First-time landlord
You own a flat and want to rent it out. Here is what actually has to happen first.
Renting out a home you own in France is a handful of decisions made once, and a routine repeated every month after. This page takes both in the order they come up, from whether the flat may be let at all to the day the tenant hands back the keys.
Nothing is switched on until you say so.
Step 1 · Before anything else
Can the flat be let at all?
The energy rating (DPE) decides it before anything else does. A home rated too low cannot be offered on a new lease, a renewal or a tacit renewal in mainland France, and the floor rises on a fixed calendar.
- ACan be let
- BCan be let
- CCan be let
- DCan be let
- EBanned from 1 January 2034
- FBanned from 1 January 2028Rent frozen since 24 August 2022
- GBanned since 1 January 2025Rent frozen since 24 August 2022
↑ Uses the least energyUses the most ↓
- A tenant already in place keeps the lease until its term; the ban applies when it is renewed. That tenant may still ask you for the works that bring the home up to the standard.
- Only a DPE drawn up since 1 July 2021 is still valid; older ones expired at the end of 2024. The listing must show the energy and climate classes and the estimated yearly energy bill.
- The overseas departments follow a later calendar.
The minimum for a decent home
At least 9 m² of floor space with a ceiling of 2.20 m or more (or 20 m³ of volume), no risk to health or safety, working heating, water and electricity, and a smoke detector you install.
The diagnostics file annexed to the lease
- Energy rating (DPE)Always10 years
- Natural and technological risks (ERP)AlwaysUnder 6 months at signature
- Living area (loi Boutin)Always, written in the leaseUntil the flat is altered
- Lead (CREP)Building from before 1949Unlimited if none, 6 years if found
- Electricity and gasInstallation over 15 years old6 years
- AsbestosBuilding permit before 1 July 1997Kept available to the tenant
- Aircraft noiseInside an airport noise zoneUpdated when the zone changes
Step 2
Furnished or unfurnished: the choice that sets the rest
The same flat under two regimes. Neither is better in law; what changes is how long you are committed, how much you may hold, and how the income is taxed.
- Minimum term
- 1 year, renewed automatically. 9 months for a student, not renewed.
- 3 years, renewed automatically. 6 years if the landlord is a company.
- Maximum deposit
- 2 months of rent excluding charges
- 1 month of rent excluding charges
- Notice when the tenant leaves
- 1 month, at any time
- 3 months, or 1 month in a zone tendue or on a listed ground
- Notice when you end it
- 3 months before the term
- 6 months before the term
- Only to live there yourself or house close family, to sell, or for a legitimate and serious reason such as unpaid rent.
- What must be in the flat
- The decree list: bed and bedding, curtains or shutters in bedrooms, hob, oven or microwave, fridge with a freezer compartment, crockery, cookware, table and chairs, shelving, lights, cleaning equipment
- Nothing beyond a decent home
- How the rent is taxed
- Commercial income (LMNP). Simple regime: 50% flat allowance. Real regime: expenses and depreciation deducted.
- Property income. Micro-foncier under 15 000 € of rent a year: 30% flat allowance. Real regime: actual expenses deducted.
A third option: the bail mobilité, furnished, 1 to 10 months, for a tenant in training, studies, a work placement or a job move. No deposit may be asked, and it cannot be renewed.
Thresholds and allowances are set by each year's finance law. Check the current figures before you choose.
Step 3
The rent you may ask: three checks, in this order
Two different rules hang on the address, and a third on the energy rating. A flat can fall under one, several or none: run every check, and where more than one applies, the strictest figure is the one you may ask.
- 1Is the flat rated F or G?Yes
The rent cannot go up at all: not when a new tenant arrives, not by yearly indexation. No top-up either.
Next check - 2Is the town under rent control (encadrement des loyers)?Paris, Lille, Lyon, Villeurbanne, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Grenoble, the Pays Basque, Plaine Commune, Est Ensemble and othersYes
The rent may not exceed the capped reference rent for that area, number of rooms, building age and furnishing, which the prefecture publishes. The lease must state it. A top-up is allowed only for exceptional features.
Next check - 3Is it in a zone tendue?Around 1,150 communes in 28 urban areasYes
A new tenant pays no more than the last one did, indexed by IRL. Exceptions: the flat stood empty for more than 18 months, you did major works, or the old rent was clearly too low.
Next check
None of these: you set the first rent freely.
Whatever the starting figure, it rises only once a year, by the rent index (IRL), and only if the lease has a revision clause. You have a year to claim it, and nothing is ever back-dated.
Not sure about your address? The simulator on service-public.fr answers both address checks.
Step 4
The deposit, and one guarantee against unpaid rent
The deposit covers damage and what is owed when the tenant leaves. The guarantee covers the months in between. You choose one kind of guarantee, and you may also choose none.
The deposit
None on a bail mobilité. Asking for more is void even if the tenant agreed in writing.
Returned within 1 month if the exit inventory matches the entry one, 2 months if it does not. Each started month late costs you 10% of a month's rent.
A guarantor
A person, usually a parent, signs a guarantee act that pays if the tenant does not. It states a maximum and a duration.
