You run your business from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and France is your next market. Then the Paris agent sends you a twelve-page lease in French, titled bail commercial 3\/6\/9, with a nine-year term, a deposit equal to six months of rent, a personal guarantee from the foreign parent, and a clause saying you waive any right to stay beyond the term. You have forty-eight hours to sign, the premises are perfect, and nobody in your team reads French property law. This article tells you exactly what to sign, what to renegotiate, and how to leave or stay with money in your pocket, entirely from abroad.<\/p>\n
French commercial leases follow a protective public-order regime called the statut des baux commerciaux. Once your company registers with the Registre du commerce et des societes, the RCS, which is the French company register kept by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court, and operates a shop, office or workshop in the premises, the regime applies automatically. Parties cannot opt out in advance. The lease must last at least nine years, you can usually leave every three years, you hold a right to renewal or to a payment called indemnite d’eviction, the eviction indemnity, and the renewed rent follows strict valuation rules. The Institut national de la propriete industrielle, the INPI, runs the single online window, the guichet unique, where your company file, lease and occupancy proof are checked before the Kbis, the official company identity certificate, is issued. The Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the BODACC, then publishes creations and moves. Your URSSAF registration, the social security collection agency for employers, comes later, once you hire. Understanding this chain matters because a landlord who knows you are foreign, pressed for time and unfamiliar with the words conge, the formal termination notice, or tacite prolongation, the silent extension after expiry, may ask for far more than the law allows.<\/p>\n
The ordinary hiring of a thing is defined by article 1709 of the Code civil<\/a> as a contract by which one party undertakes to let the other enjoy a thing for a certain time, for a certain price the other undertakes to pay. The commercial lease builds a full protective layer on top of that simple definition. Article L.145-1 of the Code de commerce<\/a> states that the regime applies to leases of buildings or premises in which a business, a fonds de commerce, is operated, where that business belongs to a trader or industrialist registered with the RCS or to a craft business head registered with the national business register, whether or not commercial acts are performed. It extends to accessory premises whose loss would jeopardise the operation of the main business, to bare land on which commercial buildings were erected with the consent of the owner, and to several other configurations detailed in the same article. In practice, if your French subsidiary, your SAS, the simplified joint-stock company favoured by foreign founders, or your SARL, the limited liability company with stricter governance, registers and trades from the premises, you are inside the statute. Read the full text of the article through the official link before signing anything described as a professional lease or a service agreement, because some landlords dress up commercial premises as something else to escape the statute.<\/p>\n The 3\/6\/9 label is market shorthand, not a legal term. Article L.145-4 of the Code de commerce<\/a> provides that the duration of the lease cannot be less than nine years, while the tenant has the right to give notice at the end of each three-year period, at least six months in advance. That is your 3\/6\/9 rhythm: nine years for the landlord, an exit door for you at year three and year six. Since the Macron law of 6 August 2015, the tenant notice can be sent by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or by bailiff writ, called acte extrajudiciaire, which is served by a commissaire de justice, the reformed title of the huissier de justice. The Cour de cassation applies this liberally for tenants. In a widely followed ruling of 24 October 2019, the Third Civil Chamber held that “l’article L. 145-4, dans sa r\u00e9daction issue de la loi du 6 ao\u00fbt 2015, conf\u00e8re au preneur la facult\u00e9 de donner cong\u00e9 \u00e0 l’expiration d’une p\u00e9riode triennale, au moins six mois \u00e0 l’avance, par lettre recommand\u00e9e avec demande d’avis de r\u00e9ception ou par acte extrajudiciaire” (Cass. 3e civ., 24 Oct. 2019, No. 18-24.077<\/a>). The appeal court had annulled a tenant notice sent by registered letter on 18 February 2016 for the three-year date of 1 September 2016, insisting only a bailiff writ would do. The Cour de cassation quashed that reasoning and validated the registered letter. For a foreign tenant, the lesson is operational: send your three-year notice by tracked registered letter with acknowledgment, keep the receipt and the French text of the notice, and diary the six-month deadline strictly, because a notice received five months and three weeks before the date fails.