Mandatory Documents Before Renting Out a Furnished Apartment in Paris

Renting out a furnished apartment in Paris is a legal process, and the documents you hand over at lease signing define your rights for the entire tenancy.

Most landlords know they need diagnostics. Far fewer know that several additional documents must accompany the bail, and that Paris adds a specific contractual obligation that does not exist anywhere else in France. Forgetting the encadrement des loyers clause, for example, is not an administrative detail. It gives your tenant grounds to claim reimbursement of every euro paid above the legal ceiling, going back to the date the lease started.

This guide covers every mandatory document, explains the conditions that trigger each one, and flags what often gets missed, particularly by landlords managing a Paris apartment from abroad or signing their first bail meublé.

French rental law creates two separate obligations for every landlord putting a furnished apartment on the market. Both must be met before the lease is signed. Neither replaces the other.

The dossier de diagnostics techniques (DDT)

The DDT is a file of certified property inspections that must be physically or digitally annexed to the bail at signature. It documents the property's energy performance, structural health risks, installation safety, and environmental exposure. Every diagnostic in the file must be valid on the day the contract is signed.

An expired or incomplete DDT is not a paperwork problem. If a tenant can show that a missing diagnostic caused them financial harm, a court can order the rent to be reduced, reimburse past payments, or in serious cases, annul the lease entirely.

Mandatory documents beyond the diagnostics

Three further documents are required under the loi du 6 juillet 1989 and its implementing decrees. They rarely appear in standard diagnostic checklists, which is why landlords miss them:

• Notice d'information: A formal information sheet covering tenant and landlord rights and obligations, required under Décret 2015-1440 for every lease governed by the 1989 law. Its absence does not void the bail outright, but it weakens your legal position in any dispute.
• Extract from the règlement de copropriété: For apartments in a shared building, an extract covering the building's purpose, common area use, and charges distribution must accompany the lease (Article 10, loi du 6 juillet 1989). In practice, this means virtually every Paris apartment, since almost all are held within a copropriété.
• Inventaire et état du mobilier: A signed, itemised list of all furniture and equipment in the apartment, including the condition of each piece. Mandatory for all bail meublé contracts under the 2015 ALUR decree. Without it, you have no legal basis to withhold any part of the security deposit at move-out for damaged or missing items.

The specific diagnostics required for a furnished lease in Paris depend on your property's age and its heating and utility systems. Most central Paris apartments, particularly those built before 1950 in the first through eighth arrondissements, will need four or five of the following.

For a furnished rental, landlords should check the following:

• DPE (Energy Performance): required for all properties. It is valid for 10 years.
• CREP (Lead Exposure): required for buildings constructed before 1 January 1949. It is valid indefinitely if no lead is detected, but only for 1 year if lead is present.
• Electrical Installation Diagnostic: required if the electrical wiring is over 15 years old. It is valid for 6 years.
• Gas Installation Diagnostic: required if the gas system is over 15 years old. It is valid for 6 years.
• ERP (Environmental Risks): required for properties located in designated risk zones. It is valid for 6 months.
• Diagnostic Bruit (Airport Noise): required for properties near airport noise zones. It is included in the ERP.
• Surface Loi Boutin: required for unfurnished leases only, not standard furnished leases. It remains valid indefinitely if no structural changes are made.

For a full breakdown of which diagnostics apply to apartments versus houses, the Service-Public.fr diagnostic guide (updated February 2026) is the authoritative reference.

DPE and the 2026 classification update

The DPE is the diagnostic most likely to block your rental. Since 1 January 2025, no G-rated property can be offered under a new or renewed residential lease in mainland France. If a lease is signed on a G-rated property after that date, the tenant can contest it and, in some cases, withhold rent for the unlawful period.

From 1 January 2026, the DPE calculation method changed. The electricity conversion coefficient dropped from 2.3 to 1.9. For Paris apartments with all-electric heating, a category that covers many Haussmann-era properties renovated in the 1980s and 1990s, this adjustment can shift the classification up by one band without any physical changes to the building.

If your DPE was issued between 2021 and 2024 on an electrically heated apartment and your property sat at class D or borderline E, commissioning a new DPE under the 2026 method is worth considering. A better classification affects your legal rental window before the 2028 F-class prohibition and may change what complement de loyer you can justify.

That distinction matters more than many landlords realise.

