwelling has exceptional features. Outside these zones, rent is unrestricted for a first letting but capped upon re-letting in certain municipalities.

Choosing between unfurnished and furnished rentals

This choice is not purely a tax matter—it determines the lease term and the notice mechanics.

For an unfurnished rental, the lease term is three years when the landlord is an individual, and the landlord's notice period is six months. For a furnished rental, 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.

A furnished rental offers more flexibility and often a more favorable tax regime, at the cost of faster turnover and an equipment obligation whose list is set by decree. A dwelling presented as furnished but incomplete can be reclassified as an unfurnished rental, 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, proof of no outstanding loans, medical records—is prohibited and subject to penalties.

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

The lease and its attachments

The lease agreement for a dwelling used as a primary residence follows a mandatory standard-form contract. Mandatory attachments must be added: the information notice, the technical diagnostic file, and, for condominiums, excerpts from the bylaws relating to the building's designated use and to the enjoyment and use of common areas.

These attachments are not decorative: their absence can be raised as a legal defense, and it deprives the landlord of the ability to enforce the documents concerned against the tenant. Signing the lease and its attachments as a single, dated package that can be shown not to have been reassembled afterward settles this issue permanently—this is the main benefit of electronic signature of a residential lease.

The move-in/move-out inspection report, the cornerstone of departure

A move-in inspection report is only useful when compared with a move-out inspection report. 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, make it possible to distinguish damage from normal wear and tear.

In the absence of a move-in inspection report, the dwelling is presumed to have been delivered in good condition, and no deduction may be made upon departure. This is the harshest penalty under the framework, and it is automatic. Signing a move-in/move-out inspection report that is timestamped and cannot be altered afterward eliminates any dispute over the document's date and content.

During the tenancy

Four obligations recur, each on its own schedule:

• The rent receipt, to be issued free of charge upon 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 charges reconciliation, mandatory, with an itemized statement communicated by category of charges. The line between what is recoverable and what remains the landlord's responsibility is covered in our article on rental charges.
• Repairs and maintenance, divided between tenant repairs, whose list is set by decree, and everything else, which falls to the landlord.

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 expiration, with a six-month notice period for unfurnished rentals, and for one of three exhaustively permitted reasons: repossession to live in the dwelling, sale, or a legitimate and serious reason. The notice must state the reason, and a notice for repossession or sale must include mandatory statements, on pain of nullity. The precise procedures are detailed in our article on lease termination.

The security deposit must be returned within one month when the move-out inspection matches the move-in inspection, and within two months otherwise. Any deduction must be justified with supporting documents—estimates, invoices, official findings—and delay triggers penalties calculated per month begun, without any need to prove fault.

Usage scenarios

First property put up for rent. The order to follow is diagnostics, habitability, checking rent control rules, then drafting the lease. Reversing this order leads to signing a lease with a missing attachment or an irregular rent.

Unpaid rent. A quick response matters more than the amount. Formal notice, then activation of the lease's termination clause via a payment demand issued by a court officer. Procedural timelines mean that waiting costs more than acting.

Managing multiple units. This becomes a matter 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 giving a reason? The landlord chooses freely, but without discriminatory criteria, 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 justification.

How much notice is required to end a tenancy? Three months for the tenant, reduced to one month in high-demand areas and in several specific cases. Six months for the landlord in unfurnished rentals, three months for furnished rentals, only at expiration and for an accepted reason.

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

Can rent be increased during the lease? 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 recovered.

Within what timeframe must the security deposit be returned? One month if the move-out inspection matches the move-in inspection, two months otherwise. Any deduction must be justified with supporting documents, and exceeding the deadline triggers penalties.

Can an incomplete furnished lease be reclassified? Yes. If the furnishings do not match the regulatory list, the lease can be reclassified as an unfurnished lease, with the corresponding consequences on its term and on notice requirements.

Key takeaways

Rental property management is less a matter of law than a matter of scheduling. The obligations are well known; it is their deadlines that generate disputes—an expired diagnostic report on signing day, a rent revision claimed thirteen months after its effective date, a charges reconciliation never performed, a notice given with five months instead of six.

Two documents concentrate the bulk of the financial risk: the lease with its attachments, and the move-in inspection 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.