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 \u2014 British, American or Australian buyers who own a flat in Paris, a house in the Dordogne or a ski apartment in the Alps \u2014 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 d\u00e9centralisation 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 Assembl\u00e9e nationale on 9 July 2026 and will not be examined before the autumn session.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
The instrument is the diagnostic de performance \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique<\/em> (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<\/a> provides that existing dwellings “sont class\u00e9s, par niveau de performance d\u00e9croissant, en fonction de leur niveau de performance \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique et de leur performance en mati\u00e8re d’\u00e9missions de gaz \u00e0 effet de serre” \u2014 are classified in decreasing order of performance according to their energy performance and their greenhouse gas emissions \u2014 across the classes A to G.<\/p>\n The rental ban does not take the form of a direct prohibition. It operates through the concept of the logement d\u00e9cent<\/em> (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<\/a> obliges the landlord to deliver a dwelling “r\u00e9pondant \u00e0 un niveau de performance minimal au sens de l’article L. 173-1-1 du code de la construction et de l’habitation” \u2014 meeting a minimum performance level within the meaning of Article L. 173-1-1 \u2014 and fixes the calendar itself: “Le niveau de performance d’un logement d\u00e9cent est compris, au sens de l’article L. 173-1-1 du code de la construction et de l’habitation : 1\u00b0 A compter du 1er janvier 2025, entre la classe A et la classe F ; 2\u00b0 A compter du 1er janvier 2028, entre la classe A et la classe E ; 3\u00b0 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 r\u00e9pondent pas aux crit\u00e8res pr\u00e9cit\u00e9s aux \u00e9ch\u00e9ances fix\u00e9es sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme non d\u00e9cents.” Dwellings that do not meet the criteria at the relevant date are deemed non-decent.<\/p>\n 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 class\u00e9s G au DPE \u00e0 compter du 1er janvier 2025 s’appliquant aux logements non d\u00e9j\u00e0 lou\u00e9s et pour lesquels une reconduction du bail ne pourra \u00eatre r\u00e9alis\u00e9e” \u2014 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<\/a>). 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-\u00c9tienne explained, in a decision of 14 January 2025, that “cette disposition, qui ne concernera que les baux conclus \u00e0 compter du 1er janvier 2023, vise \u00e0 faire \u00e0 sortir du march\u00e9 locatif les logements \u00e9tiquet\u00e9s \u00ab G \u00bb par le DPE puisque ces logements seront d’office consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme ind\u00e9cents” \u2014 the mechanism is designed to remove G-labelled dwellings from the rental market because they are deemed non-decent as of right (TJ Saint-\u00c9tienne, 14 Jan. 2025, no. 24\/03362<\/a>).<\/p>\n The surrounding context explains why the stakes are high. The French statistical service SDES counted some 3.9 million passoires thermiques<\/em> (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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n The landlord’s obligations are old and blunt. Article 1719 of the Code civil<\/a> requires the landlord to “d\u00e9livrer au preneur la chose lou\u00e9e et, s’il s’agit de son habitation principale, un logement d\u00e9cent” \u2014 to deliver the premises and, where they are the tenant’s principal residence, a decent dwelling. Article 1720 of the same code<\/a> adds: “Le bailleur est tenu de d\u00e9livrer la chose en bon \u00e9tat de r\u00e9parations de toute esp\u00e8ce.” 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.<\/p>\n 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 inop\u00e9rants, et sans caract\u00e9riser un \u00e9v\u00e9nement de force majeure, seul de nature \u00e0 exon\u00e9rer la bailleresse de ses obligations de d\u00e9livrance d’un logement d\u00e9cent, d’entretien et de garantie de jouissance paisible” \u2014 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<\/a>). The same idea had been stated a year earlier: “seul un cas de force majeure peut exon\u00e9rer le bailleur de son obligation de d\u00e9livrance d’un logement d\u00e9cent” \u2014 only force majeure can excuse the landlord (Cass. 3e civ., 16 May 2024, no. 23-12.438<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n Poor insulation also costs the landlord directly in damages, without any need to show a breach of the DPE rules. In Orl\u00e9ans, 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 d\u00e9faillante peut d\u00e8s lors \u00eatre reli\u00e9e au montant des factures d’\u00e9lectricit\u00e9 qu’a r\u00e9gl\u00e9es Mme [Y] [T]” \u2014 the defective insulation could be linked to the amount of the electricity bills the tenant had paid (TJ Orl\u00e9ans, 11 May 2026, no. 23\/04212<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n The tenant’s remedies are codified in Article 20-1 of the law of 6 July 1989<\/a>. 