The landlord must provide the tenant with decent accommodation according to article 6 of the law of July 6, 1989. Decent housing meets 5 criteria: a minimum surface area, the absence of risk for the safety and health of the tenant, the absence of harmful animals and parasites, minimal energy performance, the provision of certain equipment, according to the Service-public.fr website. The Court of Cassation recalls this in a decision dated May 16, 2024
Only a case of force majeure can exempt the lessor from its obligation to provide decent housing, recalls the Court of Cassation. For example, a landslide on that of neighbors due to bad weather can be qualified as force majeure. This is an unpredictable element, a natural disaster.
A fine of 3,000 euros for lessors
In this case, in November 2013, tenants rented a property but on December 21, 2015, the landlords demanded unpaid rent from them. In 2018, the landlords took them to court to terminate the lease and evict them and obtain payment of their rent arrears. The tenants cited indecency in the accommodation to justify these unpaid rent. They demanded execution of the repair work, a suspension of rent payments and compensation for their losses.
The Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the lessors and rejected the tenants’ requests. It noted that the accommodation was decent when the tenants entered the premises and that traces of humidity had been noted in 2015 but that the landlords had carried out work to repair the roof in 2017. The Court of Cassation rejected this decision. For her, tenants can claim indecent housing.
“Even if the decency criteria are respected at the start of the residential lease, only a case of force majeure can exempt the lessor from its obligation to provide decent accommodation, which appeared during the lease. The lessor must compensate the tenant for any damage suffered which makes the accommodation incompatible with standards of decency.“, comments Me Neu-Janicki, lawyer in real estate law, on his site. The landlords were ordered to pay the sum of 3,000 euros to the tenants.