Renting in France: one month's deposit, a three-year lease, and the file the landlord may ask for

Yes, as a Dutch national you rent in France without restriction, and the law is on your side while you do. The deposit — the dépôt de garantie — is legally capped at one month's basic rent for an unfurnished home and two months for furnished, payable at signing. A lease with a private landlord runs at least three years, but you can leave at any time with three months' notice, and one month in the busy cities. The trap sits before signing: the landlord assesses your file, and whoever as a newcomer has no French payslips or avis d'imposition should know that the decree expressly allows a foreign tax assessment.

What do you pay at signing?

Item	What the rules say
Deposit (dépôt de garantie)	at most 1 month's basic rent (unfurnished), 2 months if furnished; paid at signing; cannot be raised during or on renewal of the lease
Agency fees for the tenant	at most half of what the agency charges, and at most € 12.10 per m² in the tightest zone, € 10.09 in a zone tendue, € 8.07 elsewhere
Inventory (état des lieux d'entrée) by the agency	at most € 3.03 per m² for the tenant
Money before signing	prohibited: a landlord may ask nothing to "hold" the home
Home insurance	compulsory from the handover of the keys, covering at least fire, water damage and explosion

That home insurance is not a tip but a condition: you hand over the certificate with the keys and every year on request after that. If it does not come, the landlord may terminate the lease or take out a policy at your expense. The certificate is, moreover, at once a justificatif de domicile, so take it out in the week you sign.

The deposit comes back at the end, less what the landlord can substantiate with the inventories at moving in and moving out and with quotes or invoices. Without an inventory on leaving, the home counts as returned in good condition — so have that inventory drawn up, even if the landlord cannot be bothered.

How long are you tied in, and how do you get out?

An unfurnished home is let for at least three years if the landlord is a private individual, and six years if it is a legal entity. Shorter is allowed by exception — at least a year — if the landlord wants the home back for family or professional reasons, and that reason must then be written into the lease. At the end, the lease is tacitly renewed or offered anew, unless one of you gives notice.

You do not have to sit out those three years. As tenant you can give notice at any time with a notice period of three months; in a zone tendue — the municipalities with a housing shortage — that is one month, provided your letter names the address and invokes the shortened period. For a furnished home it is always one month, without giving a reason. You give notice by registered letter, by bailiff or in person against a receipt — an e-mail does not count, not even if the landlord agrees by e-mail.

Which papers may the landlord ask for?

Exactly the documents in the decree, and nothing more. Whoever asks for more risks a fine of up to € 3,000 (€ 15,000 for a legal entity). The list per category:

• Identity: one valid identity document.
• Address: one document — the last three rent receipts, or a statement from your previous landlord that you are up to date, or a certificate from whoever is housing you.
• Work: an employment contract or an employer's statement with position, pay and start date.
• Income: the latest or previous tax assessment, the last three payslips, or for the self-employed the last two sets of accounts. And here is the sentence for the newcomer: if your income was not taxed in France, you supply "the latest or previous assessment from the tax authority of the state concerned" — your Dutch assessment, that is, translated and with the amounts in euros.

Bring your Dutch annual statements and assessments, translated. A French landlord chooses between files, and a complete file cut to French measure beats a better salary without paper. A guarantor (caution) may be asked for, and they supply the same kind of documents.

What may the rent be?

In most municipalities in a zone tendue the landlord may not freely raise the rent for a new tenant. In a number of large cities it goes further: there the rent is capped at a reference rent. That applies in any case in Paris, Lyon and Villeurbanne, Lille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, parts of the Grenoble and Pays Basque conurbations, and the municipalities of Est Ensemble and Plaine Commune around Paris. If the rent is above the cap, you can have it reduced — check that before you sign, not after.

What the rent does not include is the taxe d'habitation: that has been abolished on main residences, and the taxe foncière is borne by the owner. That is in the article on tax in France. In the roadmap for France renting comes before everything that hangs on an address — and whoever does not buy in their first year has exactly enough with that minimum of three years.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to France or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.