Since 1 January 2025, France has prohibited new residential lettings of the least efficient dwellings on its A-to-G energy scale: a property rated G can no longer be offered to a new tenant, and the ban extends to every renewal or tacit continuation of an existing lease. F-rated homes follow on 1 January 2028 and E-rated homes on 1 January 2034. For foreign owners — British, American or Australian buyers who own a flat in Paris, a house in the Dordogne or a ski apartment in the Alps — the rule is now a core feature of ownership: the right to rent depends on the property’s energy label. The debate has just moved further. On 8 July 2026 the French Senate adopted, at first reading, the government’s bill titled “Relance et décentralisation du logement” (housing recovery and decentralisation), which would create five conditional derogations allowing some F and G dwellings to be let again. The bill is not law: it was transmitted to the Assemblée nationale on 9 July 2026 and will not be examined before the autumn session.
This article explains the regime in force, the case law that enforces it, and what the pending bill would actually change. It addresses long-term lettings of a principal residence, the regime of the law of 6 July 1989 — not short-term tourist rentals, which obey different rules. Every statutory reference links to the official text on Legifrance and every decision cited links to the official record on courdecassation.fr; all were verified on the date of writing. This is general legal information, not tax advice: the French taxation of rental income for non-residents raises separate questions that an owner should put to a professional.
I. The Bans in Force: How French Law Ties Renting to Energy Performance
A. The DPE Scale and the Staggered Decency Calendar
The instrument is the diagnostic de performance énergétique (energy performance certificate, universally abbreviated DPE), which rates a dwelling from A (best) to G (worst) on the basis of its energy consumption and its greenhouse gas emissions. The classification is statutory. Article L. 173-1-1 of the construction and housing code provides that existing dwellings “sont classés, par niveau de performance décroissant, en fonction de leur niveau de performance énergétique et de leur performance en matière d’émissions de gaz à effet de serre” — are classified in decreasing order of performance according to their energy performance and their greenhouse gas emissions — across the classes A to G.
The rental ban does not take the form of a direct prohibition. It operates through the concept of the logement décent (decent dwelling): a landlord may only deliver a decent dwelling, and energy performance has become one of the components of decency. Article 6 of the law of 6 July 1989 obliges the landlord to deliver a dwelling “répondant à un niveau de performance minimal au sens de l’article L. 173-1-1 du code de la construction et de l’habitation” — meeting a minimum performance level within the meaning of Article L. 173-1-1 — and fixes the calendar itself: “Le niveau de performance d’un logement décent est compris, au sens de l’article L. 173-1-1 du code de la construction et de l’habitation : 1° A compter du 1er janvier 2025, entre la classe A et la classe F ; 2° A compter du 1er janvier 2028, entre la classe A et la classe E ; 3° A compter du 1er janvier 2034, entre la classe A et la classe D.” In plain terms: from 1 January 2025 a decent dwelling must be rated between A and F, which excludes G; from 1 January 2028 it must be between A and E, which excludes F; from 1 January 2034 it must be between A and D, which excludes E. The article closes the loop: “Les logements qui ne répondent pas aux critères précités aux échéances fixées sont considérés comme non décents.” Dwellings that do not meet the criteria at the relevant date are deemed non-decent.
Two features of the timetable matter for an owner. First, the ban hits new lettings, renewals and tacit continuations, not leases in progress: a Paris judge described the mechanism in a ruling of 25 November 2024 refusing interim relief against the landlord of a G-rated flat, noting that “l’interdiction de mise en location concernant les logements classés G au DPE à compter du 1er janvier 2025 s’appliquant aux logements non déjà loués et pour lesquels une reconduction du bail ne pourra être réalisée” — the prohibition applies to dwellings not already let, for which a renewal of the lease will no longer be possible (TJ Paris, 25 Nov. 2024, no. 24/06307). An existing tenant can remain; but when the lease expires and renews, the G rating makes the renewal unlawful, and the practical options narrow to works or sale. Second, the courts treat a G-rated dwelling as non-decent outright: the judge in Saint-Étienne explained, in a decision of 14 January 2025, that “cette disposition, qui ne concernera que les baux conclus à compter du 1er janvier 2023, vise à faire à sortir du marché locatif les logements étiquetés « G » par le DPE puisque ces logements seront d’office considérés comme indécents” — the mechanism is designed to remove G-labelled dwellings from the rental market because they are deemed non-decent as of right (TJ Saint-Étienne, 14 Jan. 2025, no. 24/03362).
