Thermal sieves: MPs want to relax obligations for co-ownership housing

This bill, tabled at the end of October by the Ensemble pour la République (ex-Renaissance) MP Bastien Marchive and the socialist MP Iñaki Echaniz, was initially due to be examined in December but its progress was halted by the censure of the Barnier government at the beginning of December.

The 2021 Climate and Resilience Act provides for a ban on the rental of G-rated housing from January 1, 2025, but has forgotten certain scenarios that the text intends to specify.

"The aim is to avoid somewhat unnecessary conflicts between landlords and tenants, and to over-request justice," the office of Housing Minister Valérie Létard told the press on Tuesday, referring to a text that is "fairly balanced between tenants' rights and landlords' rights."

In detail, the text, which also applies to social housing, specifies that the obligation of energy decency only applies to newly concluded leases, and for current leases, only at the end of their tacit renewal or their renewal.

Except for G+ rated housing, which has already been prohibited from renting since January 2023 and is excluded from any development, G rated housing will be deemed decent and can therefore continue to be rented if the energy improvement work has proven to be "impossible for technical reasons" or if it has been "refused by administrative decision".

For landlords whose housing is located in co-ownership, i.e. around 250.000 homes in France, "compliance with energy performance levels may be subject to the carrying out of work in the common areas", note the authors.

Rent reduction

"Condominiums, mechanically, for reasons that are both technical and simply human, are larger entities in which decisions are made more slowly and with more difficulty," agreed Ms. Létard's office.

Taking this slowness into account, the deputies plan that a lessor whose co-ownership has voted for work to improve energy performance will automatically benefit from a temporary suspension of the ban on renting out their accommodation. It is up to the deputies to define the duration of this suspension.

Tenants who object to the work being carried out will not be able to obtain a reduction in their rent on the grounds of energy indecency, unlike those who live in energy-inefficient housing where no work is planned.

The latter may refer the matter to a conciliation commission, then to a judge if necessary, in order to obtain a reduction in rent proportionate to the excess energy consumption caused by the failure to carry out work.

"The rent reduction is never automatic, but always follows a request from the tenant," the minister's office clarified.

"The judge will always first ask landlords to carry out work before talking about a rent reduction," the same source said, knowing that a landlord who has done "everything possible" to improve the energy consumption of his accommodation will not be affected by a rent reduction.

To prevent the absence of a vote at the AGM from leading to "a permanent circumvention" of the obligations to improve the energy performance of housing, it is finally proposed to integrate thermal and energy renovation measures into the multi-year work plan, which must be adopted by co-owned buildings over 15 years old.

In France, 4,8 million homes are classified F or G, including 1,5 million in the private rental sector, 0,4 million in social housing and 2,9 million inhabited by their owners, according to government estimates for 2023.