<\/p>\n Beware the short lease offered as a trial. Article L.145-5 of the Code de commerce<\/a> allows parties, when the tenant first takes the premises, to depart from the statute provided the total duration of the lease or successive leases does not exceed three years. At the end of that period the parties may no longer sign a new departing lease for the same business in the same premises. If the tenant stays on and is left in possession, at the latest within one month after expiry, a new lease governed by the full statute arises automatically. The same applies on express renewal or a new lease between the same parties for the same premises. Courts apply this requalification strictly, and even acceptance of a single rent payment after expiry has been treated as tacit consent to keep the tenant in place. Do not sign a second twelve-month or twenty-four-month top-up thinking you remain flexible. After thirty-six months of occupation you are normally inside a nine-year commercial lease with renewal rights, whether the landlord admits it or not. If you genuinely want a short test, use one single written short lease of twelve to twenty-four months, plan your exit or your full 3\/6\/9 negotiation before the end, and never stay silent past the deadline.<\/p>\n From abroad, signature mechanics decide speed. Your French company does not exist until the INPI single window validates the file and the greffe issues the Kbis. Landlords often ask the foreign parent to sign a unilateral promise or to pay before the Kbis arrives. You can sign through a person holding a written power, a pouvoir, with certified identity, or through the future president or gerant named in the draft articles, acting for the company in formation with a clause of reprise, the takeover of pre-registration commitments once the RCS number exists. Documents in English need a sworn French translation, and many greffes and banks still ask for an apostille on foreign company extracts and powers. Open the capital deposit file and the lease negotiation in parallel, because the deposit certificate, the certificat de depot des fonds, is routinely demanded by the INPI window alongside the occupancy title, the justificatif de jouissance, which can be the signed lease, a domiciliation contract or an attestation. A lease rejected by the window for a missing or noncompliant occupancy proof delays the Kbis, and without the Kbis no corporate bank account is fully activated and no BODACC publication follows. Ask the landlord for two originals and a PDF, check that the company name, the registered office clause and the activity clause match your draft articles word for word, and refuse any clause making the lease conditional on a Kbis date you cannot control without a long-stop right to withdraw.<\/p>\n Deposits in commercial leases have no statutory cap, unlike residential leases. Paris practice for foreign tenants without French accounts runs from three months to twelve months of rent plus charges and taxes, sometimes split between a cash deposit and a first-demand bank guarantee, the garantie bancaire a premiere demande, issued by a French bank. Negotiate this down with evidence: parent financial statements, the capital deposit certificate, proof of the share capital paid up, and a parent comfort letter distinguishing a simple comfort letter from an autonomous guarantee, the garantie autonome, which the bank can call without proving default. Never let the foreign parent sign an uncapped joint guarantee, the cautionnement solidaire, whose amount, duration and governing law are left blank. Cap it in euros, limit it to twelve or twenty-four months of rent and charges, require the landlord to call the tenant first, and choose French law and the jurisdiction of the premises with a translation you understand. Ask that the guarantee expire automatically on assignment of the lease to a buyer of your business or on provision of a replacement bank guarantee.<\/p>\n Insist on a full inventory of the premises, the etat des lieux, at entry and exit. Article L.145-40-1 of the Code de commerce<\/a> requires that when the tenant takes possession on conclusion of a lease, on assignment of the right to the lease, or on transfer of the business, and when the premises are returned, an inventory be drawn up jointly and amicably by landlord and tenant or by a mandated third party, and attached to the lease or kept by each party. If it cannot be drawn up jointly, it is drawn up by a commissaire de justice at the initiative of the most diligent party, costs shared equally. A landlord who made no serious effort to arrange the inventory cannot rely on the presumption of article 1731 of the Code civil<\/a> that the tenant received the premises in good repair. For a tenant abroad, this article is leverage: mandate a local agent or bailiff for the check-in, photograph every defect, meter and key set, attach the report to the lease, and diary the exit inventory the day you give notice. Without an entry report, exit dilapidation claims become a word-against-word dispute you will litigate from another country.