Renting out a property is not just about collecting rent every month. In practice, the landlord must also ensure compliance with a set of obligations provided for by law and by the lease, or risk seeing the situation deteriorate quickly: unpaid rent, neighborhood tensions, poorly maintained housing, or costly damage. The subject is far from marginal, since 40% of households in France were tenants of their main residence at the start of 2024, and 7.7 million households occupied the private rental sector in 2022. In a context where one-third of tenants consider their housing too expensive, breaches related to the payment for or use of the property have very concrete consequences for landlords.
The 7 obligations of the tenant
Payment of Rent
This is the best-known obligation, and often the most sensitive. Article 7 of the Law of July 6, 1989 requires the tenant to pay the rent on the agreed terms, as well as recoverable charges. Clearly, as soon as the lease sets a due date, the payment must be made by that deadline. Monthly payment is a right if the tenant requests it, which strictly regulates the payment methods.
In practice, an occasional delay does not produce the same effects as repeated non-payment. However, even a few weeks' delay can destabilize the rental management of the property, especially when the owner is still repaying a mortgage or bears significant co-ownership charges. The subject is all the more concrete as acts prior to rental litigation remain numerous: judicial commissioners served 175,000 orders to pay in 2025, up 2.4% over one year. This shows that even before the judicial phase, non-payment of rent remains a major point of friction in the rental relationship.
To enforce this obligation, it is therefore necessary to react early. It is in an owner's interest to distinguish an isolated incident, which can sometimes be resolved quickly, from an established failure to pay, which calls for written traceability and more structured action. It is often this reactivity that prevents rental debt from becoming difficult to recover.
Payment of Charges
Charges are often a source of misunderstanding, even though they follow a fairly clear logic. The tenant does not only pay for the occupation of the dwelling: they also reimburse certain expenses incurred by the landlord, provided they are recoverable charges. ANIL points out that these mainly cover services related to the dwelling and the building, routine maintenance of certain common areas, and certain rental taxes. They are due on the date provided for in the lease, in the same way as the rent.
The point of vigilance often concerns regularization. When charges are paid in the form of provisions, the owner must be able to justify the sums claimed at the time of the annual adjustment. And if this regularization has not been done within the year following their maturity, the tenant can request a payment spread over 12 months. In other words, a landlord can enforce the payment of charges, but they must themselves respect a precise framework of justification and schedule.
This distinction between rent and charges is not purely theoretical. It becomes essential as soon as a dispute arises, particularly when the tenant contests a sudden increase or poorly documented amounts. An owner who wants to secure their claim must therefore keep calls for funds, statements, and supporting documents. It is often this documentary base that makes the difference in the event of a dispute.
Peaceful Use of the Property
The obligation of peaceful use is broader than a simple ban on making noise. The law requires the tenant to use the leased premises peacefully according to the destination provided for in the contract and to refrain from any behavior that harms collective equipment, the safety of persons, or their freedom of movement. This point covers both repeated nuisances and certain behaviors that degrade the life of the building.
Concretely, a neighborhood disturbance is not limited to an overly loud party. Incessant coming and going, damage to common areas, abnormal occupation of the premises, or repeated incidents with neighbors can be enough to characterize a breach. And this breach can be blamed on the tenant even when the troubles come from the people they host or allow access to the dwelling. The legal text also insists on the tenant's responsibility for certain damage and losses occurring in the premises of which they have exclusive use.
This issue must also be placed in the context of housing in France. At the beginning of 2024, 9% of households lived in overcrowded housing, and tenants are more exposed than owners to housing defects. In a dense building, the slightest repeated nuisance quickly becomes a collective issue. For a landlord, enforcing the peaceful use of the property is therefore not just about protecting their property: it is also about preserving neighborhood relations and limiting the risk of escalation towards more serious procedures.
Routine Maintenance of the Property
It is often in this area that misunderstandings appear at the end of the lease. However, the principle is simple: the tenant must take care of the routine maintenance of the dwelling, minor repairs, and more broadly, rental repairs, except when they are due to obsolescence, defect, construction fault, accidental event, or force majeure. This sharing of responsibilities is established by Article 7 of the 1989 law and detailed by the administration.
