Complete rental management: Landlord's guide

Renting out a property 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 falls due: an expired diagnostic report at signing, a service charge reconciliation never carried out, a notice of termination served too late. This guide follows the chronological order of a tenancy, from listing the property to the tenant's departure.

Before letting the property

Three checks determine the very right to let the property.

The decency of the dwelling. Minimum floor area, absence of risk to safety and health, basic fittings. To these criteria is now added an energy performance requirement: the most energy-intensive dwellings are progressively excluded from the rental market, in successive stages. An indecent dwelling 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 attached to the lease. The validity periods for a rental differ from those applicable to a sale, 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, rent is capped at a reference rent plus a surcharge, with a supplement possible only if the dwelling has exceptional features. Outside these areas, rent is unrestricted 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 notice mechanics.

For an unfurnished letting, the lease runs for three years when the landlord is an individual, and the landlord's notice period is six months. For a furnished letting, the lease runs for 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 more flexibility and often a more favorable tax regime, at the cost of faster turnover and an equipment requirement whose list is set by decree. A dwelling presented as furnished but incomplete can be reclassified as an unfurnished letting, with retroactive application of the three-year lease.

Selecting the tenant

The documents a landlord may require are exhaustively listed by decree. Requesting a document not on the list—bank statements, proof of no outstanding loans, medical records—is prohibited and subject to penalties.

Selection may not be based on any discriminatory criterion. It may, however, rely on solvency, assessed from the authorized supporting documents, and on the guarantees offered: joint and several guarantor, public rental guarantee, unpaid-rent insurance. The last two cannot be freely combined with an individual guarantor, except in specific cases.

The lease and its annexes

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

These annexes are not decorative: their absence can be raised as a defense, and it deprives the landlord of the ability to rely on the documents concerned. Signing the lease and its annexes as a single dated set, which 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 inventory, a key document at move-out

The move-in inventory is only useful when compared with the move-out inventory. Its value therefore lies in its precision: room by room, fixture by fixture, with a level of detail that will make it possible, two or three years later, to distinguish damage from normal wear.

In the absence of a move-in inventory, the dwelling is presumed to have been delivered in good condition, and no deduction can be made at move-out. This is the harshest penalty under the scheme, and it is automatic. Signing a move-in/move-out inventory that is time-stamped and cannot be altered afterward removes any dispute over the document's date and content.

During the tenancy

Four obligations recur, each at its own pace:

• 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, capped by the rent reference index, and within one year of its effective date—after that period, that year's revision is forfeited.
• The annual reconciliation of service charges, mandatory, with a breakdown of charges by category provided to the tenant. The line between what can be recovered and what remains the landlord's responsibility is covered in our article on recoverable service charges.
• Repairs and maintenance, split between tenant repairs, whose list is set by decree, and everything else, which falls to the landlord.

The 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 lease expiry, with a six-month notice period for an unfurnished letting, 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 include mandatory particulars, failing which it is void. The precise procedures are detailed in our article on lease termination.

The security deposit must be returned within one month when the move-out inventory matches the move-in inventory, and within two months otherwise. Any deduction must be supported by documentation—quote, invoice, report—and delay incurs penalties calculated per month begun, without any fault needing to be proven.

Usage scenarios

First property put up for rent. The order to follow is: diagnostics, decency, checking rent controls, then drafting the lease. Reversing this order leads to signing a lease with a missing annex or an unlawful rent.

Unpaid rent. Acting quickly matters more than the amount. Formal demand, then triggering the termination clause via a payment order served by a court bailiff. Procedural timelines mean that waiting costs more than acting.

Managing multiple properties. The issue becomes one of scheduling: diagnostic deadlines, annual revision dates, reconciliation deadlines, notice periods. Tracking by deadline and by property 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 any discriminatory criterion, and without requiring documents outside the list set by decree. The refusal need not be justified; the selection method, if challenged, must be capable of being justified.

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

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

Can the rent be increased during the lease? Only if a revision clause is included in the lease, capped by the reference index, and provided it is applied within the year following its effective date. After that 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 inventory matches the move-in inventory, two months otherwise. Any deduction must be supported by documentation, and exceeding the deadline triggers penalties.

Can an incomplete furnished lease be reclassified? Yes. If the equipment does not match the statutory list, the lease can be reclassified as an unfurnished letting, with the corresponding consequences for the term and the notice period.

Key takeaways

Property management is less a legal matter than a scheduling one. The obligations are well known; it is their deadlines that generate disputes—an expired diagnostic 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 five months instead of six.

Two documents concentrate most of the financial risk: the lease with its annexes, and the move-in inventory. 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.