<\/p>\n Read the charges, works and activity clauses as the price of the next nine years. Since the Pinel law of 18 June 2014 and its decree on charges, the lease must list precisely the charges, taxes and works allocated to the tenant, with an indicative budget and its settlement. Major structural works under article 606 of the Code civil, which covers substantial structural repairs to walls, roofs and foundations, cannot be passed to the tenant by a clause deemed unwritten. Management fees linked to the management of the building cannot be recharged either. Refuse clauses charging the tenant for future compliance works ordered by the administration for the whole building, for the landlord financing costs, or for a flat fee without accounts. On destination, the clause fixing the authorised activities decides your freedom to pivot from retail to showroom, from restaurant to dark kitchen, or from office to training centre. A narrow destination locks you in and makes any change a request for de-specialisation, the despecialisation procedure, with landlord consent or court authorisation and possible compensation. Ask for a destination drafted around your real plan plus related and complementary activities, and secure in writing the right to receive parcels, install a sign, the enseigne, subject to town planning rules, and connect fibre and strong electrical supply. If the premises need fitting out, attach the plans, fix who pays for removal at exit, and cap your obligation to return to shell condition.<\/p>\n Do not confuse domiciliation with a lease. A domiciliation contract with an approved business centre gives your company a registered address for the RCS and mail handling, but no right to occupy, no renewal right and no eviction indemnity. Landlords sometimes propose a precarious occupation agreement, the convention d’occupation precaire, for a few months while works finish. Such an agreement is only valid if genuine precariousness exists, for example pending demolition or expropriation, and it confers no commercial lease status. If you need the address fast for the INPI file, sign a domiciliation for the registration, then sign the real 3\/6\/9 lease for the operation, and make sure the two addresses and company names match exactly so the greffe, the bank and the tax office do not open three files for one company. The official business formalities portal explains which occupancy proofs the single window accepts and which complementary documents cure a rejection, and the business termination and transfer pages describe the filings that follow any move.<\/p>\n Renewal is the heart of the French system. Article L.145-8 of the Code de commerce<\/a> provides that only the owner of the business operated in the premises can claim renewal, and that business must, absent legitimate reasons, have been effectively operated during the three years before expiry or before the extended date set by article L.145-9 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. That article adds that leases under the statute end only through a notice given six months in advance or a renewal request. Without notice or request, a written lease continues by tacit extension, tacite prolongation, beyond its contractual end, and during that extension notice must be given at least six months ahead for the last day of a calendar quarter. For a foreign tenant, two reflexes follow. First, operate genuinely and document it: invoices, staff presence, opening hours, website with French address, because a shell with no activity for three years loses the renewal right. Second, never assume the lease simply ends on its ninth anniversary. Without a valid six-month notice or renewal request, you stay on under the same terms by tacit extension, and the clock for notices and rent revision keeps running.<\/p>\n The landlord can always refuse renewal, but must usually pay. Article L.145-14 of the Code de commerce<\/a> states that the landlord may refuse renewal, but must, subject to the exceptions in articles L.145-17 and following, pay the evicted tenant an eviction indemnity equal to the loss caused by the failure to renew. That indemnity includes in particular the market value of the business, determined according to professional practice, plus normal removal and reinstallation costs and transfer duties for a business of the same value, unless the owner proves the loss is lower. The only free exits for the landlord are narrow: legitimate reason against the tenant such as serious breach, resumption of an accessory dwelling, demolition and reconstruction under strict conditions, or recovery for a family home in limited cases. A landlord notice that gives no reason or an equivocal reason does not save the landlord from paying. The Cour de cassation holds that “un cong\u00e9 d\u00e9livr\u00e9 sans motif ou pour motifs \u00e9quivoques par le bailleur produit n\u00e9anmoins ses effets et met fin au bail commercial, d\u00e8s lors que le bailleur est en toujours en droit de refuser le renouvellement du bail \u00e0 la condition de payer une indemnit\u00e9 d’\u00e9viction” (Cass. 3e civ., 28 June 2018, No. 17-18.756<\/a>). In that case the owner had served a refusal without eviction money, the tenant sued for annulment and payment, and the court confirmed the notice ended the lease while triggering compensation. Do not read an unmotivated notice as good news that nothing happens. It ends the lease and opens the indemnity negotiation.