Cost to youNothing
Visale
The state-backed guarantee from Action Logement. The tenant applies; covers tenants aged 18 to 30 and some employees older than that. Registered before the lease is signed.
Cost to youNothing
Rent-default insurance (GLI)
An insurer pays the missing rent and the legal costs. The insurer sets its own conditions on the tenant's income.
Cost to youA share of the rent, paid by you, never by the tenant
A guarantor and a rent-default insurance cannot be combined. The one exception is a tenant who is a student or an apprentice.
Step 5
Choosing the tenant: what you may ask for, and what you may not
A decree sets the closed list of documents a landlord may request from a candidate and their guarantor. Anything outside it is refused by law, and asking is fined up to 3 000 € for an individual landlord.
You may ask for
- An identity document
- Proof of current address: last three rent receipts, a tax notice or a hosting certificate
- Proof of activity: employment contract, company registration, student card
- Proof of income: last tax notice, last three payslips, benefit or pension statements
You may not ask for
- Bank statements, or a direct debit authorisation
- A photograph, other than the one on the identity document
- A health card, medical file or criminal record
- A marriage certificate or a divorce judgment
- A cheque or payment to reserve the flat
The choice itself may not turn on origin, family situation, health, disability, age or any other ground the law protects.
Step 6
Signing: the lease and everything that goes with it
The lease follows a model set by decree. A clause the law forbids, such as a fixed penalty for late rent or a ban on keeping a pet, is void even if the tenant signed it.
Attached to the lease
- 1The lease on the official model, furnished or unfurnished
- 2The diagnostics file (DPE, ERP and the rest that apply)
- 3The official information notice on tenants' and landlords' rights
- 4The entry inventory, drawn up together and signed by both
- 5The list of furniture, for a furnished lease
- 6The building rules on common parts and charges, in a co-owned building
Insurance
- The tenant insures the flat against rental risks and shows you the certificate at signing, then each year
- In a co-owned building, you must hold owner's liability insurance (PNO)
A notice that matters in law, such as ending the lease or a rent revision, goes by registered post, bailiff or hand delivery against signature. A plain email does not count.
Step 7 · After the keys
Every month, every year: what a private landlord does alone
Nothing here needs an agency. It does need somebody to do each of these, on time, without an office behind them to catch what slips.
Moving in
- Entry inventory, keys, deposit received
- Insurance certificate on file
Every month
- Rent due on the date in the lease
- A free rent receipt when the tenant asks
- Notice the month it does not arrive, not three months later
Every year
- Rent revision by IRL on the anniversary, if the lease allows it
- Service charges settled, with the breakdown sent a month before
- Rental income declared on your spring tax return
- A new insurance certificate from the tenant
When it ends
- Notice received or served, in time
- Exit inventory, compared with the entry one
- Deposit back within 1 or 2 months
No eviction may be carried out from 1 November to 31 March, whatever is owed.
Where Dardaris fits
The paperwork of a first tenancy, without hiring somebody to do it
Dardaris reads your building's address, opens the lease on the law that actually governs it, and keeps the dates that would otherwise slip. You still decide everything; it just stops you finding out too late.
The right lease, drafted for you
Furnished or not, with the notice periods and annexes your address requires.
Rent read from your bank, automatically
Matched to the lease it settles, with a case opened the day a payment is missing.
Deadlines chased before they lapse
Indexation dates, certificate renewals, the notice a lease needs before it ends.
Questions a first-time landlord asks
I am an owner and want to rent out an apartment: where do I start?
With the energy rating, since it can rule out letting the flat at all before anything else matters. Then: decide furnished or not, check whether the address is under rent control or in a zone tendue, choose the deposit and the guarantee, collect a tenant file within the legal list, and sign the lease on the official model with its annexes.
Do I need an agency to rent out my apartment myself (location particulier)?
No, nothing in the law requires one. An individual landlord does everything an agency would: advertise, screen, draft the lease, collect the rent, and track the dates that expire. The work does not disappear without an agency; it just falls on you, which is what a tool like Dardaris is for.
Can I still rent out a flat with a poor energy rating?
Since 1 January 2025, a G-rated home cannot be let on a new lease or a renewal in mainland France. F follows on 1 January 2028, and E on 1 January 2034. On top of that, the rent of an F or G home has been frozen since 24 August 2022. Check the rating before you advertise, not after.
Should I let it furnished or unfurnished?
Furnished means a one-year lease, a two-month deposit, one month's notice from the tenant and taxation as commercial income, usually lighter. Unfurnished means a three-year lease, a one-month deposit and taxation as property income. The law favours neither; the choice depends on how long you want to commit and how you want the income taxed.
How do I know whether my rent is capped?
Two separate rules apply by address. In a rent-controlled town, the rent may not exceed the capped reference rent the prefecture publishes. In a zone tendue, a new tenant may not pay more than the previous one, indexed. The simulator on service-public.fr tells you which apply, and an F or G home cannot see its rent raised anywhere.
How much deposit can I ask for?
One month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished let, two months for a furnished one, and none on a bail mobilité. Asking for more is void even where the tenant agreed to it in writing.
Hand over the address, and see the lease it opens on.
One building, free to start: the term, the notice periods and the deadlines your flat carries, worked out for you.
14 days before the first charge · Nothing is switched on until you say so