How to Ask a Tenant to Renew Their Lease: A Paris Owner's Guide

Most landlord advice focuses on the tenant who wants to leave. The tenant who wants to stay, quietly paying rent on time every month, usually gets no attention at all until something changes.

That gap matters. Renewing a lease in Paris touches several things at once, including the loi du 6 juillet 1989, the IRL rent index, DPE rules that can freeze a rent regardless of inflation, and, for owners with international or corporate tenants, a civil code lease that follows none of the rules above.

This guide is written for owners of a Paris apartment under a standard residential lease or a civil code lease, particularly those managing the property from outside France. It covers what French law requires at renewal, how to approach a tenant worth keeping, what a rent adjustment can and cannot include in 2026, and where a civil code lease changes the picture. It does not cover bail mobilité, student leases, or a lease ending because the owner is selling the property or moving in, which follow a different process.

In France, lease renewal mostly happens by default. If neither party acts before the deadline, the contract simply continues.

Tacit renewal and what it actually means

Tacit renewal, reconduction tacite in French, is the rule rather than the exception. Under article 10 of the loi du 6 juillet 1989, an unfurnished lease with an individual landlord renews for another three years if nobody gives notice (six years if the landlord is a company). A furnished lease, a bail meublé, renews for one year at a time under the same logic.

Nothing needs to be signed. The rent, the charges, and every clause stay exactly as they were, aside from any indexation already written into the contract.

This won't apply to every lease in the city, but it covers the large majority signed in Paris under standard residential terms.

The three legal reasons to end a tenancy

A landlord cannot decline to renew a lease simply because a different tenant might pay more. Article 15 of the same law allows non-renewal for only three reasons, and each one requires formal notice (congé) within the legal deadline:

• The owner wants to sell the property.
• The owner or a close family member wants to move into it.
• The tenant has seriously failed to meet their obligations, most often repeated late payment.

The deadline for that notice is six months before the end date for an unfurnished lease, and three months for a furnished one under article 25-8. Outside those three reasons and those deadlines, the lease renews regardless.

A tenant who pays on time, looks after the apartment, and causes no friction is worth more than most owners realise, especially once the cost of finding a replacement gets added up.

The real cost of re-letting in Paris

Re-letting an apartment is not free, and the bill falls mostly on the owner. Agency fees for finding a new tenant are capped, but that cap rose for the first time in over a decade. As of 1 January 2026, the ceiling for tenant-facing fees (viewings, file processing, lease drafting) reached 12.10 euros per square metre in Paris, the city's high demand zone.

On top of that fee, there is the time the apartment sits empty, a new état des lieux, and the work of screening a new tenant's file from scratch (this part is easy to underestimate when the property is managed from abroad). None of this guarantees the next tenant will be better than the one already there.

What retention actually saves you

Put the two paths side by side and the gap becomes clear:

• Re-letting a 50 square metre apartment means up to 605 euros in agency fees alone (50 times 12.10 euros), plus the rent lost during any vacancy, plus a fresh état des lieux and screening.
• Renewing the current tenant, in the worst case, costs the owner the IRL increase they choose not to apply, which on a 1,200 euro rent works out to roughly 12 euros a month.

Not a search for someone new, then. Often the cheaper move is simply confirming the current tenant can stay. If a guarantor was hard to arrange the first time round, our guide to finding a guarantor in Paris is a useful reminder that the same friction applies to the next tenant too.

If a tenant deserves to stay, the simplest approach is a short written note sent a few months before the lease ends, confirming that the lease will continue.

Timing the renewal notice

Because most leases renew automatically, there is technically no deadline for an owner who is happy with the status quo. But putting something in writing avoids the slightly awkward situation where a tenant assumes they need to leave simply because nobody told them otherwise.

If you own a furnished apartment and the one year mark is coming up soon, the renewal clock is probably closer than it feels. For a bail meublé, a short email or letter one to two months before the anniversary date works well. For an unfurnished lease on its three year cycle, the same approach applies, though the stakes (and any proposed rent change) tend to be larger.

A simple structure for the renewal note

A renewal note does not need to be long, but it works best when it follows a clear order. Cover these points in sequence:

• Confirm that the lease will continue and that the owner is happy with the tenancy.
• State the current rent, and the proposed rent if anything is changing.
• Explain how any new figure was calculated, whether that is the IRL formula or a market comparison.
• Give the date the new terms take effect, if applicable.
• Note the DPE rating if it affects what can or cannot change.
• Ask for a simple acknowledgement by a given date, so both sides have something in writing.

That structure works whether the note is a one paragraph email or a short letter, and it gives the tenant everything they need to respond without back and forth.

What to include if a rent change is part of the offer

Three things separate a routine indexation from a fully justified increase, and the difference changes both the notice period and what has to be proven.