The surrounding context explains why the stakes are high. The French statistical service SDES counted some 3.9 million passoires thermiques (thermal sieves, the colloquial name for F and G dwellings) at 1 January 2025, about 12.7% of principal residences, of which roughly 1.1 million sit in the private rental stock — figures relayed in the professional press during the Senate debate. Rent indexation for F and G dwellings has been frozen since August 2022. And the calculation itself is moving: since 1 January 2026 the primary-energy conversion coefficient for electricity in the DPE has fallen from 2.3 to 1.9, which improves the label of electrically heated homes, and a draft ministerial order under consultation in the summer of 2026 contemplated a further reduction to 1.7 on 1 January 2027. A label obtained under the old coefficient should be re-checked: the previous rating does not update itself.
B. What a Tenant or a Judge Can Do Against a Non-Compliant Landlord
The landlord’s obligations are old and blunt. Article 1719 of the Code civil requires the landlord to “délivrer au preneur la chose louée et, s’il s’agit de son habitation principale, un logement décent” — to deliver the premises and, where they are the tenant’s principal residence, a decent dwelling. Article 1720 of the same code adds: “Le bailleur est tenu de délivrer la chose en bon état de réparations de toute espèce.” The landlord must deliver the property in good repair of every kind. These duties are of public order: they cannot be waived by a clause of the lease.
The Cour de cassation spent the years 2024 to 2026 restating that principle in cases that matter directly to an absent owner. In a decision of 16 October 2025, the third civil chamber quashed a court of appeal that had relied on a clause under which the tenant declared taking the dwelling “as is” and on a clause excluding compensation for repairs the landlord had performed. The court held that the judges had decided “par des motifs inopérants, et sans caractériser un événement de force majeure, seul de nature à exonérer la bailleresse de ses obligations de délivrance d’un logement décent, d’entretien et de garantie de jouissance paisible” — on inoperative grounds, and without finding an event of force majeure, the only thing capable of relieving the landlord of the duty to deliver a decent dwelling (Cass. 3e civ., 16 Oct. 2025, no. 24-16.682). The same idea had been stated a year earlier: “seul un cas de force majeure peut exonérer le bailleur de son obligation de délivrance d’un logement décent” — only force majeure can excuse the landlord (Cass. 3e civ., 16 May 2024, no. 23-12.438). A foreign landlord who lets a dwelling with damp, defective insulation or obsolete heating cannot shelter behind clauses of the lease, an inventory signed without objection, or distance from the property.
Poor insulation also costs the landlord directly in damages, without any need to show a breach of the DPE rules. In Orléans, the judge for housing disputes condemned a landlord to pay 3,000 euros for the tenant’s excessive electricity consumption after finding that “cette isolation défaillante peut dès lors être reliée au montant des factures d’électricité qu’a réglées Mme [Y] [T]” — the defective insulation could be linked to the amount of the electricity bills the tenant had paid (TJ Orléans, 11 May 2026, no. 23/04212). The judge relied on the rule of the construction and housing code that every dwelling must be heatable at a limited energy cost; an owner who lets an uninsulated property is, in effect, paying the tenant’s heating.
The tenant’s remedies are codified in Article 20-1 of the law of 6 July 1989. Where the dwelling does not satisfy the decency standards of Article 6, the tenant may demand compliance without the lease being affected; failing agreement, the commission départementale de conciliation (departmental conciliation commission) may be seized — though it is not a mandatory preliminary step — and the court then decides. The operative sentence is direct: “Il peut réduire le montant du loyer ou suspendre, avec ou sans consignation, son paiement et la durée du bail jusqu’à l’exécution de ces travaux.” The judge may reduce the rent or suspend, with or without payment into escrow, its payment and the term of the lease until the works are done. Trial courts use that power freely. The Poitiers court of appeal, on 9 December 2025, ordered a landlord to carry out the works “sous astreinte de 100 euros par jour” — under a daily penalty of 100 euros (CA Poitiers, 9 Dec. 2025, no. 24/02508). A Bobigny judgment of 22 September 2025 went further: it ordered the works and recorded that the termination of the lease and the eviction of the tenant would only become possible again once the dwelling’s indecency had been remedied, an illustration of the principle of Article 1719 that a landlord cannot rely on the nullity or termination of the lease to evict an occupant from a dwelling unfit for its use (TJ Bobigny, 22 Sept. 2025, no. 25/01167).