<\/p>\n The indemnity only repairs your real loss, not your group hopes. The Cour de cassation quashed an appeal ruling that had compensated a head tenant for the whole building including the sublet part, recalling that “l’indemnit\u00e9 d’\u00e9viction du preneur sortant ne doit r\u00e9parer que le pr\u00e9judice qu’il a subi” (Cass. 3e civ., 10 Oct. 2019, No. 18-19.662<\/a>). The lower court had added removal costs of the subtenant, communication costs of the subtenant and double rent partly borne by that subtenant. The high court removed those heads. Build your file accordingly from abroad: valuation of your own fonds by an independent expert following trade practice, audited French turnover, margin on the site versus online, costs of moving within the same catchment area, redundancy and rehiring costs, and transfer taxes on a comparable acquisition. Exclude costs borne by a subtenant, by the foreign parent or by another branch. The landlord will argue the loss is lower because you can relocate nearby, because your brand lives online, or because your French turnover is thin. Answer with catchment maps, footfall data, Paris zoning constraints and signed relocation quotes, not with group revenue slides.<\/p>\n Procedure from abroad must respect French clocks and forms. The landlord notice and the tenant renewal request follow the six-month and quarter-day mechanics of article L.145-9, and disputes over rent or termination go to the tribunal judiciaire, the civil court with a specialised commercial lease chamber in Paris. Actions are subject to a two-year limitation counted from the event, so a refusal received in January 2026 cannot be contested in March 2028. After a rent-fixing claim starts, the landlord keeps a tactical weapon called the right of option, the droit d’option, allowing repentance from a renewal once the price debate turns bad. The Cour de cassation confirmed that “l’exercice par ce dernier de son droit d’option, lequel n’\u00e9tait soumis \u00e0 aucune condition de forme et n’avait pas \u00e0 mentionner \u00e0 peine de nullit\u00e9 le d\u00e9lai de prescription applicable pour le contester en justice ni \u00e0 \u00eatre motiv\u00e9”, and that “la bailleresse avait la facult\u00e9 d’exercer son droit d’option tant que l’action en fixation du loyer n’\u00e9tait pas prescrite” (Cass. 3e civ., 27 Mar. 2025, No. 23-20.030<\/a>). Concretely, a landlord who offered renewal can still switch to refusal with indemnity while the rent case is pending, provided the switch is unequivocal and timely. If you receive such an option letter, do not ignore it. Instruct counsel within days, challenge it within the limitation period, and quantify the indemnity in parallel so the option does not become a pressure tool. Service of foreign parties passes through translation and international service rules, so give your lawyer a French address for service, an elected domicile, and a contact able to receive bailiff writs any week of the year.<\/p>\n Renewed or revised rent must track rental value. Article L.145-33 of the Code de commerce<\/a> provides that the amount of renewed or revised rents must correspond to rental value, determined by agreement or, failing agreement, by reference to the characteristics of the premises, their destination, the respective obligations of the parties, local commerciality factors and prices commonly charged in the neighbourhood, with a decree detailing those elements. Capped renewal follows the construction-cost index or commercial-rent index variation, but uncapping, the deplafonnement, applies after a substantial modification of those factors, a change of activity, or a lease longer than twelve years. Paris and the inner suburbs concentrate every uncapping argument: Olympic and Grand Paris footfall shifts, pedestrianisation, new metro stations, luxury repositioning of a street, or your own transformation from storage to high-margin retail. Landlords file thick expert reports citing neighbouring transactions at double your rent. Contest them point by point: effective cechy of your unit including basement, ceiling height, linear frontage and servicing constraints, your contractual burden for works and taxes, actual local factors for your trade rather than for flagship luxury, and comparable lettings for the same activity within the same commercial zone. Ask the court for a judicial expert, the expert judiciaire, early, and give that expert full access, because a rent fixed without visiting the site rarely survives.<\/p>\n Your lease is also an asset you can sell with the business. Article L.145-16 of the Code de commerce<\/a> deems unwritten, whatever their form, any clauses preventing the tenant from assigning the lease or the rights under the statute to the buyer of the business or company, or to the beneficiary of a universal transfer of professional assets. On merger, demerger, universal transfer under article 1844-5 of the Code civil or partial asset contribution, the resulting or designated company steps into the lease despite any contrary clause. Landlords still insert clauses requiring their prior written consent, an entry fee, the pas-de-porte, or joint liability of assignor and assignee. Some are valid as formalities, none can amount to a disguised prohibition on sale. For a foreign owner planning an exit, this matters: you can sell your French shares or your fonds with the lease attached, the landlord cannot veto the buyer on principle, and any refusal must be justified. Notify the assignment by bailiff writ to the landlord with the buyer financial file, keep the assignor guarantee limited in time where the statute allows, and separate the price of the business, the stock and the entry premium in the sale deed so the tax office and any future eviction expert can follow the money.