Flatshare lawyer in Paris: joint liability, notice and unpaid rent.

The joint liability clause is an express term of the lease by which each co-tenant undertakes to answer for the whole of the rent and service charges, and not only for their own share. The landlord can then pursue any one of the co-tenants for the whole. Article 1310 of the French Civil Code (Code civil) states that joint liability is not presumed: it must be expressly stipulated. Without a clause, each co-tenant pays only their share. The clause extends to rent, service charges and, if it so specifies, occupation indemnities after termination. The Court of Cassation ruled on 14 June 2018 that joint liability does not automatically extend to the occupation indemnity, unless expressly stipulated otherwise (Cass. 3e civ., 14 June 2018, No. 17-14.365).

At the latest six months after the date the notice takes effect. Article 8-1 VI of the Act of 6 July 1989, introduced by the ALUR Act of 24 March 2014, provides that the joint liability of the departing co-tenant and that of their guarantor end on the date a validly served notice takes effect, provided a new co-tenant appears on the lease. Without a replacement, they end at the latest when a period of six months from the date the notice takes effect expires. This rule is a matter of public policy: no contrary clause can lengthen this period. To fix this date, the notice must have been served by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, by bailiff's act (commissaire de justice) or by hand delivery against a receipt. The applicable notice period is one month in a tight-market zone (zone tendue), of which Paris is one.

No, it is not a legal obligation. A co-tenant who gives notice does not have to put forward a replacement to the landlord in order to be released: the ALUR Act specifically intended to protect the departing co-tenant against the practice of making their release conditional on the presence of a new tenant. The practical rule is more nuanced: if a replacement is added to the lease by a signed amendment, the departing co-tenant's joint liability ends immediately on the date the notice takes effect. If no replacement signs, joint liability still ends, but six months after the date the notice takes effect. It is nevertheless in the departing co-tenant's interest to present a creditworthy replacement to bring the guarantee to an end sooner and preserve good relations with the remaining co-tenants. The landlord may refuse the replacement for objective reasons relating to their solvency, but may not refuse arbitrarily.

Yes, but only for objective reasons. The landlord is not bound to accept the candidate put forward by the departing co-tenant. They may reject an application for insufficient income, lack of a solid guarantor, an incomplete file or incompatibility with the other co-tenants. However, a refusal cannot rest on grounds relating to origin, sex, family situation, sexual orientation, nationality, pregnancy, disability or any other characteristic protected by the Act of 27 May 2008 on discrimination. In all cases, the landlord's refusal does not extend the departing co-tenant's joint liability beyond the six months set by Article 8-1 VI. A landlord who refuses several candidates without justification is exposed to a civil liability action for fault, separate from the question of joint liability.

No, notice is strictly individual. When a co-tenant gives notice alone, the lease continues with respect to the remaining co-tenants until its term. The other co-tenants remain bound to pay the whole of the rent and service charges, under the terms of the joint liability clause. The Court of Cassation ruled on 14 June 2018, in respect of a lease stipulating joint liability and requiring simultaneous notice from all the tenants, that a co-tenant who had given notice alone in 2009, before Article 8-1 of the Law of 6 July 1989 came into force, remained liable for all the unpaid rent until the lease was terminated (Cass. 3e civ., No. 17-14.365). To end the lease for everyone, a joint notice signed by all the co-tenants is needed, or notice from the landlord at the end of the term, or termination ordered by the court in the event of a breach. A departing co-tenant who cannot obtain the agreement of the others therefore remains jointly liable during the six months after notice, but the lease continues for those who remain.

It depends on how the guarantee deed is drafted. The guarantor stands surety for an identified co-tenant, not for the whole group. Article 8-1 VI of the 1989 Act even requires, on pain of nullity, that the deed identify the co-tenant for whom the ending of joint liability terminates the undertaking. If the deed names no co-tenant, it is null. If the guarantor stands surety for several co-tenants jointly, they may be called on for the whole of the debt within the limit of the undertaking given. A family guarantor who signs must therefore read the deed carefully: the handwritten statement required by Article 2297 of the Civil Code, the amount of the rent, any duration, and above all the identity of the guaranteed co-tenant. A deed that does not respect these forms is null and the guarantor can have this declared at any time.

The security deposit follows the regime of Article 22 of the Act of 6 July 1989. Under a single lease signed by all the co-tenants, the deposit is single and cannot exceed one month's rent excluding charges for an unfurnished lease, two months for a furnished lease. It is paid on signing and kept by the landlord until the last co-tenant leaves. It must be returned within two months of the handover of the keys, reduced to one month if the move-out inventory of condition matches the move-in inventory. After that, the deposit is increased by a sum equal to 10% of the monthly rent for each month or part-month of delay. Under separate leases, each co-tenant pays their own deposit and each recovers theirs at the end of their individual lease. To look further into this point, see the security deposit page.

Individual for each co-tenant. Each can give notice alone, without having to obtain the agreement of the others and without having to justify it. The notice period is one month in a tight-market zone, of which Paris is one under the decree of 10 May 2013, and three months outside such a zone, except for the cases of reduction listed in Article 15 I of the 1989 Act: job transfer, loss of employment, first job, state of health, allocation of social housing, RSA (active solidarity income), AAH (disabled adults allowance). The date the landlord receives the notice starts the notice period. The method of notification is regulated: registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, bailiff's act (commissaire de justice) or hand delivery against a receipt. An email is not enough. Once the notice period has run, the co-tenant is out of the lease, but their joint liability still runs until six months after that effective date, unless replaced by amendment.