In practice, this covers very concrete actions: maintaining a private garden, replacing certain gaskets, greasing hinges, changing a handle, unclogging drains, or replacing a damaged windowpane when it was caused by the occupant. Service Public points out that rental repairs correspond to routine maintenance and small repairs at the tenant's expense throughout the duration of the lease. Conversely, major repairs or those related to the normal aging of the home are the responsibility of the owner.
This point deserves to be monitored from the moment the property is occupied, and not only at the time of the exit inventory. A poorly maintained home deteriorates faster, generates higher renovation costs, and complicates re-rental. In reality, enforcing routine maintenance mainly makes it possible to prevent small instances of neglect from becoming large expenses a few months later.
Property management can be time-consuming and a real burden for a landlord. Feel free to delegate your property management to us for more agility!
The duties set out in the lease
Home Insurance
Home insurance is not a minor formality. For a residential lease, the tenant must be insured at least against rental risks, namely fire, explosion, and water damage. They must also provide a certificate to the owner upon entering the premises and then, if the landlord requests it, every year. In the absence of a certificate, the owner can implement a termination clause if the lease contains one, or take out insurance on behalf of the tenant and ask for reimbursement.
In practice, this obligation protects the landlord as much as the tenant. A simple water damage incident can involve high amounts, especially in a shared building where damage spreads quickly from one unit to another. It is precisely to prevent a common incident from turning into a costly dispute that the law imposes this minimum coverage. For an owner, enforcing this obligation is therefore a way to immediately secure the financial risk attached to the occupancy of the housing.
It should also be remembered that a correctly insured tenant is not necessarily covered for everything. The mandatory guarantee covers rental risks, not all of their personal property nor all damage caused to third parties depending on the contracts. This nuance matters, as it explains why some disputes arise despite the presence of a seemingly regular certificate. For the landlord, the right reflex is to verify the existence of the certificate and its update, without limiting it to a check made only when the keys are handed over.
Respect for the Intended Use
The destination of the housing is specified in the lease. It specifies the authorized use of the premises, generally residential, or sometimes mixed residential and professional use. This mention is not decorative: it serves to concretely outline what the tenant can do in the premises. Housing rented for residential use cannot therefore be freely used as a business premises, an office receiving the public, or a commercial operations space without this being questioned in light of the contract.
Concretely, this is often where the most ambiguous situations arise. Standard teleworking does not raise the same issue as a regular professional activity with clients, storage, or nuisances. Similarly, a mixed use expressly provided for by the lease is not treated the same as a change of use unilaterally imposed by the tenant. The central point remains as follows: the occupancy must remain in accordance with the contractual destination, as Article 7 of the law of July 6, 1989 requires the peaceful use of the premises according to the destination given to them.
This vigilance is all the more useful because failure to respect the destination can have effects beyond the landlord-tenant relationship. Depending on the case, it can create disturbances for the building, complicate insurance, or fuel litigation at the time of renewal or termination. In practice, the owner therefore has an interest in identifying early signs of misuse, because the longer the situation lasts, the more difficult it becomes to manage properly.
Rental Repairs
Rental repairs extend the obligation of routine maintenance, but with a more technical framework. The administration points out that they correspond to minor repairs and routine maintenance that remain the tenant's responsibility throughout the duration of the lease. This includes, for example, certain simple replacements, maintenance of equipment, keeping openings, faucets, seals, coatings, and certain private installations in good condition.
The difficulty comes from the sharing with works owed by the owner. The latter must take charge of everything that does not fall under rental repairs, particularly when the issues are related to wear and tear, force majeure, faulty workmanship, or a construction defect. In other words, a tenant does not have to finance the normal aging of the home, but they remain responsible for deteriorations caused by their negligence, lack of maintenance, or abnormal use of the property. It is this boundary that crystallizes the majority of disagreements at the time the keys are returned.