<\/p>\n Sublease and early exit follow strict paths. Total or partial sublease needs the landlord invitation to concur in the deed, failing which the sublease is unenforceable against the owner, and the sublet rent cannot exceed the head rent proportionally without an increase passed to the owner in some settings. Do not sublet by email agreement from abroad. Send the formal invitation, sign before the invited landlord or document the refusal, and file the sublease with the tax office where required. Early termination outside the three-year dates is only by agreement, by a termination clause for a specific event, or by court-ordered termination, the resiliation judiciaire, for serious breach after a formal demand sent by bailiff writ. A tenant who simply returns the keys and stops paying remains liable for rent until a lawful end, plus charges, taxes and dilapidations assessed against the exit inventory. If cash is tight, prefer a negotiated surrender, the resiliation amiable, with a written protocol fixing the exit date, the works, the deposit set-off and mutual waivers, or an assignment to a solvent buyer found with the agent. Document every step in French with translations you control, because a Paris judge will read the French protocol, not your English summary.<\/p>\n Paris and Ile-de-France add a practical layer no statute fully captures. Jurisdiction sits with the Paris tribunal judiciaire for most capital leases, with specialised commercial rent judges, long expert calendars of twelve to twenty-four months for rent fixing, and bailiff and expert costs materially higher than in smaller cities. Landlords in prime zones routinely demand six to twelve months of deposit from non-resident tenants, parent guarantees governed by French law, and advance payment of the first quarter plus provision on charges. Counter with a French bank guarantee once the Kbis and tax number exist, a capped parent guarantee expiring on the second three-year date, and a deposit held under a clear clause on return within one to two months after exit inventory and final accounts. Delivery delays are frequent where premises need administrative permits for a change of use or signage in protected sectors around historic streets. Make the lease conditional on those permits where your concept depends on them, fix a long-stop date with a right to withdraw and recover the deposit, and check the local commerciality file: pedestrian flows, competing openings, Grand Paris works blocking access, and seasonal closures that depress first-year turnover. Bring these Paris facts into the rent expert file, because a valuation built on national averages collapses once the expert walks your street.<\/p>\n A French commercial lease rewards the tenant who reads it as a nine-year partnership with dated exit doors and priced endings. Check the statute applies, use a single short lease only as a real test, send every three-year notice by tracked registered letter six months ahead, demand a joint inventory with photographs, cap deposits and parent guarantees in euros and in time, and list charges and works exhaustively. At renewal, operate the business effectively for three years, answer any refusal by quantifying your own eviction loss with expert evidence, watch the two-year limitation, and treat any landlord option letter as urgent. On rent, fight uncapping with the characteristics of your unit, your contractual burdens and true neighbourhood comparables for your trade. On exit, assign or surrender in writing rather than abandoning keys from abroad. Handled this way from London, New York or Singapore, with a Paris address for service and counsel able to receive writs, the 3\/6\/9 lease becomes what the legislator intended: a stable home for your French business that you can keep, sell or leave on known financial terms.<\/p>\n Book a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or contact us via our contact page<\/a>. We assist foreign companies in Paris and across Ile-de-France with commercial leases, renewal and eviction strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Foreign founder renting business premises in France? A Paris business lawyer explains the 3\/6\/9 commercial lease, deposits and guarantees, renewal rights, eviction indemnity and rent reviews, and how to handle each step from abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":4194,"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":[80314,80313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nB. What the landlord will demand before handing over the keys, and how to answer from abroad<\/h3>\n
II. How a foreign tenant keeps the premises or leaves with money: renewal, rent and eviction<\/h2>\n
A. Your right to stay, the price of being forced out, and how to contest from abroad<\/h3>\n
B. Rent reviews, selling or transferring the lease, and the Paris and Ile-de-France reality check<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n