When the Architecte des Bâtiments de France Blocks Your Insulation
Nearly a third of French homes sit inside a heritage perimeter where one official can veto your insulation. What the architecte des bâtiments de France can refuse, how to appeal, and why a refusal does not make an F-rated flat lettable again.
The Commission Départementale de Conciliation, Explained
A tenant or landlord can bring the other before a free, State-run conciliation body long before any court is involved. What it can examine, whether its findings bind anyone, and why not turning up is the worst move available.
No Attestation, No Lease: the One-Month Insurance Rule That Can End a French Tenancy
A Montpellier court has evicted a tenant not for unpaid rent but for failing to hand over an insurance certificate. Why the judge had no discretion, the one-month clock behind the ruling, and the two levers every French landlord should understand.
How the French Taxman Decides Your Flat Is Empty: the TVLH Evidence Rules
From January 2027 France's new vacancy tax will decide whether your home is empty on the strength of a database, your own declaration and, sometimes, a neighbour's tip-off. What fiscally vacant means, how occupation is proven, and the two defences that actually work.
France Is About to Upgrade Your DPE by Decree: the 1.7 Coefficient Explained
A draft arrêté would cut the DPE electricity coefficient from 1.9 to 1.7 on 1 January 2027, lifting hundreds of thousands of electrically heated homes out of passoire status with no works and a free updated label. What it changes for foreign owners, and why it is not signed yet.
Six Weeks, Not Two Months: France Rewrites the Unpaid-Rent Clause in Every New Lease
From 1 October 2026 every new French lease gives a non-paying tenant six weeks, not two months, to clear the debt after a commandement de payer. What the new contrat type changes, which clock governs your existing lease, and the procedure that actually gets a property back.