Two rulings of 4 June 2026, both published in the Bulletin, complete the picture for a foreign owner. The first forbids the most tempting workaround: a landlord cannot terminate the lease to carry out the very works that would make the dwelling decent. The court held: “Ne constitue pas un motif légitime et sérieux de congé la réalisation de travaux par le bailleur destinés à remédier à l’indécence du logement dont il avait connaissance lors de la conclusion du bail.” Works intended to remedy an indecency the landlord knew about when the lease was signed cannot justify a notice of termination (Cass. 3e civ., 4 Jun. 2026, no. 24-16.993). The second fixes the reach of the obligation in time: “L’obligation de délivrance d’un logement décent, continue, est exigible pendant toute la durée du bail.” The duty to deliver a decent dwelling is continuous and binding for the whole term of the lease; the tenant may pursue specific performance while the breach persists and claim damages for the three years preceding the claim (Cass. 3e civ., 4 Jun. 2026, no. 24-11.437). In short: the obligation never rests, the lease cannot be used to escape it, and time bars only the damages, not the works.
II. The 2026 Reform and What a Foreign Owner Should Do Now
A. The Senate Bill of 8 July 2026: Five Conditional Derogations
On 24 June 2026 the government presented a bill titled “Relance et décentralisation du logement” (housing recovery and decentralisation), defended by the housing minister Vincent Jeanbrun. The Senate adopted it at first reading on 8 July 2026, and the text was transmitted to the Assemblée nationale the following day; the parliamentary record is available on the Senate’s website. Nothing in it is law yet, and the lower house has no absolute majority, so the final content is open. Its central provision — article 6 — does not repeal the decency calendar; it carves out derogations, applicable at each successive deadline, under which an F or G dwelling would remain legally lettable in five situations, as reported in detail by the French property press in July 2026.
The first and most important derogation is the works contract. A landlord who signs, before 1 January 2030, a contract with a building company for works allowing the dwelling to reach the required level may keep letting it until the works are completed, within a maximum of three years after signature for a house or a single-owner building, and five years where the contract is signed by the syndicat des copropriétaires (the co-owners’ association) in a copropriété (co-ownership). The two conditions cumulate: the contract must be signed before 2030 and the works completed within the stated period. The second derogation covers impossible works: where technical, architectural or heritage constraints — or a cost manifestly disproportionate to the value of the property, or a refusal by the administration — make the works impossible, and the owner has carried out all the works that remained possible, the dwelling stays lettable for as long as the constraint persists, on terms to be fixed by decree. The third concerns a blocked co-ownership: where the general meeting has refused the works despite the landlord’s steps, and the landlord has done everything possible within his own lot, the dwelling remains lettable for eighteen months after the refusal. The fourth, without time limit, applies where a collective DPE shows that the building itself already meets the required performance. The fifth is transitional: a lease already in force remains valid until its renewal or tacit continuation, and at most three years after the statutory deadline.
Three observations for a foreign owner. First, the government’s stated logic is to shift the works from before the letting to after it: the bill’s drafters aim to keep some 600,000 to 700,000 dwellings in the rental market that the 2028 deadline would otherwise push out. Second, the bill is contested: tenant associations and parts of the opposition describe it as a retreat from the energy renovation schedule, and the Assemblée nationale debate will reopen every figure. Third, until the law is enacted — if it is — the existing rules remain exactly as described in Part I, including the G ban now in force and the F deadline of 2028. No owner should sign a works contract in reliance on the bill before its final adoption.