Validity periods to track before each lease

The ERP is the diagnostic most often found expired at lease renewal. Its validity is only six months, which means a DDT prepared twelve months before the next signing date will already contain an invalid document.

Build a simple calendar when you first assemble your DDT. Note the expiry date for each item. The DPE (10 years), CREP (unlimited if negative), and Boutin surface measurement (unlimited without works) are stable. The ERP (6 months), electrical report (6 years), and gas report (6 years) need active tracking. If you manage your Paris apartment from London or New York, this calendar is the difference between a clean signing and a last-minute scramble.

Paris belongs to a rent-controlled zone, and every standard residential lease signed in the city must include a section that reflects the encadrement des loyers rules. This applies to furnished leases as much as unfurnished ones. It is not optional, and it is not covered by the DDT.

The encadrement des loyers clause in your bail

Under Paris's encadrement des loyers framework, the bail must state three things explicitly:

• The loyer de référence for your property's category, calculated annually by OLAP based on zone, room count, construction period, and furnished or unfurnished status
• The loyer de référence majoré, the legal rent ceiling set at 20% above the reference value
• If you are charging a complement de loyer, a supplement above the ceiling justified by exceptional features, the specific reason must be written into the lease

If this section is absent from your bail, a tenant can take the matter to a conciliation board or civil court and claim reimbursement of amounts paid above the applicable ceiling, retroactively, for the full duration of the tenancy. This is not uncommon. And the tenant does not need to prove bad intent on your part, only that the clause was missing.

You can verify the reference values for your property using the Paris encadrement des loyers reference tool. For a full explanation of how the system is calculated and applied across Paris's different zones, see our guide on understanding rent control rules in Paris.

The inventaire du mobilier for furnished leases

The inventaire and the état des lieux are two separate documents, and both are required at move-in for a bail meublé.

The inventory lists what is in the apartment, every piece of furniture and equipment, with a description of each item's condition at the time of handover. The état des lieux records the physical state of the property itself, the walls, floors, ceilings, fixtures, and fittings.

In most cases, both documents are signed at the same appointment, when you hand over the keys. But they must exist as separate signed records. Without a signed inventaire, you cannot lawfully retain any amount from the security deposit for a missing armchair or a damaged table. The tenant's legal protection at move-out rests entirely on what was documented at move-in. So does yours.

For practical guidance on conducting a thorough move-in inspection that holds up under scrutiny, see our article on protecting the security deposit in Paris.

The diagnostics are the same for furnished and unfurnished leases. The difference is in the supporting documents: a furnished lease requires a furniture inventory, while an unfurnished lease requires a formal surface measurement.

In both cases, the landlord must provide the required DDT documents (DPE, CREP where applicable, electrical and gas reports, where applicable, and ERP). What changes is the lease file around those diagnostics: a bail meublé includes proof that the apartment is legally furnished, a bail nu includes proof of habitable surface area, and a bail mobilité follows the furnished lease rules within a short-term framework.

Bail meublé: furnished lease documents

For a furnished lease, the landlord must prepare an inventaire du mobilier. This inventory lists all furniture, appliances, and household equipment provided with the apartment.

The lease must also include the furnished version of the notice d'information. This document explains the rights and obligations of both landlord and tenant under the furnished rental framework.

The apartment must meet the legal furnished-rental standard set by the Décret du 31 juillet 2015. It must allow the tenant to sleep, cook, eat, and live normally from the first day. If the apartment does not meet this standard, a court can reclassify the lease as a bail nu.

That reclassification can change the notice period, deposit cap, and rent review framework. The diagnostics remain the same, but the legal structure of the tenancy changes.

Bail nu: unfurnished lease documents

For an unfurnished lease, the landlord must include the surface loi Boutin measurement. This is the official habitable floor area stated in the lease.

In practice, many landlords ask a certified professional to measure it, especially if the apartment has an unusual layout, sloped ceilings, mezzanines, or older Haussmann-era features.

The landlord must also attach the unfurnished version of the notice d'information. Unlike a furnished lease, no furniture inventory is required because the tenant brings their own furniture.

This is the main practical distinction: a bail nu requires formal surface documentation, while a bail meublé requires formal furniture documentation.

Bail mobilité: short-term furnished lease documents

A bail mobilité is a short-term furnished lease of one to ten months. It is used for tenants on professional assignments, work-related training, studies, internships, or temporary postings.