• A standard IRL based indexation can be applied at the point the lease's revision clause allows, with no special notice beyond what the contract already specifies.
• An increase based on the rent being clearly under market requires a formal proposal sent at least six months before the lease ends, supported by at least six comparable rent references (three in a tense zone such as Paris).
• Either way, the note should state the current rent, the proposed rent, how it was calculated, and the date the new amount applies from.

Most rent increases at renewal come from a single source, the IRL index, and the margin it allows is smaller than many owners expect.

The Indice de Référence des Loyers (IRL), published quarterly by INSEE, sets the pace for almost every rent revision in France. For the second quarter of 2025, the IRL stood at 146.68, an annual increase of just 1.04 percent. Applied to a 1,200 euro rent, that works out to roughly 12 extra euros a month, not the kind of jump that justifies a difficult conversation.

The formula itself is simple. New rent equals current rent multiplied by the new IRL, divided by the IRL referenced in the lease. Whatever quarter the lease specifies as its reference, that is the one to use, and the comparison should always be the same quarter one year apart.

There's a catch that trips up more owners than it should. DPE F and G rated apartments have had their rent frozen since August 2022, meaning no increase at renewal or relocation, whatever the IRL allows. In Paris, the encadrement des loyers cap (the loyer de référence majoré) still applies at renewal too, so even a correctly calculated IRL increase cannot push the rent above that ceiling. Our guide to rent control in Paris covers how that cap is set and where it tends to bite hardest.

One more detail worth knowing: a missed indexation does not carry forward indefinitely. Under article 17-1, a revision that was never applied can only be claimed retroactively for one year from the date the request is made, and after that it is lost for good.

If an apartment is let under a civil code lease, almost none of the rules above apply in the same way.

A civil code lease, used for company provided housing, diplomatic postings, and pied-à-terre arrangements above roughly 4,000 to 5,000 euros a month, sits outside the loi du 6 juillet 1989 entirely. Duration, notice, and renewal terms are whatever the two parties agree to in writing, as long as the total term does not exceed nine years.

For a fixed term civil code lease, renewal works in one of two ways:

• The tenant simply leaves when the term ends, with no notice required beyond what the contract states.
• Both parties build in an automatic renewal clause from the start, so the lease continues unless either side objects.

Why corporate and diplomatic tenants are often worth retaining

Where an individual tenant on a standard lease might miss a payment during a difficult month, a company paid lease rarely runs into the same problem. The rent comes from a corporate account, not a personal one, and the tenant's employer has every incentive to keep the arrangement running smoothly. Across Imodirect's Paris portfolio, professionally managed tenancies showed an unpaid rent rate of around 1.6 percent in October 2025, compared with a citywide average of 3.5 percent across Paris and Île-de-France over the same period.

For an owner who has secured this kind of tenant, the renewal conversation is often less about rent and more about making sure the paperwork keeps pace with the relationship. A civil code lease that was drafted loosely the first time around is worth tightening at renewal, not replacing. If you're still weighing whether a civil code lease or a standard residential lease fits your situation, our guide to renting an apartment in Paris as a foreigner covers how the two compare.

One practical note for this lease type: standard garantie loyers impayés policies do not cover civil code leases. Owners typically rely on a guarantor commitment from the tenant or their employer instead, which is one more reason the original drafting matters at renewal time.

For owners managing a Paris property from abroad, lease renewal is one of the moments where having a local point of contact makes the most difference.

Lease drafting and compliance review

Relocation in Paris reviews the existing lease before renewal time arrives, checking that the rent still complies with encadrement des loyers, that any DPE related restrictions are accounted for, and that the indexation clause matches what is actually being applied. For civil code leases, this is also the point where loosely worded terms from the original signing get tightened, particularly around duration, renewal mechanics, and exit conditions.

Ongoing tenant relationship management

Day to day, Relocation in Paris manages the charge statements, rent collection, and communication with the tenant, so a renewal note arrives on time, in the right form, and from a contact the tenant already knows. For owners who want the fuller picture, the property management service for Paris landlords outlines the scope of support available.

In most cases, nothing needs to be resigned, but a few things are worth checking once a renewal takes effect.

When a new lease document makes sense

A tacit renewal does not require a new document, and trying to force one on a tenant who is happy with the existing terms can create friction for no reason. A new document becomes useful mainly when something has genuinely changed, such as a rent revision that needs to be recorded clearly, a change in who lives in the property, or a DPE update that affects future obligations.

When in doubt, a simple written confirmation of the renewed terms, even a short letter referencing the existing lease, is usually enough to avoid ambiguity later.

Tax and income reporting after a renewal

Renewal does not change how rental income gets declared, but it is a useful moment to check that nothing has drifted out of step. If the rent has been revised, the new figure needs to be reflected from the date it takes effect, not backdated or rounded informally. Owners who are not based in France, or who are unsure how civil code lease income should be classified, can find the relevant rules in our guide to rental income tax for Paris properties.