The response varies with the position. For the remaining co-tenants, there are two options: pay the defaulter's share and bring a subrogation claim against them, or let the landlord act and accept being pursued jointly themselves if the lease contains a joint liability clause. For the landlord, the procedural chain is precise: reminder by ordinary letter, formal notice by registered letter, formal demand to pay (commandement de payer) referring to the termination clause served on all the co-tenants and all the guarantors within fifteen days, writ of summons before the protection litigation judge if there is no payment within six weeks. The joint liability clause allows the landlord to pursue a single co-tenant for the whole. The internal sharing between co-tenants is then settled, but in practice the defaulter is often insolvent and the loss is borne by the others. For details of the recovery phase, see the rent recovery page.

No, that is the main benefit of the joint liability clause for the landlord. They may, at their choice, pursue a single co-tenant for the whole debt, or several together, or all of them. Article 1313 of the Civil Code expressly allows this. The landlord generally opts for the most solvent co-tenant, identified from the supporting documents produced at signing. The judgment is given jointly, which means the landlord can then enforce it against the single co-tenant ordered to pay, without having to divide the proceedings. The co-tenant who has paid the whole has a right of recourse against the others, to the extent of their share, based on subrogation and on Article 1317 of the Civil Code. But this internal recourse remains at their own expense, and they bear the risk of their former co-tenants' insolvency. Joint liability therefore turns against the most solid co-tenant.

Both arrangements are allowed by Article 8-1 of the Act of 6 July 1989. The single lease is signed by all the co-tenants and covers the whole dwelling. It is simpler to manage, but exposes each co-tenant to joint liability for six months after leaving. Separate leases are signed individually, each for the room the co-tenant occupies, and do not create joint liability between co-tenants unless expressly stipulated. They protect each co-tenant more but are rarer in Paris. Separate leases require each room to have at least 9 square metres of private floor area and 20 cubic metres of habitable volume, under Article 8-1 II. The sum of the rents cannot exceed the rent applicable to the dwelling as a whole. The choice of arrangement is generally made by the landlord according to the profile of the dwelling and the market. The firm advises beforehand on the appropriate arrangement.

Article 8-1 V of the 1989 Act allows two regimes, at the parties' choice. First regime: the ordinary advance payments on service charges of Article 23, with an annual reconciliation and supporting documents item by item. Second regime: a fixed lump sum paid together with the rent, which gives rise to no top-up or later reconciliation. The lump sum is set according to the charges actually payable and may be revised each year like the principal rent. The lump sum must not be manifestly disproportionate to the charges actually borne by the previous tenant. This option is common in flatshares because it simplifies management. Towards the landlord, charges are recovered as a whole, like the rent, and the joint liability clause applies to them in the same way. Internally, co-tenants in practice split them in proportion to occupation, but the split is a matter of their own understanding and cannot be enforced against the landlord.

The rule depends on the couple's legal status. For spouses and PACS partners, Article 1751 of the Civil Code establishes a statutory joint tenancy of the right to the lease of the family home, which prevails over the contractual clause. The Court of Cassation ruled on 22 October 2015 that the transcription of the divorce judgment that allocated the right to the lease to one of the spouses ends the joint tenancy of the lease, both statutory and contractual, which releases the other spouse from that date even if they did not give notice (Cass. 3e civ., 22 October 2015, No. 14-23.726). For unmarried cohabitants (concubins), the rule is different: Article 1751 does not apply, and contractual joint liability applies in full, within the limit of Article 8-1 VI. A cohabitant who leaves must therefore serve notice in due form to start the six-month period running.

The protection litigation judge at the Paris judicial court has exclusive jurisdiction over disputes relating to residential leases, which includes flatshares, under Article L. 213-4-3 of the Code of Judicial Organisation (code de l'organisation judiciaire). Its jurisdiction covers unpaid rent, disputes over service charges, actions for return of the security deposit, challenges to notice and applications for a declaration that ALUR joint liability has ended. The case is brought by writ of summons for claims on the merits and by petition for certain specific applications. Representation by a lawyer is not mandatory but is very strongly advised, because of the technical nature of the flatshare rules. Appeal is available for disputes above €5,000 and goes to the Paris court of appeal. For reimbursement actions between co-tenants, however, the judicial court on the merits has jurisdiction, since the dispute no longer concerns the lease but the internal share.

Not automatically. Article 14 of the Act of 6 July 1989 provides for the lease to be transferred to relatives of the deceased tenant who had lived with them for at least a year: surviving spouse, descendants, PACS partner, ascendants, cohabiting partner in a stable, publicly known relationship (concubin notoire) and dependants. If no person meets these conditions, the lease is terminated by operation of law by the death. For a flatshare under a single lease, the situation is more complex: a co-tenant's death does not end the lease with respect to the others, and the joint liability clause continues to apply to obligations arising before the death. The deceased's heirs may be called on within the limits of the estate's assets, subject to the six-month limit of Article 8-1 VI, which also applies on death. A guarantor who stood surety for a deceased co-tenant is released from the date of death for future debts, but remains liable for earlier debts within the limit of their undertaking.