B. The Practical Position of a Foreign Owner: Checks, Works and Monitoring
Step one is to verify the label itself. A DPE is a technical document, and errors are common; they are expensive in both directions. A buyer who relies on a flattering DPE has limited recourse against the seller, because the Cour de cassation has consistently held that, unlike the other documents in the technical diagnostic file, the DPE has only informational value: in its leading decision, the court ruled that “le préjudice subi par les acquéreurs du fait de cette information erronée ne consistait pas dans le coût de l’isolation, mais en une perte de chance de négocier une réduction du prix de vente” — the buyers’ loss from the wrong label was not the cost of insulation but the loss of a chance to negotiate a price reduction (Cass. 3e civ., 21 Nov. 2019, no. 18-23.251). The diagnostician, however, is liable on ordinary fault grounds: in Le Mans, the interim judge ordered a diagnostic company that had rated a house D to pay a provision of 38,817.69 euros towards the energy works, after a court expert found that “après calculs, la maison dans son état actuel présente, sans équivoque, une très mauvaise performance énergétique correspondant à la classe G sur l’échelle du DPE” — the house in its current state presents, unambiguously, a very poor energy performance corresponding to class G (TJ Le Mans, 20 Mar. 2026, no. 25/00519). The owner had bought as D, let as D, and discovered the truth was G. The practical lesson cuts both ways: check the DPE of anything you buy, and check the label of anything you already own, especially if it was produced before the January 2026 coefficient change.
Step two is to know the options for an F or G dwelling. Where the lease is in progress, the ban does not disturb it, but no renewal is lawful, and rent cannot be raised under the indexation freeze. Where a sale is contemplated, the label now weighs directly on price, and a foreign buyer should price in the works. Where renovation is the plan, the existing law already contains one protection worth knowing for co-owned buildings: the final paragraph of Article 20-1 of the 1989 law provides that the judge may not order works needed to reach the minimum performance level where the dwelling is part of a co-ownership and “le copropriétaire concerné démontre que, malgré ses diligences en vue de l’examen de résolutions tendant à la réalisation de travaux relevant des parties communes ou d’équipements communs et la réalisation de travaux dans les parties privatives de son lot adaptés aux caractéristiques du bâtiment, il n’a pu parvenir à ce niveau de performance minimal” — where the owner shows that, despite his diligence in seeking votes on the common-parts works and in renovating his own lot, the level could not be reached; the same article shields heritage-constrained buildings. A foreign owner in a historic building should assemble that proof — votes, requests, refused resolutions, works done in the private lot — before any dispute, because it is the difference between an obligation and an impossibility.
Step three is procedural hygiene, and the 2026 case law shows where foreign owners fail. Keep the DPE current and annexed to the lease: a lease signed without the DPE annex is defective, and a tenant arguing over the dwelling’s condition will start there. Serve and document every notice through a commissaire de justice (judicial officer). And do not terminate a lease to renovate: the 4 June 2026 ruling bars precisely that manoeuvre. Where a tenant invokes indecency, respond with a plan and a works schedule rather than a notice, because the judge’s first instinct, on the texts cited above, is to order works and trim or suspend the rent.
Step four is monitoring the legislative calendar. The bill moves to the Assemblée nationale in the autumn of 2026; the F deadline of 1 January 2028 is eighteen months away; and the coefficient consultation towards 1.7 for electricity remains open. Each of these events changes the value of an F or G property held for rental, and none of them requires a vote to be monitored. An owner should therefore re-check the property’s label under the current coefficient, obtain written quotes for the works, verify the co-ownership situation if the property is in a building, and only then decide between renovating, selling, or waiting for the outcome of the parliamentary debate.
Conclusion
The French energy-performance rental regime is a decency rule with a calendar: G excluded from 2025, F from 2028, E from 2034, applied at each new letting or renewal, enforced by courts that can order works, impose daily penalties, and reduce or suspend the rent. The case law of 2024 to 2026 has removed the comfortable exits: lease clauses cannot waive the duty, force majeure alone excuses it, a notice of termination cannot be used to renovate, and the obligation is continuous for the whole term. The Senate’s bill of 8 July 2026 would soften the edges through a works contract signed before 2030 and four narrower derogations, but it is a bill, not a law, and the current rules bind every owner today.
For a foreign owner the discipline is simple: verify the DPE, plan the works, document the co-ownership position, and treat the parliamentary debate as a variable, not a certainty. Owners or buyers facing these questions can contact the real estate team of Kohen Avocats, which advises international clients on French property law, including real estate and business law for owners and investors.