The rental or residential lease is a contract which is rounded off between a tenant called "lessee" and an owner called "lessor".
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Different forms of residential lease
The private lease
The private lease is drawn up between individuals and signed by them.
The notarial lease
The notarial lease is an authentic act, drawn up and signed by the notary and the parties.
The lease mentions the obligation to pay rent, the notary will issue the lessor with an enforceable copy.
The latter shall let him obtain a strong commitment from the tenant, in the same way as if it were a court decision.
The rental contract can then be carried out, in all its conditions, without the need for a court decision.
The unpaid owner will send the enforceable copy to the bailiff of his choice for prosecution and recovery.
Security of a notarial lease
On the one hand, the lessee will benefit from all the guarantees provided by the notary’s competence. With the authentic deed, the lessee does not risk signing a lease that does not mention all the guarantees offered by law.
In addition, he shall be certain that the amounts he has paid will be correct and indisputable by his owner.
On the other hand, the safety of the owner is also at stake because each lease type is now governed by various mandatory laws and regulations. Some breaches are penalized and the liability of owners is increasingly sought after.
Public health issues sometimes justify these challenges. Things can go wrong if an essential obligation has been omitted by the owner.
- Are you sure you are familiar with all the mandatory rules for renting accommodation? Concept of a decent housing, minimum area and volume, lead, asbestos, etc. ...?
While signing a residential lease, don’t forget about the authentic act. This also applies to a commercial, rural or professional lease.
Rent
Moreover, setting rents is now the subject to several legal or regulatory measures which need to be analyzed.
While making up the lease:
If the accommodation is located in a municipality in so-called tense areas, the initial offered rent to a new tenant must be (with some exceptions) identical to the one applied to the previous tenant. An increase is possible within the limit of the variation of the rent reference index (IRL) only if it has not been applied in the last 12 months.
During the lease:
With some exceptions (mainly in the case of clearly undervalued rent), the annual increase in rent (on the date agreed between the parties or, failing that, on the anniversary date of the lease) is only possible if it is expressly provided for in the rental contract.
It cannot be greater than the change in the rent reference index (IRL), published quarterly by INSEE. This index corresponds to the average, over the last twelve months, of the evolution of consumer prices, excluding tobacco and excluding rents.
Since March 27, 2014, the lessor must show the will to review. He has one year, from the scheduled date, to make the request. After this period, the revision of the rent for the past year is no longer possible.
The security deposit
The lessor may require a security deposit. This shall be paid while entering the premises, its amount must be shown in the lease and may not exceed 1 month's rent excluding charges for a bare rental (unfurnished) as a main residence. In the case of a furnished rental as a main residence, the security deposit cannot exceed 2 months' rent excluding charges. No security deposit can be requested if the rent is payable in advance for a period exceeding 2 months.
The security deposit can be financed by a third party such as a 1% housing organization. In this case, the amount is given in advance, in the form of a loan and the tenant then reimburses the amount, without interest, in 36 monthly payments maximum. This aid exists for private or social sector leases.
No need to be cautious, with Visale!
Visale is a completely free online service:
- For tenants looking for a guarantor: this is open to employees over 30, regardless of their employment contract (excluding confirmed permanent contracts) entering private rental accommodation within six months of being hired; to employees under the age of 30 regardless of their employment contract, with their job starting within one year of taking up their duties; to households supported through rental intermediation; and to all young people under the age of 30 looking for housing (young employees, non-employees, job seekers or students with the exception of students without grants attached to their parents' tax household).
- For landlords looking to secure their rental income with ease
Visale guarantees the lessors of the private residence, the payment of unpaid rents during the first 3 years of the lease (up to a certain amount which is established according to the housing situation).
Protecting tenants
Since the ALUR law, but also with the MACRON law, tenants are more protected, mainly in the event of leave issued by the lessor who must now justify in writing the serious and legitimate reasons that push him to break the contract, or even his decision to repossess the property, or to sell it.
In the same way, the conditions under which an owner acquiring an occupied accommodation can dismiss his tenant have been changed. Therefore, if the term of the current rental contract occurs less than 3 years after the date of acquisition, the lessor cannot give notice to his tenant for sale until the end of the first tacit renewal or first renewal of the rental contract. current rental (on the other hand, if the termination occurs more than 3 years after the acquisition date, grant clearance can be given at the end of the current rental contract). If it is a take-over leave and the current lease expires less than 2 years after acquisition, the leave given by the lessor at the end of the current rental contract will take effect 2 years after the acquisition.