Adopted in 2021, the Climate and Resilience law plans to gradually consider housing with poor energy performance as indecent.
First, it was the housing classified G+ in the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) which were deemed indecent in 2023. It is now the turn of the G classes from January 1, before the F housing in 2028, then E in 2034.
The law requires landlords to provide the tenant with decent housing. If this is not the case, the tenant can demand work from the landlord, take the matter to court if necessary to force the landlord to comply and obtain a reduction in rent or suspension of payment while the work is being carried out.
Decency is a prerequisite for signing a lease, so "theoretically, there should no longer be any advertisements for G-rated rental accommodation", nor any new contracts, believes David Rodrigues, legal director of the CLCV association (Consumption, Housing and Living Environment).
"Shaky" law
However, real estate professionals do not all agree on how to interpret the text of the law, which David Rodrigues considers "completely shaky": does the indecency of housing apply from January 1st to all housing, or to the tacit renewal of the lease or only to new signings of rental contracts?
The Ministry of Housing states that "the ban on renting out G-rated housing" applies "to new rental contracts, and at the time of renewal or tacit renewal" of current leases.
On the other hand, for Me Etienne Chesneau, associate lawyer at the firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, indecency applies from January 1st for all G housing, but the law "does not strictly speaking prohibit a landlord from renting". It is "a little more subtle".
If he rents, "the owner is exposed to the tenant asking for the accommodation to be brought into compliance with decency criteria," continues Me Chesneau.
There is no legal termination of a lease for indecency, and if a landlord tries to terminate a tenant who has filed an appeal, this may be considered abusive.
David Rodrigues senses that "few tenants will make" this appeal. He would rather like "a cap on rents" for energy sieves "in areas where there is rent control", so as not to penalise either the tenant or "the landlord who could not carry out the work", but whose accommodation is still habitable.
He is also concerned about tenants who do not have access to the DPE of their accommodation, the communication of which is not obligatory for a rental property.
565.000 homes affected
A bill aimed at clarifying the text and adapting the timetable to the constraints of co-ownerships was presented at the end of October to the National Assembly, but its examination has been blocked since the censure of the Barnier government.
This energy sieve schedule, considered tight and untenable by some professionals and politicians, concerns nearly 565.000 G-rated homes as of January 1, 2024, according to State data, which specifies that a reform of the DPE, introduced in July, has reduced the number of small areas classified F or G.
"The energy renovation project is gigantic", it was "impossible to do all this work in four years, especially in small co-ownerships", warns Loïc Cantin, president of the National Real Estate Federation (Fnaim).
Since 2022, more than 108.000 G housing units have been renovated, according to official figures.
"I don't think the objective set was to renovate all G housing" before 2025, according to Carine Sebi, full professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management, but rather "to send a first strong signal to landlords to initiate a dynamic of energy renovation, and to protect tenants who are not able to improve their housing".
Loïc Cantin nevertheless fears "an acceleration of the housing crisis" if hundreds of thousands of homes disappear from the rental market.
Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.