Formal demand for repairs to a rented home (France)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in French
The PDF you download is in French — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
For a tenant in France whose home has defects the landlord does not repair: damp, broken heating, dangerous wiring, leaks. The French letter describes the defects and when they began, recalls the duty to provide a decent home and keep it in repair (art. 6 of the French law of 6 July 1989, décret n° 2002-120), sets a deadline for the work and names the remedies, while confirming the rent is still being paid. By registered letter with proof of receipt.
- Made for use in France
- Last updated October 13, 2026
When to use this document
- Your rented flat in France has damp, leaks or broken heating and the landlord does nothing.
- The wiring in your home is dangerous and your landlord ignores your requests for repairs.
- You have reported the problem several times and still nothing has been fixed.
- You want to demand repairs in writing with a deadline while continuing to pay your rent.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Tenant
- Tenant's address
- Landlord
- Landlord's postal address (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Date of the lease
- Address of the property
- Date the defect appeared
- Defects found (what they are, which room)
- Date of the earlier report (if any)
- Deadline for the work
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- May the tenant stop paying rent until the work is done?
- No. In France a tenant may not cut or suspend the rent unilaterally: only the court can order that, while setting the work and its deadline (art. 20-1 of the French law of 6 July 1989). A tenant who stops paying risks the lease's termination clause. So keep paying, keep evidence of the defects — photos, reports, messages — and use the formal demand to set a date.
- What is a decent home in the sense of French law?
- A home with no obvious risk to safety or health, with a main room of at least 9 m² and 2.20 m ceiling height, or 20 m³, heating, drinking water, a bathroom and a cooking area, and a minimum energy performance (French décret n° 2002-120 of 30 January 2002). In metropolitan France a home rated G on the energy performance certificate is no longer decent since 2025. The ADIL and the town hall's health and hygiene service can help have this recorded.
- What can the French CAF do if the home is not decent?
- If you receive housing aid, the caisse d'allocations familiales (CAF) can have the home found not decent. It then holds back the aid, for up to eighteen months, instead of paying it to the landlord, and you pay only the rest of the rent while the work is done. Report it through your online account or by post, enclosing this formal demand.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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