The compliance file is close to a standard bail meublé. The landlord still needs the DDT, the furniture inventory, the Paris rent control clause, and the correct notice d'information.

The key detail is that the notice must use the bail mobilité-specific template. This matters if a dispute arises over the legal classification of the lease.

The main practical difference is the security deposit. For a bail mobilité, the landlord cannot require one.

For landlords housing employees on short Paris assignments, the bail mobilité can be useful. But it does not reduce the compliance workload. It mainly changes the lease duration, tenant eligibility rules, and deposit obligation.

Diagnostic costs are the landlord's responsibility. They cannot be charged to the tenant through the lease, deducted from the deposit, or passed on in any other way.

The most practical approach is to commission all required diagnostics as a single pack from one certified diagnostician. This consolidates the on-site visit into one appointment and significantly reduces the per-diagnostic cost compared to ordering each item separately.

For a standard DDT pack in Paris, landlords can typically expect the following price ranges in 2026:

• Studio or T1 (~30-40 m²): €144 to €190 TTC
• T2 (~50-60 m²): €200 to €230 TTC
• T3 (~70-90 m²): €230 to €270 TTC
• T4 or larger (100 m²+): €270 to €310 TTC

These figures usually cover the standard pack for a furnished lease, including the DPE, CREP, where applicable, electrical diagnostic, where applicable, and ERP. If a gas diagnostic is also required, add approximately €100 to €140 to the total.

If you are organising the process from abroad (more common than agencies tend to acknowledge in their standard advice), certified diagnosticians in Paris can complete the visit and deliver the full DDT digitally within 24 to 48 hours. Your physical presence is not required. You will receive a complete file you can forward directly to the letting agency or annex to the bail yourself.

Failing to provide the full set of mandatory documents at lease signature is not a technical lapse that gets quietly corrected. The consequences can run through the entire tenancy.

Here is what French housing law allows a tenant to do when documents are incomplete:

• Challenge the bail. If a missing diagnostic caused direct financial harm, such as a DPE that concealed a G-class property, or the absence of a CREP in a building constructed before 1949, the tenant can apply to a court to contest the validity of the lease, seek rent reductions, or claim damages.
• Claim rent reimbursement retroactively. If the DPE was absent or inaccurate and the property turns out to be classified F or G, the tenant can request a court-ordered rent reduction covering the period from move-in.
• Block any future rent increases. Under Décret n°2022-1079, any property without a valid DPE, or with a DPE showing class F or G, is subject to a rent freeze. Any increase you applied during that period is illegal. The tenant can demand those amounts back.
• Trigger administrative fines. Publishing a listing without the DPE class displayed clearly carries a fine of €3,000 per offence for private landlords. For legal entities, the failure to include a valid DPE in the lease can reach €300,000.

The most common source of exposure is not deliberate non-compliance. It is a DDT that was complete at the previous lease signature but has since partially expired, combined with a renewal where the diagnostics were not checked before the new contract was signed. A brief document audit before each signing date prevents this entirely. And it takes less than an hour once you know what to look for.

If you are renting out a Paris apartment for the first time, our guide on the essential home contracts in Paris covers the broader contractual framework that sits alongside your landlord documents.

Preparing the compliance file for a furnished apartment in Paris is often more complex than landlords expect. Several tasks usually happen in the same short window before signature: ordering diagnostics, checking the lease, preparing the furniture inventory, and confirming the correct rent control figures.

At Relocation in Paris, we support landlords through each of these steps so the apartment can be rented out legally, efficiently, and without last-minute administrative pressure.

Our support can include:

• Coordinating the DDT with a certified diagnostician
• Checking that required diagnostics are current and correctly attached to the lease
• Reviewing the lease for Paris rent control clauses
• Preparing the furniture inventory and move-in condition report
• Reviewing tenant files within the legal document request limits
• Checking guarantor arrangements before presenting shortlisted tenants

This support is especially useful if you manage your Paris apartment from abroad, are renewing an existing lease, or are preparing your first bail meublé.

You do not need to be physically present in Paris. We can coordinate the diagnostic visit, inventory, and état des lieux locally, while you review and sign the documents remotely.

For a full overview of how we manage furnished apartments for landlords, visit our property management page.