The French lease agreement, explained

So… you're about to rent out a flat in France. A friend sends you a lease template from a forum. Here's the thing nobody tells you: in France, a lease isn't a template. It's a law. Every residential lease follows the law of 6 July 1989 — tightened by the ALUR law in 2014. And since 2015, there's an official model contract — updated on the first of October 2026.

Yours has to follow it. Two families. Unfurnished: three years minimum — six, if the landlord is a company. Furnished: one year — nine months for a student. That official model is exactly what we built the Rent app on, at AdminLanding. Keep that in mind… we'll come back to it. Now — five things, or your lease is open to challenge.

One: who's who. Both parties, and the address. Two: the description of the place, including the living surface in square metres. Get it wrong by more than five percent, and your tenant can claim a rent reduction. Three: the rent — and whether it can be revised. No IRL clause? No increase. Ever. Four: the deposit. One month unfurnished, two months furnished — not a euro more.

Five: the start date and the duration. And if you're in a "zone tendue" — Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux and friends — the previous tenant's rent, and the reference rent. Five out of five? Great. Still stamped red. Because of what comes next. The annexes. This is where almost everyone slips. The diagnostics file: energy rating, the risk statement, electricity and gas if the installation is over fifteen years old, lead if the building is pre-1949.

The move-in inspection. The official information notice. In a building, the co-ownership rules that concern the tenant. Furnished? The inventory. Miss one, and the clause it supports may not hold up. And an F or G energy rating? Your rent is frozen. Now, you can assemble all of that yourself. Or you open Rent — Lease and Short-Term, AdminLanding's rental app, and answer a few questions about the property.

It builds the lease on the official model. Picks the furnished or unfurnished rules for you. Lists the annexes this property needs — and runs a compliance check: surface, deposit, energy rating, zone tendue. Anything missing gets flagged before you print. The lease comes out in French — that's what you sign — and because the questions were in English, you've understood every clause along the way.

And the stamp? Green. iOS and Android. One more thing: a lease is also a calendar. A rent receipt every month — the app sends it. One revision a year, on the IRL, on the anniversary date — it tells you when, and prepares the letter. The deposit back within one month of the move-out inspection — two if there's damage. And the notice periods: one to three months for them, six for you, with a legal reason.

Every date, tracked. Rent is free for your first property. Six euros a month — or fifty-nine a year — unlocks everything, including the other AdminLanding toolboxes. The full written guide is at adminlanding.com — the link is just below. See you there.