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 d\u00e9partementale de conciliation<\/em> (departmental conciliation commission) may be seized \u2014 though it is not a mandatory preliminary step \u2014 and the court then decides. The operative sentence is direct: “Il peut r\u00e9duire le montant du loyer ou suspendre, avec ou sans consignation, son paiement et la dur\u00e9e du bail jusqu’\u00e0 l’ex\u00e9cution 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” \u2014 under a daily penalty of 100 euros (CA Poitiers, 9 Dec. 2025, no. 24\/02508<\/a>). 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<\/a>).<\/p>\n 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 l\u00e9gitime et s\u00e9rieux de cong\u00e9 la r\u00e9alisation de travaux par le bailleur destin\u00e9s \u00e0 rem\u00e9dier \u00e0 l’ind\u00e9cence 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<\/a>). The second fixes the reach of the obligation in time: “L’obligation de d\u00e9livrance d’un logement d\u00e9cent, continue, est exigible pendant toute la dur\u00e9e 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<\/a>). In short: the obligation never rests, the lease cannot be used to escape it, and time bars only the damages, not the works.<\/p>\n On 24 June 2026 the government presented a bill titled “Relance et d\u00e9centralisation 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 Assembl\u00e9e nationale the following day; the parliamentary record is available on the Senate’s website<\/a>. Nothing in it is law yet, and the lower house has no absolute majority, so the final content is open. Its central provision \u2014 article 6 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 copropri\u00e9taires<\/em> (the co-owners’ association) in a copropri\u00e9t\u00e9<\/a><\/em> (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 \u2014 or a cost manifestly disproportionate to the value of the property, or a refusal by the administration \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 Assembl\u00e9e nationale debate will reopen every figure. Third, until the law is enacted \u2014 if it is \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 pr\u00e9judice subi par les acqu\u00e9reurs du fait de cette information erron\u00e9e ne consistait pas dans le co\u00fbt de l’isolation, mais en une perte de chance de n\u00e9gocier une r\u00e9duction du prix de vente” \u2014 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<\/a>). 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 “apr\u00e8s calculs, la maison dans son \u00e9tat actuel pr\u00e9sente, sans \u00e9quivoque, une tr\u00e8s mauvaise performance \u00e9nerg\u00e9tique correspondant \u00e0 la classe G sur l’\u00e9chelle du DPE” \u2014 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<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> 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 copropri\u00e9taire concern\u00e9 d\u00e9montre que, malgr\u00e9 ses diligences en vue de l’examen de r\u00e9solutions tendant \u00e0 la r\u00e9alisation de travaux relevant des parties communes ou d’\u00e9quipements communs et la r\u00e9alisation de travaux dans les parties privatives de son lot adapt\u00e9s aux caract\u00e9ristiques du b\u00e2timent, il n’a pu parvenir \u00e0 ce niveau de performance minimal” \u2014 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 \u2014 votes, requests, refused resolutions, works done in the private lot \u2014 before any dispute, because it is the difference between an obligation and an impossibility.<\/p>\n 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<\/em> (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.<\/p>\n Step four is monitoring the legislative calendar. The bill moves to the Assembl\u00e9e 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, which advises international clients on French property law, including real estate and business law for owners and investors<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031307,"featured_media":16431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[79307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2091054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"\nB. What a Tenant or a Judge Can Do Against a Non-Compliant Landlord<\/h3>\n
II. The 2026 Reform and What a Foreign Owner Should Do Now<\/h2>\n
A. The Senate Bill of 8 July 2026: Five Conditional Derogations<\/h3>\n
B. The Practical Position of a Foreign Owner: Checks, Works and Monitoring<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n