How to give notice to your tenants?

Recent decisions of the Court of Cassation remind us regularly of this and that the owner needs to be more vigilant.

This study deals with unfurnished residential leases.

When and how?

A lessor can only give notice to his tenant after the expiry of the lease term and at least 6 months before, by RAR letter or bailiff’s deed.

A Bailiff’s Act is strongly recommended to ensure compliance with mandatory information.

If several people are joint owners of the lease, notice must be given to each of them.

In the absence of a notice issued, a lease which has expired is expressly renewed for a period equivalent to the initial agreement.

In addition to the notice, the owner must provide the reasons for the leave, under penalty of nullity (Article 15 of the Law of July 6, 1989).

What are the legitimate reasons?

Leave for sale:

The notice must, under penalty of rescission, state the sale price, proposed terms of sale, and a description of the property that must conform to the lease.

The notice must include information regarding the lessee’s obligations and remedies.

A purchaser of an occupied property can give notice of sale to the tenant for the term of the lease provided that the term is more than three years after the date of acquisition of the property..

Otherwise, if this period is less than three years from the date of acquisition of the property, the lessor has to wait. First tacit renewal or first renewal of existing rental agreement.

The legal right of pre-emption in favor of the tenant is valid during the first two months of the notice period.

A tenant who accepts the offer has two months to complete the sale. If the tenant notifies his intention to use the loan, the deadline for completing the sale is extended by 4 months. If, at the end of this period, the sale has not been made, the acceptance of the sale offer shall automatically become void.

It is important to clarify that, if the owner intends to sell the property to a third party at a price lower than that stated in the notice, he must inform his former tenant of the new right of pre-emption at the new price, even after the tenant’s departure from the premises.

Leave for recovery

The recovery concerns the lessee, his spouse, his PACS or known partner for at least one year on the date of leave, his descendants, his descendants or his spouse, his partner or his known cohabitants. In the event of joint ownership, any member of the joint ownership can be designated as the beneficiary of the leave.

If the lessee is a civil company consisting of relatives up to the fourth degree, the beneficiary can be one of the partners of this company.

A purchaser of a repossessed property can give notice of resumption only if a period of more than two years has passed since the acquisition. Otherwise, if the existing agreement ends less than two years after the acquisition, the leave for takeover granted by the lessee at the end of the existing rental agreement will not take effect until the expiry of a period of two years from the date. Acquisition of property.

In a recent decision of the Court of Cassation of October 12, 2023, the judges mentioned their power to control the cause of recovery.

On the form of leave: Under penalty of revocation, in addition to the “alleged cause”, the name and address of the beneficiary of the levy and the link existing between them, must also be real and justified to the lessee. The serious nature of his decision recovery.

A judge, on the other hand, relies on elements outside the holiday to form his conviction of the seriousness of the tenant’s intention to take the premises back to make it his principal residence, on the day of the holiday.

Leave for legitimate and serious reasons

A legitimate and serious reason must necessarily correspond to the use which the lessee intends to make of his property, such as the desire to renovate or expropriate his building.

The judge sovereignly evaluates these conditions.

It should be noted that in case of failure to comply with essential obligations (e.g. failure to pay rent, restricted subletting) the lessor may initiate termination proceedings, which are also subject to very strict formalities: an order to pay clause in consideration of termination, for the prefecture notice, deadline, etc.)

At the end of the holiday

If at the end of the lease, the tenant has not vacated the premises, he will automatically be deprived of his possession title.

If the tenant remains in the premises, he will be required to approach the competent court and respect the formalities imposed before the Disputes Judge for the validity of the leave and initiation of eviction proceedings against the tenant who has become an occupier without rights or title. For the protection of the judicial court of the location of the rented premises, which has exclusive jurisdiction.