For a landlord, enforcing tenant repairs therefore requires a method. One must compare the entry inventory, the issues noted during the lease and, at the end of the lease, what actually constitutes damage attributable to the tenant. Without this distinction, normal wear and tear and repairable damage are easily confused. In reality, a strong case relies less on the owner's assertion than on the quality of the evidence kept throughout the duration of the rental.
Landlord's remedies
The Formal Notice
The formal notice often constitutes the first real turning point in a case. As long as a breach remains addressed by simple oral reminders or scattered messages, the owner has little evidence to demonstrate that they have asked the tenant to fulfill their obligations. In practice, a written formal notice allows for the dating of the dispute, a precise reminder of the alleged breach, and the setting of a clear deadline to rectify the situation. It is a probative tool, but also a lever for de-escalation, as a portion of cases are still resolved at this stage without proceeding to litigation. The ANIL also emphasizes that amicable exchanges can be initiated to find a solution regarding a rent or charges debt before the judicial phase.
Concretely, the formal notice must remain precise. It is in the owner's interest to mention the identity of the parties, the address of the property, the breach observed, the sums due or the obligations not respected, as well as a deadline for rectification. It is particularly useful for neighborhood disturbances, lack of insurance, lack of maintenance, or non-compliance with the purpose of the accommodation—that is, in all situations where the owner must demonstrate that they have asked the tenant to cease a behavior or to produce documentation. For unpaid rent or charges, it may precede an even more formal step: the summons to pay (commandement de payer) delivered by a judicial officer when the lease includes a termination clause. Article 24 of the law of July 6, 1989 indeed provides that this clause only takes effect six weeks after a summons to pay has remained unsuccessful.
This step should therefore not be seen as a mere administrative formality. It structures the rest of the case. An imprecise, undated letter or one lacking supporting documents weakens the landlord's position, whereas a rigorous formal notice establishes the chronology of the breach and shows the judge, if necessary, that the owner attempted a rectification before initiating an action. It is often this quality of preparation that determines the effectiveness of the subsequent recourse.
Termination of the Lease
When the tenant does not rectify the situation, the owner can request the termination of the lease. This termination may be based on the termination clause provided for in the contract or on a judicial request based on the severity of the breaches. Since the current version of Article 24 of the law of July 6, 1989, every residential lease contains a clause providing for automatic termination for failure to pay rent or charges, for non-payment of the security deposit, for lack of insurance against rental risks, or for neighborhood disturbances confirmed by a court decision with the force of res judicata.
However, it must be clearly understood that termination is not instantaneous. In the event of non-payment, the termination clause only takes effect after a summons to pay has remained unsuccessful for six weeks. Subsequently, the judge may still be petitioned, notably because they have the power to grant payment delays and suspend the effects of the termination clause. Service-Public and ANIL point out that these delays can last up to 3 years depending on the tenant's situation. In other words, even when a breach is established, the procedure retains a dimension of judicial control.
The termination of the lease is then structured around two distinct issues: the tenant's departure and the recovery of the sums due. A terminated lease does not erase the rental debt. And even with a favorable decision, eviction follows its own rules, particularly during the winter truce, which runs from November 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, for the current period. In practice, a landlord must therefore think in sequences: have the breach formally recorded, secure the procedure, obtain the termination, then initiate, if necessary, measures related to occupancy without right or title and the payment of the debt. It is a longer process than often imagined, which explains the importance of acting at the very first warning signs.
What to remember
In rental matters, enforcing the tenant's legal obligations relies less on improvisation than on a clear method: identifying the breach, qualifying it correctly, preserving evidence, and acting without delay. Payment of rent and charges, home insurance, peaceful enjoyment, routine maintenance, respect for the purpose of the dwelling, or rental repairs fall within a specific framework that the owner can legitimately demand. And when dialogue is no longer enough, a formal notice and then the termination of the lease provide a solid framework for action, provided they are used with rigor. In practice, it is this combination of responsiveness, mastery of the lease, and knowledge of legal remedies that makes it possible to protect one's property in the long term and secure the rental relationship.
